The Project:

The core aim of the project was to take the current outdated phone system and revamp it with one that would provide greater future proofing, was more cost effective and could easier allow possible future expansion without the hassle. We spent over 3 months researching and speaking to some of the best companies in the industry getting an understanding for what the future of the telecoms service looked like as well as some of the key options we had available to ourselves to fit out requirements.

The school outdated system was a very basic system which preformed the core functionalities of being able to make and receive calls as well as transfer them to different departments. Whilst this is the core aim for all school phone system, at All Saints’ we required something more user-friendly that we could customise and manage in house to make quick changes as well as having the high quality customer and technical support to help us in the event of major issues.

In the end we decided to go with a VoIP phone system which would be managed by cloud based servers and would run over the schools dedicated fibre line. Why a cloud based solution? The schools core IT vision which we have mapped out it to take everything cloud based and to become one of the very few schools in the city where everything is managed via our cloud platform which will then remove the requirement of a server based onsite. Having a phone system which was already hosted and managed in the cloud fitted in with our vision for the IT and also started the process to prove that cloud based working in schools is a real and sustainable way of operating.

Along with the cloud based management we also purchased 10 x Polycom VVX 411 handsets which came preconfigured and ready to go. There were some slight technically issues which were due to a proxy configuration but once this was cleared all the handsets could be plugged in and would automatically pick up their configuration settings.

The customisation that the new system brings the school means that we are able to have full control over every aspect from out auto attendant that initially answers the phone calls down to setting out of hours, call diverts, companywide contact groups, hold music and much, much more. The possibilities are endless and this has meant that we are now able to build, adapt and develop new ways of operating within the school to make everyone’s life easier.