The Challenge
Highcliffe School had an ageing phone system that was becoming problematic due to regular outages. The system, which was first installed in 1999, was also difficult to manage and required programming via the keypad on a ‘master phone’. With the network’s external lines being ISDN and needing to be replaced in the next few years ahead of BT’s PSTN & ISDN Big Switch Off, a decision was made to look for a modern IP-based phone system. The academy’s users had become accustomed to using Microsoft Teams for internal communications during the coronavirus pandemic lockdown. Due to the uptake, they ran a trial comparing PSTN calls to those via Microsoft’s calling plans; however, it was too expensive and lacked basic features such as call recording
The Solution
During an investigation of available options for using direct routing, the client came across Fuse 2 Communications. We explained their options of using direct routing with Microsoft Teams and showed that we were able to help them to meet their requirements. We paired our direct routing solution with another product, Cloud Fusion, to provide a system with additional features, such as number masking and a short extension number for each user. By implementing this setup, Highcliffe School was able to install basic IP phones across the campus and classrooms to facilitate communications between Microsoft Teams-based users. Fuse 2 also provided the call recording and logging capabilities that their previous phone system lacked
The Results
The level of knowledge Fuse 2’s team had in the field pleased the client, and we impressed them with the support they received during the set-up process and beyond, which included a very quick turnaround on most requests. Harry Glyde – Systems Manager from
Highcliffe School said: “Fuse 2’s pricing was very reasonable compared to other providers, thanks to its pay-per-trunk structure. Overall, we have been extremely impressed with the level of service provided by Fuse 2 and would happily recommend them to other schools.”
