Studies in VOIP

The Results

Integra and Globe College jointly created a plan to support the growing demands that business would have on the school’s tele-communications and data services. The plan included 28 T1 lines, which provide high-speed data connections. Integra entered into a two-year relationship with the school. Nine Globe College facilities were on the telecommunications network by December, and three more were added at the beginning of the year. Hite has added two remote locations in Utah to the same network. The transition was unnoticeable to employees and people contacting the school, and Globe College employees didn’t experience any difficulty with the new system.

When the School District of Hudson, Wisconsin, put out a request for proposal for a new telephone system in February 2006, it ultimately chose Marco, a provider of VOIP, data networking, and security services based in St. Cloud, because the firm proposed a telephone system which it said it could complete while school was out for the summer. The district’s old system made calls between telephones at the same school difficult, and certain features, such as voice mail, voice menu information, four-digit dialing between locations, and wireless data, were not available to all users. With the help of a consultant, the district identified the need for a unified system with centrally administered functions.

The Approach

With presentations, site visits, and discussions, Marco proposed a converged voice, data, and wireless system. By combining the telephone and data networks, the school district could offer call features such as unified messaging. “We focused on applications that we had experience in for K-12 and other education clients,” says Randy Lindstedt, enterprise account manager at Marco, who worked with the school district in evaluating needs.

The district provided detailed information regarding the wide area network, local area network, and voice systems it wanted in the request for proposal, but using data networks for the system would be an entirely new  situation. Because the school district outlined its goals in the request for proposal, Lindstedt understood the project would be challenging. Marco was charged with making voice mail available to all users, providing unified calling for each location, providing a direct-dial number to each telephone, and reducing operational costs.

“We had to keep changing the solution until it met the goals as stated in the [request for proposal], and adding other applications and solutions that would have a positive effect on the end users and community,” Lindstedt says.

The Results

With the converged communications solution, the school district staff and teachers have wireless phones that allow for fast, more accessible communication, especially in the event of an emergency. “We upgraded the data network to provide VOIP capabilities, wireless, and increased security. We also were able to reduce operational costs since [the product manufacturers] offer free software upgrades,” Lindstedt says.

“It is getting more difficult for customers to differentiate the features and applications [among vendors],” Lindstedt says. “We believe it is important for the vendor to work beside the customer to help them evaluate their needs.”