Education Academies Trust centralise its telephone systems.
SENDAT started as a specialist Multi Academy Trust, including Priory School in Bury St Edmunds, Stone Lodge Academy in Ipswich, Chalk Hill in Sudbury, Sunrise in Carlton Coleville and Duke of Lancaster in Fakenham.
SENDAT’s expertise lies in moderate learning difficulties, autistic spectrum disorder, social emotional & mental health and behavioural needs across Suffolk and Norfolk.
They were looking for a trusted business to rationalise their technology, replace ageing technology, save costs and provide expertise on their Avaya system.
The challenge
As a rapidly growing Trust, one of the biggest challenges they faced is ensuring that teachers, parents, and pupils remain connected and well informed. The technology required to support this plays a crucial role in creating a positive and engaged school community.
Historically each school within the Trust negotiated their telephony contracts, as a result, suppliers, hardware, SLAs and contract end dates for line rentals and phone system maintenance differed across sites. The current procurement model placed a huge administrative burden on the Trust, making it increasingly difficult to manage.
The existing technology was becoming obsolete and not fit for purpose. The Trust relied heavily on ageing analogue connectivity, using PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) and ISDN lines which will become redundant with the ISDN / PSTN switch-off in 2025.
The Trust was keen to centralise their telecoms, working with one central provider to deliver a modern IP-driven telephony solution.
The solution
The CloudClevr Group successfully won the tender to provide a new Cloud-based Avaya solution to serve all schools within the Trust.
The Avaya telephony solution is deployed within the CloudClevr Group’s partner data centre providing a highly resilient environment that is accessed via the Trust’s internet connectivity. Should a school lose their internet connectivity, calls can quickly be redirected to another location.
All analogue lines were migrated to resilient SIP trunks installed at each school with a hosted phone system at the Trust head office. Existing numbers were ported over, along with any DDI numbers to ensure a smooth transition.
Each school has auto-attendant functionality, allowing calls to be routed to the school office or to a voicemail box for child absences to be reported. It has the flexibility to allow messages to be changed remotely. There are also call recording options for monitoring sensitive calls for safeguarding purposes to ensure that the schools remain compliant.
The results
There is now central procurement through a single supplier which provides greater transparency across the Trust. Billing is no longer complex, thanks to the new solution. A single monthly invoice with an itemised breakdown for each school provides accurate charges that can be associated with each site.
The solution is completely scalable and designed to grow alongside the Trust, meaning as any new schools are onboarded, they are seamlessly integrated into the unified communications system.
The centralisation of the solution now provides greater ease of management, freeing up staff time to focus on other areas of the day-to-day operations.
Substantial cost savings have been achieved across the Trust, thanks to the SIP trunk solution, providing free calls between sites, as well as UK landlines and mobiles calls.
As a software-driven solution, it is constantly developed and updated, enabling the Trust to benefit from innovative technology that is no longer heavily reliant on hardware and far easier to upgrade.
