Resource Centre Simcoe County District School Board
The Challenge
Communicate proactively to parents in emergencies or when a school’s phone system goes down.
The Solution
A VoIP-based fail-over system that can automatically message parents when they call in.
The Result
A cost-effective and automated solution for peace-of-mind during outages and emergencies.
How we helped
Facing Challenges Head-On
When a parent calls their child’s school and can’t get through because of a failure in the network, panic often sets in. So the Simcoe County District School Board (SCDSB) challenged the team at Eclipse to find a way to tackle the problem.
After exploring several options, Eclipse came up with a cost-effective solution that fit the bill. Now, if there’s a network failure or the school’s system is down for some reason, the board’s main office Avaya CS1000 PBX recognizes there’s an issue, presents callers with a recorded message, and gives them alternate contact options. As a bonus, this solution makes it easy to keep callers updated during scheduled maintenance.
Bob Turner is a systems engineer who’s been with the Simcoe County District School Board for over 15 years. His responsibilities include all board telecommunications, video conferencing, cell phones, pagers, and public address systems. Bob first reached out to Eclipse in 2007 to help with many of his technology challenges. One of which is simple geography: the board’s sites include more than 100 locations spread across 54,000 square kilometres.
Solving Problems, Saving Money
Last year, when it was time for the SCDSB to make some major changes across that wide territory, Bob called on Eclipse. Why? “Innovative is the best word that comes to mind when I describe Eclipse,” he says. “We’ve presented some unique challenges to them, and they excel at exploring the options and making the best recommendations.”
Over the last few months, 75 schools within the SCDSB network were upgraded to BCMs, and a VoIP network was extended out to each site. From a safety perspective, the biggest plus is that line availability for 911 calls has been greatly improved: for example, before, each high school had 8 lines – and now has 16.
That’s not all:
- With centralized management and centralized applications like voice mail, the need for site visits by technicians for fixes or changes has been dramatically reduced. And considering the SCDSB’s large territory, that means a lot of time – and fuel costs – saved.
- All teachers now have personal voice mail, which is improving parent-teacher communication. And teachers receive an instant email notification when a voice mail is left for them, so they can react quickly to important messages.
- To minimize interruptions, only internal school calls can be made directly into the classroom. But teachers can now dial out directly from their classrooms, which means they don’t have to make a special trip to the main office. That’s good news for both productivity and school safety/security.
The changes have had a significant financial impact. “After running numbers with Eclipse, we knew that instead of paying a monthly phone line cost, we could make a lease payment of roughly the same amount for new equipment and features that we own at the end.” With the new lease agreement in place, SCDSB is realizing $1500 in monthly savings in the first 7 years, and will see a massive $150,000 per year savings afterwards.
Still, as Bob notes, the real plusses come with much-improved communication services for both the schools and parents, and easier, more efficient central management for IT staff.
Service You Can Count On
Implementing a solution that saves money while improving communication is one thing. Ensuring it operates as smoothly as possible at all times is another. Delivering first-rate ongoing service is something Eclipse takes pride in. That’s why, despite the broad territory and snow-filled winters, response time to service issues and coverage of this challenging turf has never been an issue. “In 2010 alone,” Bob explains, “Eclipse directly resolved almost 900 tickets with no exceptions to meeting our Service Level Agreement parameters.”
It’s this combination of engineering expertise, creativity in problem-solving, and reliability in service that Eclipse works hard to bring to each customer. To speak to an account manager about how Eclipse can help your business, email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or call 1.866.312.0135.