[June 29, 2010] CallTower and Cisco Deliver Hosted Unified Communications Solution for California School District Tweet FOSTER CITY, CA, Jun 29, 2010 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- CallTower, the market-leading provider of Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS), today announced that Santa Clara Unified School District (SCUSD) successfully secured E-Rate funds to procure CallTower's innovative and comprehensive unified communications solution that is built largely on Microsoft and Cisco technologies. The deployment will allow the school district to leverage the best-of-breed solution to maximize the student, faculty and administrative benefits that will result from the next generation communication environment while allowing the district to cut expenses. "The school district was looking for a better way to connect teachers and administrators to students and parents as well as enable distance learning; however, like many budget-challenged schools, it lacked the financial resources to make it a reality," said Bob Barnes, executive vice president of sales, marketing and business development, CallTower. "The district had a clear vision for an all IP communications model that would enable the entire school system to communicate more quickly, accurately and effectively. Together with Microsoft and Cisco we were able to take an innovative approach to packaging a program that would deliver all the benefits of unified communications with full E-Rate funding." The federal E-Rate program's goals are to provide discounted telecommunications, Internet access and internal connections to eligible schools and libraries, providing them with affordable access to modern telecommunications and information services. "The whole UC experience exists within CallTower's network," continued Barnes. "Call control, and control for email, video, and presence do not have to be managed by the district. This model enables the school district to obtain a high level solution accompanied by a simplified service and support that keeps costs affordable." The service connects SCUSD's 24 schools with advanced IP phones and equipment from Cisco and software from Microsoft. As a result, the district's teachers, students, parents and administrators now have a much more effective means of communication. In addition, the solution allows the district to enable distance learning with video, extend its applications to mobile devices, and much more. "There are so many school districts across the country that would greatly benefit from this technology but face a roadblock when trying to obtain the funding," said Barnes. "In this case we partnered with Cisco and Microsoft and tapped the E-Rate program to come up with an affordable solution that will make the unified communications vision a reality. We hope to provide similar services for others to further the advancement of unified communications in education," continued Barnes. To showcase how school districts can benefit from hosted unified communications services, CallTower and Cisco are partnering to offer a Priority 1 E-Rate Lunch and Learn educational roadshow in 26 U.S. cities in July and August 2010. For the first time districts are given alternative VoIP solutions under Priority 1, allowing for substantial cost savings and relief from antiquated technologies. Utilizing Priority 1 E-Rate, CallTower's UCaaS allows districts to upgrade technology through convergence without capital expenditures. For the calendar of upcoming Lunch and Learn sessions, please visit: http://www.calltower.com/business_applications/erate.php For more information on CallTower's UCaaS solutions please visit www.calltower.com/. About CallTower, Inc. CallTower (www.calltower.com) transforms a company's voice and data communications into a strategic business tool that provides a competitive advantage in today's market. CallTower's Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) provides growing companies with enterprise-class reliability, a single point of support, productivity-enhancing features and 24/7 service for a fixed monthly fee. CallTower's communication services are based on the Cisco(R) CallManager, Microsoft(R) Office Communications Server, Microsoft(R) Exchange Server and Microsoft(R) Sharepoint Server powered by the proprietary CallTower vXML VoiceCube voice messaging platform. CallTower Media Contact Christy Kemp Dahlia Public Relations 303-898-3390 Email Contact SOURCE: CallTower http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/emailprcntct?id=7E66862289183BFA [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]