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4 Steps to Unified Communications
Villanova University's Stephen Fugale talks VoIP migration
11/1/2007
But just in case problems arose, Empire and Avaya set up a call center in the UNIT building for quick response. Fugale doesn't recall anything more serious than the need to pull wire in a few locations where people had used up all available network jacks.
Step 4: Look to the Future
The final layout of communications at the school is hybrid. Some buildings are pure VoIP; others are digital phones, depending on the state of the network in a given building. Eventually, as additional pieces of the infrastructure are upgraded, VoIP will be rolled out more extensively. But in either realm, the basic capabilities Villanova sought exist--call waiting, access to enhanced 911.
In the event of a power outage, the school has backup power and "UPSes spread all over campus" so the phone system can still operate. Likewise, quality of service is exactly where Fugale expected it to be. "My user community has the expectation--as with the old phone system--that when they pick up a handset, they've got a clear and high quality dial tone. We had to upgrade portions of our network to make sure quality of service was there."
Aside from adding phones here and there to address growth in faculty and staff, Fugale said he sees the major growth happening in the different applications that will run on the system. Recently, the school migrated from Sun's iPlanet messaging server suite for messaging and the Mozilla Thunderbird e-mail client to Microsoft Exchange and Outlook and Outlook Web Access. Now it's positioned to more fully exploit its new communication network.
Said Fugale, "The standard user would be able to get voice mail or e-mail on their PC or in concept on their phone. We also have the capability to do SIP phones. We have the capability for remote workers to dial in from the PC, log into the Avaya system, and have it be invisible as to whether I'm working in the office or at home."
The campus will implement a call center, probably first in the IT department, to use interactive response. "When Steve Fugale calls the help desk for an issue," he said, "a screen comes up saying, 'It's Steve Fugale at extension 4402; he has a Dell D610; he's an administrator.' OK, Steve, what's your problem?" And at some point, he expects the school to do speech recognition, as opposed to requiring the use of operators to do smart call routing.
Through it all, Fugale said, the IT organization will continue putting its energy into those projects, small and large--laundry room texting and unified communications--that will have "the best impact on the teaching and learning and living environment" at Villanova.
Dian Schaffhauser is a writer who covers technology and business. Send your higher education technology news to her at dian@dischaffhauser.com.
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