The school, which was running a 10-year-old third party legacy telephony system, was incurring considerable maintenance costs and experiencing limited functionality.
The new solution needed to link the school’s two sites and to provide the capacity for expansion without having to invest in new cabling and network points.
With its flexibility and future-proofing capabilities, the Aastra 470 communication server from the award winning Aastra 400 range was selected. Aastra also provided SIP desk phones and digital phones for 200 extensions.
Colin Mann, Head of Marketing, Aastra UK and Ireland, comments: “We were delighted to have Lord Williams’s School as a new customer and to help them to maximise the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of their communications. As a result of choosing the Aastra 470 the school will benefit from increased flexibility as well as access to a user friendly solution which is saving valuable time and money. The Aastra 470 allows for changes to be made and for extra phones to be added without the need for expensive maintenance charges or further cabling.”
The Aastra 470 has eradicated the need for a kilo stream link between the school’s two sites creating a cost saving of £800 per quarter. In addition, the move to a call plan provided by Aastra’s Platinum partner Channel Communications has already delivered a saving of £3000 in call charges. When combined with the Aastra 470 this saving is set to increase as internal calls are now free of charge.
Darrell Smith, Network Manager, Lord Williams’s School, adds: “We now have a brand new flexible and future-proof telephony infrastructure which was delivered within our existing budget and will afford us with a fast ROI.”
He adds: “The provision of business continuity, for instance in the event of a power cut across both locations, was a core requirement for us as an educational facility.”
The Aastra 400 series encapsulates a full range of Unified Communications and Collaboration (UCC) applications, mobility solutions and user centric devices, as well as its having the ability to be integrated with Microsoft Exchange.