Dunmore School District

THE BUSINESS CHALLENGE

Dunmore School District needed a way to effectively connect calls from the High School, Middle School and Elementary School, as there previously wasn’t internal school to school communication capabilities. The only way to call each school was to call out on an outside line to the other school. This was tying up telephone lines and causing constantly busy lines, upsetting parents and staff while creating a liability for the district.

THE NORTHEAST DATA SOLUTION

The first step was to replace the dated phone system in the Elementary School. It did not have the capability to connect to the main system with intercom function in the High School. The next step was to have one central listed phone number with an auto attendant that all parents and outside parties would call to reach any of the schools in the district. The last step was to install voice mail on all phones so that every user had the ability to receive personal messages if not available.

THE RESULTS

Now outside callers can call one phone number to reach anyone in all the schools. They are greeted with a menu of what school they would like to be connected to and dial the desired one digit number to be routed there. The district saves money since they don’t have to pay for a receptionist to answer calls. If the main line is busy, the next caller comes in on the next available line without getting a busy signal to the same auto attendant menu.

Employees can now call from any building to another building without using an outside line. This eliminated complaints from parents and employees of busy lines.

With the installation of voice mail, all staff can receive messages from callers without other staff wasting time taking handwritten messages. With voice mail, messages can be sent to multiple employees with a time stamp of when the message was left.