Rome BOE to replace phones
♦ The swap could save the system over $118,000 a year.
The Rome City Schools Board of Education voted unanimously to replace their costly 10-year-old phone system with a new district wide system which should create a return on investment in less than two years.
“We try to spend our money wisely so that things last,” Matt
Stover, director of technology and network services said.
During his presentation on Tuesday night to board members, Stover went over how their current system cost on average of $9,213 a month. This is an issue he said, because federal funding for school phone systems has been cut from 80 percent to nothing. This put pressure on the school system to find a cheaper solution.
The company, Shore Tel, which provides the current phone system, was bought out recently. Mitel, the company which bought Shore Tel, has been phasing out the phones used by Rome City Schools, Stover said. This means they are now unable to purchase new phones for their current system, only refurbished ones, which the RCS has had to do to keep up with expansions or technical issues.
“There are a lot of issues with this phone system,” Stover said. “No. 1 — they are already trying to sell us other systems and their new stuff.”
Just to support the current system and maintain the system is an additional $55,000 a year he said. Additionally, if the phone system goes down it could be days before it would be restored. The total annual cost of the current system with support costs is $165,556, or RCS could completely replace the current system with a new one for $176,456.
“Why would you spend $55,000 to support a phone system that is old and antiquated, when you can upgrade it for that much money?” he said.
The monthly cost of the new system would drop to $2,804 a month bringing the annual cost to $33,655, which according to Stover, would create an annual saving of $118,053 a year. The new system cost also takes into consideration buildings and services RCS doesn’t have yet including the College and Career Academy, sixth grade academy as well as future additions.
The two main vendors for the new system would be Fortinet and Parker FiberNet, both of which already are used by RCS to maintain internet and other technology at the school.
The new phone system would provide a centralized service with a failover system and, most importantly, a simple billing system. A big safety perk of the failover system would be if the phone system were to ever go down the schools would still be able to call 911.
It will also show operators specifically which school is calling. The current system’s caller ID would show the central office, the technology office or North Heights Elementary because that is where the three main phone systems are currently housed that service the entire district.
Stover said the new system can be implemented in two to six months if approved.
After hearing the recommendation the board members voted unanimously to purchase the new phone system.