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Holy Cross Catholic Multi Academy Company (HCCMAC) comprises seven highly regarded primary and secondary schools located in Coventry. Established in September 2019, the organization has 4,197 students and 483 employees.
Holy Cross Catholic Multi Academy Company (HCCMAC) comprises seven highly regarded primary and secondary schools located in Coventry. Established in September 2019, the organization has 4,197 students and 483 employees.
Business Challenges
The merger of several institutions into a single entity, a mix of legacy phone systems that were inadequate in different ways, and a new vision for a smarter, more cost-effective communications strategy made it clear that Holy Cross Catholic Multi Academy Company needed to modernize. Before the 2019 merger, some of its five primary and two secondary schools had replaced analog PSTN systems with cloud-powered VoIP calling, but performance was poor and the provider’s service levels fell short of expectations. Busy receptionists struggled daily with outdated line and switch limitations that, while functional, lacked sophistication. For example, putting calls on hold and redirecting them was, in some cases, multi-step and slow. Phones were wired to fixed locations on desks and office desks, giving users no mobility and often leaving redirected calls unanswered. School principals and senior managers, whose roles involved frequent travel across school sites throughout the day, were often marked “unavailable” and left messages to return calls once back at their desks. School IT staff knew that modern telephony could offer much more, but in some cases they lacked the dynamic, collaborative relationship with the vendor partner that was essential for a positive transformation. They knew their key users and call handlers were eager to provide a significantly improved experience for parents, partners, and other callers. They also knew they wanted to give staff a simple, lightweight way to call or connect internally with colleagues. Finally, they were keen to implement new, comprehensive strategies for vendor consolidation and cost reduction wherever possible. Although it was a public-sector organization rather than a commercial enterprise, the company understood the value of a premium communications experience and how a frictionless user and calling experience creates the right impression with everyone it interacts with. It also knew that its committed and optimistic participation in the transformative evolution of education required a technology approach to match.
Sangoma Solutions
Sangoma accredited integration partner Daconi worked closely with the Holy Cross Catholic Multi Academy Company team to fully understand the issues. After identifying the key pain points and, above all, their causes, Sangoma’s hosted Switchvox cloud communications platform proved to be the ideal solution. By replicating the communications functionality of all the group’s establishments on any connected device, anytime and anywhere through a single application, it immediately provided rich and powerful unified communications features such as voice calls, video, Interactive Voice Response (IVR), call forwarding during school holidays, as well as comprehensive call management and analytics. Selected users received a personalized switchboard, visual voicemail, mobile and desktop softphones for calls and chat, call queuing, contact center functionality, detailed reports, conference calling, and auto-attendant capabilities; all included as standard. School staff received comprehensive, easy-to-understand training on using the new system, its live switchboard features, and call reports.
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The Results
All the system’s new features improved the overall smoothness, reliability, and efficiency of the schools’ communication processes. However, it is the standard-included Switchvox Cloud mobile application that truly drives positive change. Whereas non-teaching management, technical, or administrative staff were previously unavailable when away from their desks, at another school site, or off-site, they now have the entire system and its rich features on their mobile devices. In addition, those with the appropriate roles can use this mobility and flexibility to work from home. The company’s senior leaders gained a complete, instant overview of communications activity, helping them redesign workflows or call flows and enabling them to further improve the communications experience in the future. From a service and support perspective, every component of the system is designed, built, and supplied by Sangoma, so if a problem arises, everything is covered and there is only one party to contact. Finally, and very importantly, the new system will save the company at least 20 % on its telephone bills, with no more line rentals and significantly lower call charges. MAC ICT Communications and Compliance Manager Chris Connoll says: “We are really pleased with the new system and cannot fault the service and support. We now have the simplicity of managing a single system; the flexibility of the mobile application; and the ability to forward calls effectively and efficiently. It’s a huge success.”
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