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 From edge to cloud: The critical role of hardware in AI applications The rise of generative artificial intelligence By Broadcom Jun 06, 2023 5 mins Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence brandpost The new value calculator: Levers for business optimization Squeezing maximum value out of your data is not only about cost-savings—it’s time to create significant potential by transforming your competitive position. By Sandrine Ghosh Jun 06, 2023 5 mins Data Management brandpost The new wave of data observability Innovative ‘applied observability’ can detect issues and diagnose their root causes swiftly and effectively. By Sandrine Ghosh Jun 06, 2023 4 mins Data Management brandpost Let Business Needs Guide Your Winning Data Team With skill shortages continuing, IT leaders must optimize their data science team investment. Start with your organization’s key objectives. By Paul Gillin Jun 06, 2023 3 mins Business Intelligence 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