As educational institutions strive to simplify business processes and unify cross-campus systems, the concept of shared voice and data services is under careful consideration. There is a general acceptance that schools and universities require the latest enterprise features, including UC&C. Inter-department collaboration brings the prospect of improved operational efficiency whilst enhancing system performance to enrich their constituent experience.
Educational institutions are looking to access a full suite of UC&C services, but still operate with the economic and operational advantages of a centrally controlled infrastructure. Schools and universities want the cost benefits of a central platform, but do not want to give up the independence of operating their own administration.
The education sector recognizes the need to capitalize on the potential of IP-based communication solutions to improve information-sharing and collaboration within and across organizational boundaries, with the goal of increasing operational efficiency and enhancing educational services. To achieve this, they need to upgrade their existing telephony system to a standards-based platform that supports UC&C.
Many institutions are also considering centralizing the management of their IP-based communication solutions, and outsourcing to an internal service provider, or a third party.
The challenges that educational institutions are facing, include:
- Management of diverse campuses
- Seasonal, mass staff and student changes, requiring high volumes of administration prior to the start of the academic year
- Consolidation of multi-generational platforms
- Multiple vendors, disparate legacy systems
- Making cost savings by sharing a centralized infrastructure, but maintaining autonomy for individual departmental administrators
- Supporting both shared and dedicated infrastructures
- Effective management of disaster situations
- Ability to scale easily
- Providing a platform to efficiently deliver new UC&C applications
