Bay State College is using a small-business communications system from Avaya (News - Alert) to connect its four academic buildings located in a ten-square-block area in Boston.

 

Avaya IP Office allows Bay State to connect several locations to improve communication efficiency and increase productivity for administrators and instructors working on campus or remotely.

 

Bay State’s existing communication system was not only difficult to manage but also expensive to operate.

 

Avaya IP Office, which uses both voice and IP technology, helped reduce costs, increase productivity, and improve customer service. The system successfully cut Bay State’s communications costs by about 35 percent because calls are routed over a private network. The system was reportedly configured by All Business Communications, a certified member of the Avaya BusinessPartner program.

 

Currently, Avaya IP Office is providing communications for about 60 administrators and 125 instructors and professors at Bay State. By using the system’s built-in conference call feature they can easily connect from a classroom or the Middleboro, Mass. satellite campus to join company-wide meetings.

 

Both the full time faculty and adjunct faculty can now easily access their voice mail messages from any Avaya phone on the campus, or on their mobile phone. Adjunct faculty, who may teach only one or two classes a week at Bay State, can now pick up their messages anywhere on campus or on their mobile phone by leveraging “phantom” or temporary, extensions.

 

The system also allows the school’s mobile administrators and instructors to receive e-mail messages telling them if there’s a message on their campus phone.

 

Bay State College’s former communications system had three-digit dialing and voice mail, but not message-waiting indicators, a conference call feature, or a feature that lets administrators and staff put calls on hold.

 

The IP Office and Avaya phones also help the admission department to keep track of incoming calls generated by specific marketing campaigns associated with specially-established “800” numbers. Tracking the number of calls a campaign generates allows the College to determine which of its campaigns – such as announcing a new course - are effective.

 

Todd Ficarra, the college’s director of information technology, pointed out that although these may seem like simple things, having even basic business features saves them time and money and makes their work days go more smoothly, giving them more time to focus on their mission to provide an excellent learning environment.

 

Ficarra noted in a statement that they can manage the system themselves, and change a voice mail password in minutes, rather than days. And they’re giving their administrators and instructors the communications tools that let them send and receive messages in ways that fit their schedules, freeing them to concentrate on the students.