Enterprise PBX telephone systems are usually feature rich, but the call and communication features stop at the town hall or schoolhouse door. In the current work at home environment, educators and municipal employees find themselves disconnected from voicemail, call directories, fax, conferencing, internal databases and many other features available at the office or in the classroom.
DBO customer, Seymour Public Schools and the Town of Seymour are realizing the value of mobile softphones and a next generation firewall which provide access to the internal network and the same enterprise voice features available at the office. Users may make and receive calls directly from their personal device with the assigned school telephone number, receive voice mails and access the same call features available inside the school building.
Rob Dyer, Seymour Public Schools, Director Technology, quickly distributed the DBO VOIP softphone app to staff and teachers as access to town and school buildings was curtailed. “All employees are able to connect with the town and school district telephone system using a WiFi connection, avoid personal cellular charges and access all of the telephone features. VPN access for work at home employees was easy to setup on the Palo Alto Networks firewalls. VOIP and VPN put us weeks ahead of other municipalities and school districts”.
Check out this link for the Palo Alto Networks case study
https://www.digitalbackoffice.com/seymour-public-schools-fight-against-cyberthreats/
“The DBO cloud based VOIP service allows the IT department to manage the district and town call directory and call features with almost zero overhead since all the telephone switching equipment is off-site in geographically dispersed data centers. The softphone app was initially low on our list of voice feature requirements but that changed overnight. Thanks to Digital BackOffice, DBO Hosted VOIP, and Palo Alto firewalls, the IT staff was able to respond to the closure quickly and at no additional cost to the town or school district,” said Mr. Dyer.
DBO Hosted VOIP is cloud based and provides the same feature set to the desktop telephone and the mobile users personal softphone. A web-based interface allows administrators to easily customize call features for every user or situation including emergency notifications and 911 calling. Cloud based VOIP services are available to Connecticut schools and municipalities on the Connecticut Education Network (CEN) providing a highly reliable connection to multiple virtual PBX systems. Private fiber optic circuits ensure that voice quality is unaffected by bursts of internet traffic.
The advantage of DBO hosted VoIP is apparent. The school or municipality no longer needs POTS or PRI circuits, expensive PBX equipment or call servers, maintenance agreements or associated hardware overhead costs. When a hosted VoIP system is designed and implemented properly, it can provide reliability and crisis management capabilities that greatly exceed those offered by legacy copper voice TELCO circuits and premise-based voice switches.
Unified communications solutions must allow for mobility and an increasing number of users who prefer to use personal devices (BYOD) for work related phone calls and data access. DBO Hosted VOIP and Zero Trust Security services offer the flexibility, features, performance and value for 21st century schools and municipalities.
