The Customer
Based in Becker, Minnesota, just northwest of Minneapolis, Becker Schools has approximately 2,800 students and a staff of about 300. The campus consists of five distinct buildings housing hundreds of offices and classrooms for students from kindergarten through 12th grade.
Based in Becker, Minnesota, just northwest of Minneapolis, Becker Schools has approximately 2,800 students and a staff of about 300. The campus consists of five distinct buildings housing hundreds of offices and classrooms for students from kindergarten through 12th grade.
Business Challenges
Becker School’s outdated communication system was extremely inefficient and required each building to have a dedicated server on site. This meant that each building essentially operated as a standalone telephone system with no centralized point of communication. Equally frustrating was the lack of advanced or web-based features. The most costly problem was that the system was constantly failing and becoming expensive to maintain. “We were overwhelmed by service calls that cost at least $300 each,” says Sumre Robinson, Becker’s technology assistant. “It wasn’t just to fix things. We had to call for service for everyday tasks like adding or redirecting a phone line.”
With operating costs for the legacy system rising and wait times for service calls causing serious inconvenience, Becker Schools decided to seek an affordable, easy-to-use phone system that would provide stable connectivity to all buildings. The goal was to unify communications across the elementary, middle, and high school buildings, the high school, and district administration, with a plan to move to Unified Communications (UC) the following year. However, an unexpected failure of the legacy system accelerated the school district’s upgrade schedule. During the summer session, a vital part of Becker Schools’ system crashed, leaving them completely without voicemail capabilities across most of the campus. To resolve the problem quickly, Becker contacted Line 1 Partners, a Switchvox reseller located in the Minneapolis suburb of Maple Grove, MN.
Solutions From Sangoma
“Our priority was a quick installation,” explains Robinson. “We had six weeks before classes resumed in the fall. Daily operations were critical, even during the summer session. We hired someone to upgrade and replace more than fifty percent of our archaic cat 3 wiring with cat 5 and 6 cable to support VoIP, and we had to upgrade and expand our back‑end network equipment to provide power and network connectivity to our new VoIP phones.” “At that point, there was no time for anything other than ‘Rip & Replace,’” says Clayton Schaefer, president of Line 1 Partners. “We had two main goals: stabilize the Ethernet switching platform so we could install the Switchvox appliance; and replace the outdated equipment, which included more than fifty old wall phones running on old cat 3 cables. We replaced them all with high-definition IP phones.” “It was a big project encompassing the upgrade of an entire digital infrastructure to VoIP and the installation of new equipment in hundreds of offices and classrooms across the campus in such a short time,” Schaefer admits. “We arrived just after the cable installer, but we were able to take advantage of that upgraded cable to move ahead. We also analyzed call volumes across the campus to determine which phone model worked best for teachers in their classrooms, in communal spaces such as cafeterias and libraries, and in administrative offices.”
“Our priority was a quick installation,” explains Robinson. “We had six weeks before classes resumed in the fall. Daily operations were critical, even during the summer session. We hired someone to upgrade and replace more than fifty percent of our archaic cat 3 wiring with cat 5 and 6 cable to support VoIP, and we had to upgrade and expand our back‑end network equipment to provide power and network connectivity to our new VoIP phones.” “At that point, there was no time for anything other than ‘Rip & Replace,’” says Clayton Schaefer, president of Line 1 Partners. “We had two main goals: stabilize the Ethernet switching platform so we could install the Switchvox appliance; and replace the outdated equipment, which included more than fifty old wall phones running on old cat 3 cables. We replaced them all with high-definition IP phones.” “It was a big project encompassing the upgrade of an entire digital infrastructure to VoIP and the installation of new equipment in hundreds of offices and classrooms across the campus in such a short time,” Schaefer admits. “We arrived just after the cable installer, but we were able to take advantage of that upgraded cable to move ahead. We also analyzed call volumes across the campus to determine which phone model worked best for teachers in their classrooms, in communal spaces such as cafeterias and libraries, and in administrative offices.”
In addition to the Switchvox phone system, Becker Schools also purchased more than 400 Sangoma D‑Series IP phones. Twenty‑five of the Sangoma executive phones were installed in the district’s administrative offices because they have the highest call distribution levels. As an added benefit, the IP phones are easy to install and configure, saving time and eliminating any training issues. Simply by plugging in the phones, they automatically find the Switchvox server, allowing you to use them immediately. “In retrospect, I think the biggest surprise is how quickly and adeptly Becker’s IT staff took charge of the Switchvox system,” says Schaefer. “No technical staff member had ever administered a telecommunications system before. They were completely new to VoIP and had only modest experience with telecom programming, yet over the past year and a half, they have needed us only once.”
The Results
“We are extremely satisfied with the Switchvox system,” says Robinson. “I can confirm that Line 1’s advice was solid, and I think we bought the best system for our needs. I can add, delete, and reassign any extension at any time without support. When I needed help, remote assistance was enough.” “We knew we wanted the voicemail-to-email system so we could retrieve messages, but we also wanted to be able to archive those messages in email,” Robinson continues.
“We are extremely satisfied with the Switchvox system,” says Robinson. “I can confirm that Line 1’s advice was solid, and I think we bought the best system for our needs. I can add, delete, and reassign any extension at any time without support. When I needed help, remote assistance was enough.” “We knew we wanted the voicemail-to-email system so we could retrieve messages, but we also wanted to be able to archive those messages in email.”
“We wanted prerecorded greetings with a call tree so calls could be routed to the appropriate department or people, and we wanted automated greetings with multiple key options. We have all that and more.” There were a few unexpected conveniences of Switchvox that Robinson was delighted to discover. One was the ability to record calls, which proved to be a widely used feature in a school telephone system. The other advantage was that the phone configuration stays with the phone, no matter where you move it, without relying on a physical phone line. “On the old system, not all employees had access to voicemail or email. Now they do,” says Robinson. “There are significant savings with Switchvox because it eliminated all those costly service calls. Now, instead of needing someone to come physically move the phones and extensions and reconfigure each phone, I can do it myself!”