Arlington Heights Park District

A Phone System Enhancing Communications & Lowering Costs

AHPD Allworx Case Study

Arlington Heights Park District serves the community of Arlington Heights, IL. Established in 1925, the park district serves over 78,000 residents with 58 parks and related facilities.

RAM Communications has been privileged to work with the park district for over 15 years. In that time, RAM has served as a resource for the IT staff helping select and manage various voice and internet providers. In 2018, Arlington Heights approached RAM for help researching a new phone system. For financial and technological reasons management decided it was time to look for a replacement of its phone system. The system had served reliably but technology and maintenance costs had become prohibitive. The IT Staff approached RAM and asked for an assessment of new systems. Initially, RAM was asked to research and select both hosted and premise-based phone systems.

After conducting careful research, RAM was able to make a few important determinations. While hosted phone systems have grown to dominate the industry, the overall cost of ownership (monthly licensing fees) were found to far exceed the longterm cost of a premise-based phone system.

Arlington Heights Park District

Arlington Heights Park District
The Allworx Reach App allows Arlington
Heights Park District to provide desk phone use
on their staffers’ smartphones. All of the desk
phone features are available for proper call
handling.. Park employees who work in the field
stay better connected to their fellow workers and
patrons.

RAM’s challenges were mainly threefold: improve the distributed phone network (among 16 locations) for internal call handling; design and implement a system with redundant PBX servers and provide mobile connectivity for Arlington Height’s staffers working in the field.

The Allworx Connect Platform provided a dialing plan similar to the park’s old system. This made the transition much easier for the staff because they could keep their extension lists in place.

RAM’s partners, ACI and Masergy Communications, were integral to designing and implementing the overall solution. Redundant PBX servers were installed at two separate locations to protect against power and service disruptions. With considerable testing, the RAM Team was able to design the solution in a way that was manageable for AHPD’s IT staff. Now, uptime is improved and both the IT staff and RAM’s support team can both access the Allworx remotely to address issues and make adjustments.

Finally, Arlington Heights sees significant productivity gains from the new system. The Allworx provides some of the best unified messaging services today. Users receive their voicemails on their smartphones and can handle messages faster and
easier than ever before. The mobile connectivity (via the Allworx Reach App) allows management to handle office calls while keeping their office presence intact. It’s a great way for mobile users to stay connected to their patrons and vendors.

Highlights:

  • reduced Total Cost of Ownership by 65%
  • provided true system redundancy for AHPD’s phone services
  • added unified messaging for simplified voicemail handling
  • added remote call handling software for field users
  • continues RAM’s tradition of top customer service and consulting support

How much can a service interruption cost your organization in terms of productivity and opportunity?

How much can a service interruption cost your organization in terms of productivity and opportunity?

How much can a service interruption cost your organization in terms of productivity and opportunity?

How much can a service interruption cost your organization in terms of productivity and opportunity?

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