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Telecommunications
Dec 8, 2009
Telecommunications
Everything you wanted to know about Telephone Services
but were afraid to ask.
WatITis | Strengthening Collaboration| December 8, 2009 |Telecommunications Overview
Telecommunications
Who are we?
What exactly do we do?
Tips on how to save money?
Where are we going?
WatITis | Strengthening Collaboration| December 8, 2009 |Telecommunications Overview
Telecommunications
Our team is made up of the following 10 people
1 – manager
(Joe Allen)
2 - phone guys
(Bruce Bender &
Doug Herter)
WatITis | Strengthening Collaboration| December 8, 2009 |Telecommunications Overview
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1 –administration and switchboard supervisor
(Liz Doede)
2 –switchboard attendants
(Rhonda Lantz & Sheila Fell)
WatITis | Strengthening Collaboration| December 8, 2009 |Telecommunications Overview
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1 - wireless support person / backup support
(Kathleen Ebrahimi)
1 – backup support person (admin & switchboard)
(Carrie-Anne Hunter)
1 – phone analyst (Ron Schmidt)
1 – co-op student (Andy Vopni)
WatITis | Strengthening Collaboration| December 8, 2009 |Telecommunications Overview
Telecommunications
Core Responsibilities
# 1 priority
Ensuring the phones on campus are working properly
24/7
365 days a year
WatITis | Strengthening Collaboration| December 8, 2009 |Telecommunications Overview
Telecommunications
# 1 priority
Ensuring the phones work : 24/7, 365 days a year
• 52 buildings + 5 under construction
• 3 campuses (Waterloo, Cambridge, Kitchener) plus
? (Stratford, Huntsville, ?)
• 6,500 phones (IP, digital and analog) and counting
• 3,600 voice mail boxes
• onsite PBX
• 5,000 speech recognition entries
• +230 Bell lines
WatITis | Strengthening Collaboration| December 8, 2009 |Telecommunications Overview
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Digital versus analog
-‘ANALOG’ is the process of taking an audio or video
signal (in most cases, the human voice) and
translating it into electronic pulses.
-‘DIGITAL’ on the other hand is breaking the signal
into a binary format where the audio or video data is
represented by a series of "1"s and "0"s.
-On campus we have about 100 analog phones and
5,000 digital
WatITis | Strengthening Collaboration| December 8, 2009 |Telecommunications Overview
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VOIP technology
VOIP stands for Voice over Internet Protocol
-This simply means that instead of using separate lines for the
phone, they share the lines with the computers. When doing this it
opens up a number of ways to integrate your computer with your
phone. All new phones on campus are VOIP.
-There are about 700 VOIP phones on campus
Notes:
1. Regular phones send electricity over the phone line. When
switching to a VOIP phone, we must add power over the line.
2. PBX has backup power, VOIP phone systems do not
WatITis | Strengthening Collaboration| December 8, 2009 |Telecommunications Overview
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We monitor the switchboard from 8:30 am - 4:30 pm
Monday – Friday with at least 2 attendants at all times.
WatITis | Strengthening Collaboration| December 8, 2009 |Telecommunications Overview
Telecommunications
Switchboard
•
Typically during the day, we get
over 400 calls per hour during
peak times
•
Switchboard attendants use
software that displays both names
and departments in order to
quickly find what they are looking
for
•
The directories are in sync with
WatIAM, however there are timing
problems when people start
working before they are setup in
WatIAM
WatITis | Strengthening Collaboration| December 8, 2009 |Telecommunications Overview
Telecommunications
Core Responsibilities
Successful implementation of ALL moves, adds and
changes to over 6500 (and counting) phones on
campus
Approximately 200 work orders per month
WatITis | Strengthening Collaboration| December 8, 2009 |Telecommunications Overview
Telecommunications
Moves, adds and changes
• receive work orders
• schedule work, order new equipment
• remove and /or install new phones with desired
programming
• if required, add voicemail
• If required, update speech recognition system
• update telephone administration system for billing
and university online directories
WatITis | Strengthening Collaboration| December 8, 2009 |Telecommunications Overview
Telecommunications
Core Responsibilities
Administer all the billing for phones on campus
•
We pay the bills and re-bill all areas on campus
•
Invoices are posted on U of W’s website at
http://ist.uwaterloo.ca/as/phone/tele_billing.html
Note: We want to be the central area for paying bills.
We will ensure the bills get paid on time and are
reviewed appropriately.
WatITis | Strengthening Collaboration| December 8, 2009 |Telecommunications Overview
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Vendors
Telephone services deals with the following companies on a
regular basis:
Other companies (or products of) we work occasionally with
are:
WatITis | Strengthening Collaboration| December 8, 2009 |Telecommunications Overview
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Monthly Billing process
Various vendors
send electronic
invoices to U of W
TS uses
approximately 10
servers
Liz and her
team update
all work orders
The end result is a monthly invoice
which details all services provides by
TS. This is available online.
WatITis | Strengthening Collaboration| December 8, 2009 |Telecommunications Overview
Telecommunications
5. Administering and helping co-ordinate issues with the
approximately 650 wireless devices (blackberries and
cell phones) being used on campus
Note: One issue we struggle with is what support model
works best at U of W?
WatITis | Strengthening Collaboration| December 8, 2009 |Telecommunications Overview
Telecommunications
Wireless support
Telephone Services is responsible for:
• Ordering new blackberries and upgrades
• Assisting client services who are involved with technical problems, upgrades and
initially setting up a new device
• Along with client services, providing training
• Interfacing with the vendor and carriers on behalf of the client
• Answering questions about service and rates
• Paying the carriers on behalf of the client and internally re-billing the clients
• Analyzing phone usage to help clients choose the most efficient plans
• When necessary negotiating with carriers to provide the best possible rates. We
have contracts with both Bell and Rogers.
Here is a link on our website:
http://ist.uwaterloo.ca/cs/bb/bb-howto.html
WatITis | Strengthening Collaboration| December 8, 2009 |Telecommunications Overview
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Wireless – online access to Invoices
Invoices from Rogers are available at:
https://winonline.rogers.com
Invoices from Bell are available at:
http://interaction.bell.ca
WatITis | Strengthening Collaboration| December 8, 2009 |Telecommunications Overview
Telecommunications
Wireless – saving money
Here are some ways to save $ using your wireless device:
1. Check your bill every month. There have been many instances
where customers were charged by mistake for services they
didn’t order and / or use. One particular scam is to charge
outrageous fees for text messages.
Note: Both Bell and Rogers now offer preferred pricing with
pooling. These prices can be found on our website. We will
be holding an employee lunch and learn soon to review the
new Rogers rates.
2. Review what plan you are on compared to what other plans are
offered. Choose a plan that fits your needs
3. Be careful of ROAMING charges when you travel. Plan ahead and
choose a packaged plan ahead of time.
WatITis | Strengthening Collaboration| December 8, 2009 |Telecommunications Overview
Telecommunications
Wireless – saving money
ways to save $ using your wireless device:
4. Use a calling card. It’s very cheap compared to wireless plans. A
little inconvenient but incredibly cheaper.
5. Find ‘hot spots’ with wireless internet access. These allow emails
to be sent for ‘FREE’.
6. Be careful when downloading and using the Internet. Make sure
you have a plan with sufficient data. Otherwise the extra fees
are expensive!!
WatITis | Strengthening Collaboration| December 8, 2009 |Telecommunications Overview
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Rogers – new pricing
Corporate Plan Details
Cost*
per Month
Features:
250 anytime local minutes +
Unlimited Evenings + Weekends (6pm 8am)
(each user contributes 250 min each to
total UW pool)
$19.00
Blackberry BIS Data Plans
$25 – 500MB/MTH
$30 – 1GB/MTH
$25.00
$30.00
Blackberry BES Data Plans
4MB/MTH
7MB/MTH
1GB/MTH
$25.00
$30.40
$36.00
System Access Fee (SAF)
$6.95
911
$0.50
US LD
Calls made from Canada to US
$0.15
Canada LD
Calls made from Canada to Canada
$0.10
BASE TOTAL COST
For Voice-only users
$26.45
• Call Display (INCLUDED)
•Basic Voicemail (INCLUDED)
•Call Forwarding (INCLUDED)
•Call Waiting (INCLUDED)
•Conference Calling (INCLUDED)
•Pooling Voice (INCLUDED)
•Unlimited Evening + Weekends
(INCLUDED)
•Company Calling (INCLUDED)
(unlimited local calling between UW
Rogers users)
•Unlimited Incoming Text Messages
(INCLUDED)
Telecommunications
6. We support over 3600 voicemail boxes on campus.
This is a free service to the campus from IST.
Note: Voicemail can be customised by YOU. There is a self
service component that allows you to set your own
parameters.
WatITis | Strengthening Collaboration| December 8, 2009 |Telecommunications Overview
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Voicemail
3600 voice mailboxes on campus
‘My CallPilot’ allows individuals to customize their own
settings
For example:
• getting an email when you have
a phone message
• Setting up ‘groups’ to send
emails to
See link:
CallPilot Notification
From: [email protected]
Sent: Nov 27, 2009 5:30:01 PM
To: [email protected]
_____________________________________
You have a voice message from John Doe [12345]
http://mycallpilot.uwaterloo.ca/mycallpilot
WatITis | Strengthening Collaboration| December 8, 2009 |Telecommunications Overview
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Voicemail – My CallPilot
WatITis | Strengthening Collaboration| December 8, 2009 |Telecommunications Overview
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7. We support ‘phone trees for various areas on campus.
These phone trees improve efficiency and reduce
incoming calls.
Note: Calls can be routed to another extension, voicemail,
another phone tree or a message
WatITis | Strengthening Collaboration| December 8, 2009 |Telecommunications Overview
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Phone ‘trees’
Approximately 25 areas on campus use phone trees
Allows incoming calls to be screened and routed before going to an individual or
voicemail box
For example
Incoming call
Dept A ?
Person A ?
Person B ?
Dept B ?
Dept C ?
Voicemail?
WatITis | Strengthening Collaboration| December 8, 2009 |Telecommunications Overview
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8. We manage the automated attendant speech
recognition system that is used to locate an extension
by simply saying the person’s name
•
•
•
•
Voice recognition must be in sync with WatIAM
TS must record each individual’s name
People with the same name are differentiated by the
departments they work in
It is possible to create ‘phone trees’ for this. For
example saying ‘cell phones’, then saying a person’s
name. This is currently not being used.
WatITis | Strengthening Collaboration| December 8, 2009 |Telecommunications Overview
Telecommunications
9. We support the ‘white pages and online ‘department
directory’
It’s important that Telephone directories are in line with WatIAM.
Sometimes there are timing issues between when a person starts at U of W and when
they are in WatIAM.
The recent migration from UWDir to WatIAM has highlighted some areas that need
further investigation.
Telephone directory information is used for 911 emergency response.
WatITis | Strengthening Collaboration| December 8, 2009 |Telecommunications Overview
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Online directories
WatITis | Strengthening Collaboration| December 8, 2009 |Telecommunications Overview
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10. We support U of W’s campus emergency notification plan.
We manage the systems that are used to :
a) send text messages to all cell phones entered on MyHRinfo and
Quest
b) send messages to all voice mailboxes on campus
c) create a message for a dedicated ‘Infoline’ . This line can
receive 100’s of calls simultaneously and would be used in the
event of an emergency for information
Note: we have the ability to send voice messages en masse but use
this only for surveys at this time
WatITis | Strengthening Collaboration| December 8, 2009 |Telecommunications Overview
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11. We support the campus ‘911’ system
The 911 system is :
a) a service from Bell that ensures when ‘911’ is
dialled, that the PSAP know what building on campus
the call originated from and what the phone number of
Police Services is
b) a separate system for police services to know the
room and building where the call originated
WatITis | Strengthening Collaboration| December 8, 2009 |Telecommunications Overview
Telecommunications
911 calling on campus
Have you ever wondered how the police know who made the
911 call when it comes from somewhere in a large campus?
When a call is made, it goes to the PSAP where they are
responsible for dispatching emergency services.
PSAP - stands for Public Safety Answering Point.
In order for the PSAP to know
where a call was made on
campus, TS must tell them.
WatITis | Strengthening Collaboration| December 8, 2009 |Telecommunications Overview
Telecommunications
911 calling on campus
When a call is made on campus it goes
to Police services AND the PSAP.
TS sends
updates to
the police
daily with
Building and
room
information
for each
phone
TS sends phone
and building
information to the
PSAP plus the
phone number of
Police Services
When a 911 call is made, police services receive a pop up screen with the building
and room of the call. The PSAP immediately know the building but not the room. If
the caller cannot tell them the room, they immediately call Police Services to get
that information.
WatITis | Strengthening Collaboration| December 8, 2009 |Telecommunications Overview
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12. We manage and help administer the following:
• Conference calls, Calling cards
• Yellow pages
WatITis | Strengthening Collaboration| December 8, 2009 |Telecommunications Overview
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When we have time...
We investigate new technologies to improve service and
reduce costs.
For example – fax machines
WatITis | Strengthening Collaboration| December 8, 2009 |Telecommunications Overview
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Fax lines and machines
Fax usage has dropped considerably over the last few years. However,
on campus, there are still approximately 150 Bell lines used for fax
machines
Each Bell line costs between $50 and $70 each month.
TS has been charging $30 or $38 for these lines.
Recently Bell has notified us that they will be raising the cost of these
lines approximately $10 per line per month.
In order to avoid incurring additional charges, TS would like to ask
each department to review the use of these lines and cancel them if
possible
WatITis | Strengthening Collaboration| December 8, 2009 |Telecommunications Overview
Telecommunications
Fax lines recommendations
Fax alternatives:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Eliminate the fax machine (and line) and use email with a scanner
Replace Bell line with a ‘direct dial’ number (approx $25 per month)
•
One issue is that you must dial ‘6’ first and your phone number will change
Use one designated fax machines rather than many.
TS is investigating a new phone number for incoming faxes. Faxes sent to this number
will be intercepted by TS and forwarded to the recipient via email. This would be a free
service.
Using a FAX server on campus. This is a program that links faxes to your email system.
This is already being used in some areas on campus but can be used much more.
Note: Any comments or feedback would be appreciated. Send to [email protected]
WatITis | Strengthening Collaboration| December 8, 2009 |Telecommunications Overview
Telecommunications
Other technologies we are looking at:
•
Converting the entire campus to Voice over Internet (VOIP)
Using the computer network to make a phone call
•
Unified communications (UC)
Merging all systems of communication into one system
(for example – Outlook)
WatITis | Strengthening Collaboration| December 8, 2009 |Telecommunications Overview
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Questions ?
WatITis | Strengthening Collaboration| December 8, 2009 |Telecommunications Overview