Aims Community College Reduces Phone System Workload by 30% Using Avaya Cloud Office

"The move to Avaya Cloud Office was a significant contributor to our seamless move to remote services.  It will be a key service as we continue on with our hybrid environment and new telework policy.” 

Brad Yoder | CIO/CTO, Aims Community College

The Challenge:

Transitioning to Remote Learning and Collaboration During COVID-19 

Prior to the onset of COVID-19 in early 2020, Aims had been looking to migrate from a traditional on-premises Avaya phone system that had been in operation for decades. Before the mass closure of school campuses, students, staff, and faculty traveled to Aims’ campuses every day. Telework was possible using a VPN but was approved on a case-by-case basis. When necessity called for distance learning and remote work, Rhonda Johnson, Director, Network and Telecom for IT at Aims, knew the college’s existing phone system could not sustain off-campus processes at scale. Johnson and her team of network and systems engineers began speaking with the C1 and Avaya teams about Avaya Cloud Office® by RingCentral® to solve for remote learning and overall collaboration. The cloud-based phone system represents a flexible alternative that can seamlessly support remote work with rich, enterprise-grade communications.  

After working from home with Avaya Cloud Office for a couple of months, the school was able to push the proof of concept through and get key decision-makers to approve the investment. Aims began converting in August of 2020 with the goal of moving pre-set groups of users over every month. With C1’s support, the college was able to accelerate that and move 650 of its 800 staff within a short two months, with the option to flexibly add new users as needed. 

The Solution:

Enhancing Communication and Flexibility   

With Avaya Cloud Office, Johnson and her team have been able to reduce their workload on phone systems by a minimum of 30% while increasing uptime—all with no net gain of cost and increased communications functionality. “The move to Avaya Cloud Office during the pandemic was a significant contributor to our seamless move to remote services. It supported us through the pandemic and will be a key service as we continue on with our hybrid environment and new telework policy,” said Brad Yoder, CIO/CTO of Aims Community College. 

In addition to untethering staff members from their on-premises desk phone, Avaya Cloud Office opened the ability for part-time staff and faculty to have a dedicated work phone number. This is especially important for a community college like Aims, where approximately 80% of working staff balance teaching with other jobs and at-home responsibilities. Before Avaya Cloud Office, only tenured staff with dedicated offices were permitted a dedicated phone number. Now all staff and faculty—tenured or not—can call, meet, and message anywhere on any device with a dedicated Aims phone number. There’s no mixing of personal and business communications, and all communications are organized and easily manageable across different devices. Staff and faculty also enjoy advanced features like voicemail-to-text, automatic and manual call recording, custom ringtones for work versus personal calls, and sequential ringing. The solution has also proven advantageous for hiring and retention. With Avaya Cloud Office, Aims can bring people in for certain positions remotely that could never be hired before. The college also has longstanding employees that have had to move to take care of family members during the pandemic, all who can remain employed regardless of location.

The Result:

Simplified IT Management and Enhanced Accessibility     

The flexible nature of Avaya Cloud Office works well not just for faculty, staff, and working students but also Johnson and her team. Just like everyone else on campus, Aims’ IT team can now work from home or virtually anywhere else using the solution. As a public cloud system, Avaya Cloud Office is also exponentially easier for them to manage. “We can log in anywhere using any device to view information, make changes, and securely monitor communications,” said Johnson. 

Everything from managing office numbers to setting up an auto receptionist can be done with the touch of a finger to ensure communications remain available when needed.  

“Before Avaya Cloud Office, we had one ‘telecom person’ who was our go-to for all things related to the on-premises phone system. The old system was incredibly complex to figure out because it had been patched onto for decades. It was stressful if he went on vacation or for any reason couldn’t be on campus as we had less-than-ideal coverage,” Johnson said. “With Avaya Cloud Office we don’t have to worry about this anymore. Every person on our team knows the system inside and out, and now we’re all equally accessible regardless of location.”