Cooma-Monaro Shire Council has shaved close to $20,000 a year off its communications costs with a new unified communications (UC) system. Supplied by ShoreTel, the system has allowed the council to shed $1600 a month in Telstra voice links and make better use of its own high speed fibre-optic data network. According to Scott Goudie, ITT Manager at the council, in addition to the costs savings, the move to a UC system was also motivated by the cost of replacing an aging PABX. “Our PABX had been slated for replacement so it was the perfect opportunity as we were coming up to the 10 year mark,” he said. “Service costs were high and replacement costs were prohibitive – it just wasn’t worth maintaining. We only ever did one upgrade which cost us five grand and we were spending five or six grand on maintenance.” The new UC system, rolled out over the course of a week to 85 employees at its offices, depot, public library and visitor centre, was selected following a end-user trial and exploration of offerings from vendors such as Samsung, Nortel, Mytel and LG, Goudie said. “They all pretty much produced similar results, but the ShoreTel system really pushed the reliability angle,” he said. “They also have local support and supply…which worked very well for us, as it helped us support a local company and meant we can get on-site support quickly.” The council has also integrated its Outlook email application into the UC system as part of the deployment, allowing for email notifications of voicemail and a one-click function to allow playback of the messages from within Outlook. “The ShorTel software, Professional Call Manager, is a single window interface, easy to use and provides a presence capability letting you initiate calls from a list of who is online and not,” he said. The council expects a ROI of between four and five years and is now exploring video conferencing, and ways to extend the UC system outside the organisation as a means to lower its STD call costs. Related content brandpost Sponsored by SAP What goes well with Viña Concha y Toro wines? Meat, fish, poultry, and SAP Viña Concha y Toro, a wine producer that distributes to more than 140 countries worldwide, paired its operation with the SAP Business Technology Platform to enhance its operation and product. By Tom Caldecott, SAP Contributor Dec 04, 2023 4 mins Digital Transformation brandpost Sponsored by Azul How to maximize ROI by choosing the right Java partner for your organization Choosing the right Java provider is a critical decision that can have a significant impact on your organization’s success. By asking the right questions and considering the total cost of ownership, you can ensure that you choose the best Java p By Scott Sellers Dec 04, 2023 5 mins Application Management brandpost Sponsored by DataStax Ask yourself: How can genAI put your content to work? Generative AI applications can readily be built against the documents, emails, meeting transcripts, and other content that knowledge workers produce as a matter of course. By Bryan Kirschner Dec 04, 2023 5 mins Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence feature The CIO’s new role: Orchestrator-in-chief CIOs have unique insight into everything that happens in a company. Some are using that insight to take on a more strategic role. By Minda Zetlin Dec 04, 2023 12 mins CIO C-Suite Business IT Alignment Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe