In the next few weeks, UB will begin converting the entire academic campus to the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephone system. The switch will take three years, consolidating the university's 75 existing telephone services into a unified system.
According to Mark Deuell, director of operational support services, the switch will allow for financial savings in terms of both cost and tech support. Using the same data connection as computers surfing the Internet (RJ-45), Deuell cites uniformity and functionality as some of the major benefits to VoIP.
"VoIP unifies the telephone infrastructure for the university. Everybody gets a common platform and a common set of features," Deuell said.
Each faculty member will receive a specific phone number that will not change based on where the phone gets plugged in, allowing for an improved directory service.
An additional bonus is a minor upgrade to the networks on campus, subsequently improving Internet performance on much of the campus.
As a subset of the UB 2020 IT Transformation process, a conversion to VoIP is part of a larger effort to move UB into the next generation of technology.
According to technology analysts Frost & Sullivan, VoIP is predicted to account for 75 percent of the world's voice services in 2007, and has a variety of features that will continue to prove important in upcoming years.
An initial $3,000,000 investment will pay for installation and the cost of the new units. On completion, the university estimates $750,000 dollars will be made from the single billing service as well as annual operation cost savings. The project will take seven years before beginning to make a profit, according to a press release.
Deuell said that the gradual conversion process is very time consuming due to the high number of locations, but the actual conversion will not be too intensive because of the data connections at most workstations already in place - desks near both telephone and data connections.
"The telephone will connect to the data network - there are probably some places that don't have a data connection, but it is a very small percentage," he said.
University phones will have new VoIP units, with the exception of those in the dormitories. Existent features such as voicemail and caller ID will remain.
A variety of different models will be seen throughout campus, with upper tier models featuring additional lines, programmable buttons and deluxe capabilities - to be deployed on a need-to-have basis.
"Faculty in a call-answering position might need more lines and functions than someone who is even an administrator," Deuell said.
The conversion will take place all throughout campus with the exception of in the dormitories. Deuell explained that this is because only a small percentage of students living in the dorms actually use the Centrex telephone service that is available to them. The results of surveying reflect that the majority of students stick to their cell phones rather than using the available in room telephone lines.
"We hired a consultant and concluded that we will continue with the current Centrex service for the next 3 years and then phase out telephones in the room," Deuell said.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
