What UC Has Done for the Kaukauna Area School District

"Wouldn't it be nice if we could just answer our office phones while sitting on our couches in our pajamas?"

This question, posed by a Kaukauna Area School District ­principal who was lamenting having to drive in for an administrative team meeting following a snowstorm, makes Bob Summers smile.

Before Summers, technology ­coordinator for the seven-school ­district in east-central Wisconsin, could speak up, "one of the other principals ­exclaimed 'You can!' and then explained how he uses his cell phone to divert his ­office calls to his ­mobile device," Summers recalls. "He beat me to the punch."

That ability is just one of many benefits KASD has enjoyed since transitioning to a Voice over IP ­solution from ShoreTel. "When we first started ­looking for a phone system, we wanted it to hook up to our T1 line," Summers explains.

With the old leased system that Summers ­inherited upon joining the KASD staff in 2004, "if a ­student or ­teacher made a 911 call, we didn't know it until the police or fire ­department showed up. We'd have to look through all of our phone logs to find out where the call came from."

The combination of ShoreTel phones that KASD now uses — IP Phone 230 three-line, IP Phone 560g six-line and IP Phone 655 12-line models — have "the best on-board speaker phone functionality I've seen," he says. The system's Code Blue and 911 features send instant messages to designated personnel if an emergency call is placed, "so we know exactly what room the call came from, and we can deal with it immediately." And the Follow Me Find Me feature about which the principal raved cuts down on missed calls and voicemail by tracking down users wherever they are when calls come in.

An Easy Call

Summers couldn't be happier with the ShoreTel solution's ease of use and performance to date. "You can literally pick up a phone, plug it in somewhere and it will work," he says. "You can be tracked down anywhere. Being able to communicate with parents — or each other — whenever we need to is extremely beneficial."

The savings have been substantial. Before the ShoreTel deployment, KASD spent $2,450 each month on phone systems, but now monthly support costs are just $1,040. When the ­district's nearly $350,000 investment in the equipment expires next year, it can buy out the lease for just $1.

Summers and his IT team haven't yet decided if they'll keep what they have or consider another overhaul. "If it's still running and providing ­everything we need, I don't think I would make any changes," he says. "The system works really well."