Microsoft Skype for Business, formerly known as Lync, is a Unified Communications (UC) platform that delivers streamlined communications for users. It combines instant messaging, voice over IP, video conferencing and other collaborative features like desktop sharing, all integrated with the Microsoft suite of apps including Office and Outlook for email. Through this integration its presence feature allows users to see when other uses are busy or available to answer an instant message, voice or video call.
With its ability to deliver audio and video conferencing, enterprise VoIP services and Skype for Business mobility, all with the capability of these communications services with external organisations, Skype for Business represented a scalable solution that mirrored Chase High’s future goals.
The transition to Skype for Business enabled a migration from Chase High’s traditional ISDN phone line set up to a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) system. SIP is a communications protocol that allows for IP telephony for voice and video calls, as well as instant messaging. The transition to SIP further allowed for potential integrations and expansion, future-proofing Chase High’s communications system as well as bringing the benefits of lower call and maintenance costs.
Freedom provided a dedicated project manager to oversee the migration project, ensuring delivery against schedule and specifications as well as handling all communications with Chase High. In addition, project management involved a comprehensive approach to user adoption, ensuring correct training was in place for users to move across to the new system seamlessly.
Post installation, full testing and verification throughout the school were carried out to ensure that all handsets and features were working correctly. This was combined with full training and documentation for Chase High’s IT team.
The Benefits
Skype for Business has numerous benefits for educational organisations, with its focus on streamlined communications enabling new kinds of learning experiences with emphasis on collaboration, extending the education environment beyond the school walls with remote learning.
In practical terms, this means:
- Better internal collaboration between faculty, students and staff through presence, desktop sharing and video conferencing
- External collaboration through the federation with other services such as Skype and Google Chat
- Improved flexibility, allowing communications from any location or device
- The ability to tailor equipment dependant on its use with custom set ups for classrooms, conference rooms, reception and common areas
In addition, Chase High’s new UC platform enabled a number of cost benefits, including:
- Reduced call costs using SIP compared to ISDN
- Migration from disparate legacy systems reduced maintenance costs, due to adoption of one integrated platform for voice, video and other collaborative communications features
- An improved economies of scale as a result of using one end to end communications partner in Freedom
- It also allowed Chase High to further utilise its 10Mbps connection
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