By leveraging funding from the federal E-Rate program and utilizing the extensive IT expertise of its contractor, San Jose's Franklin-McKinley School District (FMSD) has been able to keep pace with national and state technology standards–in spite of its budget-constrained constituency. The K-8 school system linked its facilities in the mid-1990s with a Gigabit Ethernet LAN/WAN and has invested heavily in educational and administrative software to support every aspect of its daily operations.

Unified messaging consolidates all voice mail and
e-mail messages for easy retrieval and prioritizing
of urgent calls.

After upgrading the FMSD's phone network to a 3Com NBX platform, Franklin-McKinley realized that adding IP telephony to its planned 3Com network upgrade was the most practical, affordable answer to its needs. According to Tim McClary, deputy superintendent of business services for FMSD, an IP-based phone system would easily support converged applications like unified messaging, automated attendants, and E-911 for higher productivity and security. IP telephony would also leverage the existing data infrastructure, allowing the district to install classroom telephones without the expense of installing additional wiring.

"The federally backed E-Rate fund was created to ensure that all eligible schools in the United States have affordable access to modern telecommunications and information services," says McClary. "Economically disadvantaged schools can receive discounts of up to 90 percent on telecommunications services, internal connections and Internet access. This is the backbone infrastructure that enables a school to provide the very best in services both for students and staff. Our district has been very fortunate in leveraging these funds to hire excellent support contractors to provide the design, technology and personnel to implement and improve our total campus operations network."

Located in the heart of Silicon Valley, FMSD has long recognized the value of using advanced technology. Consisting of 16 individual campuses, including the district's administrative offices, FMSD provides curriculum and classes for its schools serving grades K-8, and supports more than 9,800 students and in excess of 1,000 teachers, administrators and staff.

Integrator PWT-IT Solutions worked with Delma Jaurez, FMSD information technology director, and 3Com to upgrade the entire campus network, replacing more than 1,100 phones with 3Com VoIP sets.

"My department is responsible for the installation, operation and maintenance of all networks, databases, equipment, peripherals, telecommunication and associated technology infrastructure at FMSD," says Jaurez. "PWT-IT designed and implemented our VoIP network and data overhaul in real time with no disruptions to our daily business."

To meet internal efficiency and safety standards, FMSD now has a phone in each individual classroom and in every relevant staff access area across all campuses. The new phone system enabled the district to eliminate costly landlines and run the entire network through a consolidated trunk system, saving significant hardware and physical line costs.

"In addition to the equipment upgrade, our engineering teams were able to help FMSD actually repurpose switches within their system racks, moving older non-power switches to less priority assignment," says Allison Darin of PWT-IT.

With the new converged system in place, FMSD staff and students are now never more than a few steps from a telephone with internal four-digit dialing, allowing them to contact administrators swiftly when needed. Enhanced 911 now alerts emergency personnel that a call for help originated in a specific location, speeding response time when seconds count.

Unified messaging consolidates all voice mail and e-mail messages for easy retrieval, prioritizing urgent calls, so staff members know which to answer first. In addition, top administrators and department heads continue to use the 3ComNBX system's find-me/follow-me capabilities at night and on weekends to guarantee they can always be reached in a crisis.

"For the first time, we can easily import data on outgoing calls into other software, such as Microsoft Excel, to create custom reports."

Hunt groups and auto-attendants at the central office have allowed the district to eliminate a receptionist for annual savings of $80,000. Additional auto-attendants at individual schools further streamline daily tasks, allowing parents and students to check lunch menus, report an absence or reach the school secretary without delay. With 400 hours of voice-mail storage and up to 1,500 individual voice mailboxes, the 3Com NBX solution ensures every staff member gets his or her own calls, while built-in conference calling, group paging and group voice mail disseminate information across schools quickly and accurately.

The NBX solution's Web-based administration tool, NBX NetSet, allows Franklin-McKinley's technicians to rapidly perform moves, adds and changes. Moreover, the NBX NetSet software's call detail reporting and account code functions simplify the school district's system of monitoring phone use.

"For the first time, we can easily import data on outgoing calls into other software, such as Microsoft Excel, to create custom reports," says Juarez. "This makes billing by site and department, spotting inappropriate use, and allocating funds much more efficient."

For more information from 3Com (click here)

Law firm deploys converged network

In the highly competitive law field, every little advantage can make the difference between being considered a good firm and a great one. With this in mind, Gibbons, a leading law firm in the New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania metropolitan areas, decided to completely revamp and overhaul its network. Given the firm's reliance on phone and e-mail to support its typical business operations, Gibbons needed a system that would allow its attorneys and employees a broad range of applications and remote-access tools to communicate and collaborate inside and outside the office.

Gibbons has a long legal history dating back to 1926. With 220 attorneys, the firm provides transactional, litigation and counseling services to leading businesses. With its relocation into a new 100,000-square-foot headquarters, the firms collaborated with IT consulting firm Business Technology Partners (BTP) to implement a new converged voice and data network, unified messaging system, as well as time-tracking, billing and telephone recording applications.

Gibbons wanted a network that would allow it to harness next-generation technology, while enabling significant productivity gains, reduction of costs and delivery of improved business communications to support its growing client base.

"Our relocation into the Newark office enabled us to rethink all aspects of our technology infrastructure," explains Patrick Dunican Jr., managing director of Gibbons. "We realize as a firm that in order for success to continuously happen, we need to be ready technologically for the ever-changing needs of not only our clients but also our staff."

Gibbons and BTP teamed up to implement an end-to-end IP network within the new Newark headquarters. This included a full voice-over-IP-based communications system utilizing a Cisco backbone and phones. BTP designed a unified messaging platform that combined the firm's VoIP phone system with e-mail and voice mail through one common interface, enabling attorneys and employees to have a centralized repository for receiving and handling all of their client communications.

Also, to track billable phone time, BTP installed Dimension Data's CATT application that integrates with Cisco's VoIP technology. This application automates the process of capturing billable time, creating reports and invoices. BTP also specified CallRex software to allow attorneys to record and archive important telephone conversations with clients.

On top of this new messaging platform, Gibbons leveraged a Cisco SSL virtual private network (VPN). The VPN allows attorneys and employees that are working remotely to have secure access to their voice and data applications, as well as other documents. The VPN provides remote connectivity to the Newark data center.

Using the Cisco IP SoftPhone application, Gibbons' "road warriors" have full access to their telephones on their laptops to access personal phone extensions and call features from any location. Additionally, Cisco's Mobility Manager allows attorneys to log in to any phone and have full access to their profiles and settings, such as call forwarding, follow me and other routing features.

To support the firm's VoIP-based communications, BTP designed resilient systems that include redundant gateways in Newark and New York. These "survivable routers" are capable of continuing to offer full voice communications from Gibbons' remote offices, even when connectivity between them is temporarily lost.

Ensuring continuous availability of the firm's data center operations in Newark, BTP worked with Gibbons' WAN connectivity provider to improve bandwidth and performance. Using an MPLS-based backbone, the new WAN now offers up to four to 10 times the performance of Gibbons' previous network. Additionally, the WAN allows Gibbons to place business-critical network resources and backup operations off site as part of its disaster-recovery strategy.

For more information from Business Technology Partners (click here)