College Enhances Communications, Will Save $25,000 With Unified Communications

Davidson College, a liberal arts school in North Carolina, has an aging PBX-based telephone system that is expensive to maintain and will be costly to replace. In anticipation of having to purchase and install a new system, the school's IT department decided to deploy a new unified communications solution based on Microsoft technologies, including Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 with Unified Messaging. Working with NWN, a Microsoft Certified Partner, and the college started deploying the IP-based solution in late 2007 to staff members across the school's campus. Davidson is already realizing benefits: easy-to-manage voice-mail system, easy access to smartphone messages, and the expected elimination of about $25,000 a year to support the old voice-mail system.