CHALLENGES

• Reduced funding, coupled with old phone systems (PBX), is complex and expensive to maintain. They often use legacy ISDN lines with high call rental and call charges.
• Connecting parents to teachers – many schools use old answering machines and notify teachers to call a parent back via post-it notes.
• No method to contact teachers in case of emergency. 
• With the increased use of the internet in teaching, using the same broadband for the school’s communications service makes sense.

SOLUTION

• 1-Voice provides a flexible and cost-effective communications solution.
• The school can save money by installing low-cost telephones in each classroom and by removing legacy lines.
• The UC Office App on a teacher’s tablet or mobile device means they can be contacted at any time. Using Call Director, teachers can call parents back with the school’s number presented, not their own – important for teacher confidentiality.
• UC Office desktop sharing enables teachers to experiment with remote online learning techniques before implementing a formal remote learning solution.
• Auto Attendant keeps parents updated on the latest news and is easy for staff to record announcements, e.g. cancellations.
• A move from ISDN to broadband means no limit on concurrent calls into the school, so they never miss a call.

BENEFITS

Parent-school interaction

• Parents can get the latest news from the Auto Attendant and never hear the busy tone, so they always get through to someone.
• Parents can contact the appropriate department or teacher more easily.
• Parents receive notifications of events, e.g. school closed due to bad weather.

Cost effective

• With minimal upfront capital expenditure for the school, they can meet stricter government budget targets and free up capital for spending on learning resources.
• Removal of ISDN and PBX depreciation costs.
• Easy to scale up or down to support temporary staffing needs.

Enhance student experience

• More diverse learning experiences, e.g. online, video.
• Student-teacher interactions are more interactive with 1-to-1 and 1-to-many learning options.