Universities Update Communications for Remote Productivity

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 06/22/20

Universities are rethinking their campus approach to communications and collaboration in light of the changes introduced by stay-home recommendations. Three institutions have all adopted the same cloud-based system: Berkeley College, Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) and Texas Christian University are using RingCentral to update their communications infrastructure.

Berkeley College wanted to integrate communications for students and faculty across six locations in New York and New Jersey. RingCentral "has been especially helpful as we've transitioned to a remote work environment given the current climate," said Leonard De Botton, senior vice president and chief information officer, in a statement. Of particular use: integration with Salesforce and the application's dashboard that allows staff to measure usage and quality of communications.

Southern New Hampshire University replaced a legacy on-premise communications system with RingCentral Office for its 3,000 users. The software "allows our faculty and staff to use one unified solution for messaging, video meetings and phone system capabilities so we can remain productive from any location, which has been crucial given the current need to work from home," said John Limongelli, chief technology officer. "With RingCentral, we've been empowered to continue catering to our students, faculty and staff, regardless of where we are physically."

Texas Christian U needed to shift its IT help desk to a remote setup. Using RingCentral, support agents could sign into the system remotely to serve employees from any location, allowing the university to keep the help desk open and accessible for staff while people adjusted to their new work-from-home environments. "Being able to use the ... solution on any device from anywhere has made for a very smooth adjustment period," said Bryan Lucas, chief technology officer. "RingCentral helped make the day-to-day experience easier for our students, faculty and staff during this difficult time."

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

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