Fanvil×3CX Case: Newman RC College in UK Uses Fanvil to Create a Stable and Easy Administration

The Customer

Newman RC Collage is a large secondary school with over 1500 pupils and 250 members of staff, serving Oldham, UK and the surrounding areas. The telephones are vital in school administration.

The Challenge

· Old System Replacement
The previous system in school was installed when the building opened almost 10 years ago and the warranties on the on-premises equipment had long since expired and the service costs were escalating. They need to replace all the telephones which spread across a 70,000㎡ site, including some remote locations.
· New Working Models
School also wanted to expand the phone system to cater for members of staff who were not based in an office and to allow working from home should the need arise during this special period.
· Higher Security Requirement
As a school, safeguarding is always paramount so we were also keen to be able to record all our calls to keep our staff and students safe.

The Solution

· The cloud server and 3CX installation was quickly set up, and we had a fully working telephone exchange in under 24 hours. The digital receptionist, call queue, and ring group were easy to understand and highly customisable. We were able to get the call flow we wanted up and running in no time at all, and we know we can adapt and improve every aspect of the system whenever the need arises.
· As 3CX fully supports Fanvil handsets, it was a very simple process to connect the two together. 3CX already has all the configuration settings the phones need, so it quickly added each handset and brought them online with minimal input from us. Administor can use 3CX to push out updates and configuration changes to all our phones without having to physically go around the site, visiting every office.

The Result

· This solution allows the administrators much more control over every aspect of the telephony, and the simple and intuitive admin portal has meant that they can do everything that they need to do to keep the system running day-to-day, without the regular calls to support that they experienced with the previous system.
· The flexible digital receptionist and call queues have improved our ability to manage incoming calls and make sure they go to the correct person and reduce the amount of time callers spend waiting. The administrator can use the wide range of reports to regularly monitor calls that are unanswered and identify areas that they can improve.
· The web and mobile apps have allowed the school to assign every member of staff with an extension number, and staff who aren't based in an office can still be contactable wherever they are on the site. Their staff have commented on the excellent call quality of the Fanvil handsets. Being able to search for people by name has removed the need for phone lists that have to be constantly updated and removed any need to remember any extension numbers. The receptionists, and everyone else who has embraced the web app in tandem with the Fanvil phones have found making calls and accessing voicemail much simpler than with their previous system. Moving to Fanvil and 3CX has also allowed the school to move from our old ISDN lines to SIP trunks, which has reduced their monthly telecoms bill to less than a quarter of the cost of the previous solution.