UB's Campus Telephones To Run On VoIP

With a major objective of achieving cost reducing benefits according to Barbara Vasbinder, project manager of the telephone system replacement project being carried out on UB’s Campus. According to her the project entails replacing existing Verizon Centrex Service and different individual phone systems on campus. This is in line with UB 2020 Information Technology (IT) transition involving the replacement of UB’s older analog telephone system with latest VoIP telephone system, which commenced in May to last for 3 years.
Vasbinder while giving analysis said “Today we have 900 Cisco telephones working on the system”, with four Cisco models to replace analog phones and be able to work with existing computer jacks, so phones can function on the computer network. This change will offer uniformity in offering VoIP features to all staff to approximately 8000 phones.
This new service will also feature services like call forwarding, transferring, conferencing, voicemail and analog directory services.” Everyone will have direct-dial numbers, voicemail and the possibility of upgrading to unified messaging in the future, which is the ability to integrate your voicemail and email messages” according to Vasbinder, “The new infrastructure is based on servers that will be housed on campus as opposed to the Verizon central office”. All faculty or staff will have a direct-dial number at the end of the transition.
By placing emergency calls on the new VoIP phones, the university police can easily determine the location of the caller.Vasbinder also said “Another benefit is to be able to update and maintain correct location information for the purpose of all database”.
To have a smooth transition, plans are on the way for training sessions on Cisco phones.