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SOA/WEB SERVICES FEATURE ARTICLES


April 27, 2007

Business Communications Platforms for Colleges and Universities

By Alan Rosenberg, BlueNote Networks


The recent Virginia Tech tragedy is forcing many colleges and universities to examine their security and crisis preparedness policies including their procedures for notifying students, families and staff of emergency situations. From time-to-time, most universities have a need to disseminate information to the student body, faculty, and employee base. In routine situations a simple e-mail broadcast or Web posting may suffice. In an emergency situation, universities may need to supplement e-mail notifications and Web postings with SMS message broadcasts or telephone message broadcasts to reach students, family, and staff that are away from their computers or off campus. Examples include:

 
  • Weather alerts — hurricane and tornado warnings;
  • Crisis situations — bomb threats or other security related events;
  • School closures — snow storms.
Some universities may choose to outsource this requirement to a hosted service provider. By going with a hosted service, universities can address their emergency notification needs without upgrading their telecom infrastructures. Other universities are taking this opportunity to modernize their telecommunications systems to support message broadcasts plus other new applications.
 
Few universities are interested in making extensive changes to their campus PBX infrastructure. Student mobile phone usage has turned the campus PBX (News - Alert) business model upside down in the past ten years or so. What used to be a profit center is now a cost center. Upgrading an incumbent PBX to support newer applications may be cost prohibitive. A wholesale PBX replacement may be out of the question.
 
Many universities are looking to Business Communications Platforms (BCPs) to extend their existing telecommunications infrastructures. A BCP can breathe new life into a campus telephone system, allowing universities to deliver new Internet telephony services incrementally and protecting investments in the incumbent PBX and PSTN complex. BCPs enable rapid deployment of new solutions and services by delivering voice as a reusable software service that is easily integrated with Web sites and software applications.
 
Campus voice service extension: BCPs can be deployed as an adjunct to a campus PBX to bring economical Internet-facing telephony services to students, family, alumni, faculty, and employees. BCPs grant broadband Internet users full access to the campus phone system from anywhere in the world using a soft phone, IP phone, or traditional analog telephone.
 
Telecommuting applications: Employees can access their campus voice services from home or the road. Workers have access to all campus calling features and services, and they appear campus-resident to outside callers. Colleges can offer telecommuting options to employees to reduce absenteeism and lost work due to traffic, weather, child care issues, stay-at-home injuries or other personal reasons.
 
Business continuity: Universities can maintain essential business functions during snow storms or other school closing events. Critical staff can access their campus voice services through the Internet for continued business operations.
 
Emergency notification: Universities can leverage BCPs to broadcast emergency announcements to students, family members, faculty and employees. Calls can be placed to BCP extensions or to outside numbers such as mobile phones or home phones.
 
Internet calling: When traveling abroad, university faculty and staff members can connect back to the campus telecommunications infrastructure through the Internet to call colleagues and family back home. Internet calling eliminates expensive international hotel and mobile telephone charges.
 
Remote campus connectivity: Colleges can leverage the Internet to extend campus voice services to remote campuses and international locations. A distributed university system can enjoy a unified dial plan while reducing costs by centralizing trunk pools, attendant staff, voicemail services and conference bridging facilities.
 
Voice extranets: Universities can set up extended relationships with corporate partners, government agencies, or partner universities to collaborate on research projects, grant proposals or other endeavors. Constituencies can communicate over the Internet and share conferencing and unified messaging systems.
 
Distance learning: Colleges can add interactive voice communications to Web-based meeting programs for distance learning applications. Internet-based students can communicate with distant professors in real-time. Universities can offer continuing education classes to corporate partners or satellite locations over the Internet.
 
Study abroad programs: BCPs allow students studying abroad to take their campus voice services with them, providing an economical and practical way for students to keep in touch with parents, faculty and friends back home. Similarly, colleges can offer visiting international students inexpensive Internet calling back to their home countries.
 
Voice-enabled Web sites: Many BCPs provide thin-client telephony technology that can be used to embed voice capabilities directly into Web pages. Universities can add click-to-talk features to their public Web sites so Web visitors can quickly connect to university departments, directory services, or business functions.
 
Student portals: Most colleges offer dorm room broadband Internet services with personalized student account portals. Thin-client technology can add telephony capabilities to student portals. Students can make phone calls from their laptop computers as well as access university-hosted voicemail and conferencing services. In addition, colleges can offer click-to-talk ad space to local business establishments such as entertainment venues and fast food restaurants.
 
Business Communications Platforms enable colleges and universities to modernize their campus telephone systems in a cost-effective and non-disruptive manner. Forward-looking IT departments are looking to BCPs to deliver new Internet telephony applications and to embed voice services into Web sites and software applications.
 
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Alan Rosenberg is director of Product Line Management for BlueNote Networks (News - Alert). With BlueNote SessionSuite platforms, enterprises, ISVs and partners can quickly and easily embed interactive real-time communication services into a range of commercial or custom software applications, Web sites and internal business processes using industry-standard interfaces and technology. He can be reached at [email protected].
 

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