The district’s own IT staff now handles may issues that used to route to an outside tech company, such as its previous analog telephone company.
“Usually you have to have that company come in and make adjustments, because it’s their equipment in your building, and you don’t mess with that,” Russ said. “Now, the nice thing is that … our own staff is handling all those issues that used to go to an outside company.”
Russ said partnering with CDW-G on the district’s unified communications installation also saved the district much-needed dollars.
“Most of us in K-12 don’t have the luxury of having a huge staff of engineers. Partnering with CDW-G is a cost savings in a lot of ways, versus retaining someone on staff of that caliber,” he said. “If we’d had to add staff because of this implementation, the cost savings would have been gone quickly.”
Russ recommended that districts looking to implement a unified communications system plan ahead for as many years as they can. Most likely, new technologies will become available sooner than school leaders think, and the infrastructure being put into place now should be able to support those technologies whenever possible.
Higher-education deployment
In higher education, public institutions are more likely to have prepared a business case or strategic plan for unified communications than private institutions, according to the survey.
Twenty-three percent of higher-education respondents said they have deployed a unified communications solution or are in the process of doing so. Another 29 percent are planning an implementation, and 48 percent are assessing unified communications and its role in their own university.
Marquette University is in the middle of a unified communications implementation and has recently put its voice mail onto a single platform that is accessible via eMail through the university’s Microsoft Exchange program.
Four buildings will make the transition along with two new buildings opening this year, said Dan Smith, senior director of IT services at Marquette, followed by the rest of the campus over the next two years.
While exact cost savings can’t be measured yet, “we have some indications that we’ll save quite a bit of money doing this,” Smith said.
Moving to a software-based phone system as Marquette is doing expands a telephone’s feature set dramatically, and the university’s Windows team will handle the necessary periodic upgrades to the system.
“It is being received well; any new technology … is very much a cultural change, and the features and functionality can confuse some people,” Smith said.
University staff received training on the new system a week before implementation began, with additional follow-up training a month later.
“Once we get past the initial comfort level, it’s important for us to offer that additional training,” said Kathy Lang, chief information officer at Marquette. “Because it is new, we’ll have training issues and support issues.”
Smith and Lang said Marquette made the switch because the university’s analog telephone system was approaching its end of life, and for the additional functionality that unified communications brings to the table.
An added bonus is the ability to participate in conferencing from desks in addition to conference rooms.
“Now, we’re able to offer video conferencing and web conferencing right from the desktop,” Lang said.
Faculty now consider bringing in virtual speakers via web or video conferencing, Lang said—something they previously did not often do.
Schools that are planning to implement a unified communications system should plan from both a technology perspective and a communication and training perspective, Smith said.
The university established a project management office to oversee implementation, which Smith said is working very well.
“Planning is critical,” he said. “Just like any other thing, it’s more of a cultural thing than a technology thing. The technology works well; it’s just getting people to understand it and use it effectively.”
Link:
CDW-G 2010 Unified Communications Tracking Poll
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