Benefits of a VoIP Telephone System for your School

As Primary and Secondary Schools across the country are now reopening for the new school year, it is vital that your school has an effective school telephone system in place.

Particularly in the current climate, parents need to be able to contact your school without experiencing any issues and you also need to have the ability to contact parents should an emergency situation occur.

With this in mind, will your existing telephone system be able to effectively support your changing communication needs?

If you don’t have complete confidence in your existing system, then it could be the time to upgrade to a VoIP telephone system.

What is a VoIP Telephone System?

A VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol system, is a cloud based phone system that runs across your internet connection without the need to house a network and routing element on your site.

Calls are made and received in a similar manner to a traditional system, therefore phone users and those contacting the business will not have to do anything different.

It is an agile and flexible system that offers a whole host of benefits to businesses, organisations and schools alike.

Improving efficiencies

A cloud-based telephone system is easy to use and provides greater flexibility and functionality than a traditional phone system, offering a whole host of new features that can help to improve efficiencies across your school, such as call monitoring and recording. Tools such as this will provide your school with the ability to review how calls are being handled and collate data that will enable you to review how efficiently your team and system is currently working, helping to identify issues and make improvements.

Call Handling

Due to the large number of staff you have working across your school site, it is important you have a system in place that enables you, your staff and parents to contact the intended individual effectively.

With a VoIP system, calls can very easily be redirected around your school, helping to reduce the volume of calls into reception and ensuring that the call is redirected to the appropriate person.

You also have the ability to add in information around when an individual is available, meaning that they can only be contacted at an appropriate time that suits them, preventing calls from taking away valuable time.

Maintaining quality communication

Particularly in the current climate, parents need to be able to contact your school without experiencing any issues and you also need to have the ability to contact parents with ease.

Investing in a VoIP telephone system will help you to achieve this, offering a host of features that makes call handling and redirecting a much smoother process.

From parents ringing reception to report an absence or speak to a member of staff through to internal communication, a VoIP telephone system makes it easy to do all of the above. Call recording, call queueing and tailored call routing can significantly improve the telephone experience for people contacting you whilst making life easier for your staff.

Meeting increased demands

As you welcome back students, it is important to review your current WiFi setup and consider whether improvements need to be made.

It is vital that all of the technology and equipment your teachers will be using within lessons is connected and that they always have access to fast and reliable broadband, to prevent issues that could take away from valuable lesson time.

If you have previously experienced issues with the quality and speed of your WiFi and broadband, it’s time to make improvements to ensure your students’ learning will not be affected anymore than it already has been as a result of the pandemic.

We also know that many schools may be looking at continuing to utilise the technology and applications they invested in to facilitate remote learning, which will result in a greater use of technology within the classroom.

With greater use of technology comes a greater need for quality connectivity across all areas of your school.

If this is the case for your school, we can work with you to review your existing network and the layout of your school, to determine additional bandwidth needed and identify where the integration of routers and other access points will help expand the reach of your connectivity.

Preventing Issues

Finally through reviewing your systems, this will also help you to identify any existing issues and pick up on potential problems early on to mitigate the risks and impact they could cause.

This should include testing your phone lines, handsets as well as ensuring your staff have access to your Wi-Fi network and reviewing the coverage across your site.

Doing this will prevent additional costs, improve efficiencies and ensure the day-to-day operation of your school will continue undisrupted.

Future proof your school and ensure you are investing in the best possible solutions with the help of Telecom Central.

Maintenance and Support

Finally with a VoIP telephone system, it is much easier to conduct regular maintenance and checks and resolve issues.

With a cloud based system, you can access remote support from your telecoms provider at any time you need it, meaning that you can respond to issues quickly and reduce the risk of downtime.

As experts in the industry, we can help to advise you on the integration of any new systems that will be able to support your new needs and enable you to overcome any challenges.

If your school would like to discuss your communication needs, our team is on hand to provide the expert support and advice you may require.