IPcelerate.com

Customer: Wyomissing Area School District

About the Customer

Wyomissing Area School District is located in the southeastern portion of Pennsylvania and provides exceptional education to approximately 2,000 students, grades K-12. The district is comprised of two elementary schools and one junior/senior high school, which also houses the district’s administrative offices. Nestled within a community of less than 10,000 residents, this public school district strives to educate all students to their fullest potential, encouraging each child to be productive, responsible citizens and life-long learners.

Initial Expectations from VoIP

Wyomissing Area School District transitioned to VoIP when it became necessary to upgrade their telephony infrastructure. Their new IP Telephony environment allowed them to link all three district buildings for ease of use, including transferring calls and a unified voicemail system. They also wanted to save money by bringing the infrastructure and maintenance in-house. They have been very satisfied with VoIP, and all their expectations have been met or exceeded.

Addressing Primary Business Challenges

With the deployment of VoIP, the school district needed to find a way to identify the location of outbound 911 calls, should one occur in one of the three district buildings. Given the heightened safety and security necessary for the education sector, emergency management was a critical business challenge for the district. In addition, the district wanted to use their IP environment to update their communication methods to staff and students in the event of snow days and emergencies. The district reviewed a number of solutions to meet these business goals, with price and in-house capability determining factors, and selected IPcelerate’s IPsesion server to address their needs.

IPcelerate Solutions

Wyomissing’s emergency management solution utilizes the 911 Alert, Intercom and Text Paging features inherent in the IPsession server. The 911 Alert function sends an automatic message to all IP phones in the IT department whenever a 911 call is placed from another IP phone, alerting the IT staff to the location of the call. And in the event of an emergency, messages are sent to the classrooms, either using the Intercom function or utlizing Text Paging to send a message directly to the classroom phones, depending on the content and privacy of the message.

Extending their notification reach outside their IP Telephony network, Wyomissing is now using Dial Out to notify registered households of school closures on snow days. In the past, the only way to find out this timely information was through the local TV stations’ newscasts. Today, families can register their phone numbers with the district and receive an automated message alerting them of school closures, as well as emergency situations should they ever arise.

New Telephony Experience

IPcelerate and VoIP have created a new communication environment for Wyomissing Area School District. Emergencies can be managed more effectively, with staff and students receiving information in a timely and efficient manner. Snow day alerts, which happen with some frequency in Wyomissing, are now communicated directly to families without relying on a 3rd party to get the word out. With greater communication come greater partnerships between educators and families, something every school strives to achieve.

Next Steps/Higher Expectations

The school district would like to implement IPsession’s Time Card feature as their next step. This feature would be used district-wide for all hourly employees and would provide the district with increased visibility into hours worked per employee, as well as offer back-end reporting to help manage overtime expenses.