Background
Established in 1998, Curro is one of the largest networks of independent schools in South Africa. The network includes over 130 schools (from kindergarten to high school) and enrolls 50,000 students across the country.
In recent years, Curro experienced rapid growth due to the acquisition of new schools and building new establishments as it expanded its portfolio. One of the results of this expansion was an increasingly complex communications infrastructure that became costly and difficult to manage. Curro’s schools and customer service call centers were reliant on a number of disparate systems, including a Cisco-based hosted PBX solution supplied by a local service provider and a variety of standalone PBXs located at different sites. In addition, there was a need to integrate school bell systems and intercoms with the communications solutions.
It became apparent to Curro management that in order to maintain their reputation as leaders in technology innovation, communications had to be modernized and integrated to meet future needs. A future-proof unified communications solution that would provide all necessary functionality and allow a gradual and cost-effective migration to Skype for Business and, eventually, to Microsoft Teams was sought. In addition, Curro required network management processes to be streamlined and operating costs reduced.
To achieve this, Curro was looking for a solution that offered the ability to manage the entire voice network centrally and deploy equipment at remote sites without the need to dispatch an engineer every time. Because of the critical importance of voice communications, it was important that the ability to proactively monitor voice quality and analyze user experience was embedded in the new system. Maintaining high levels of customer satisfaction would be dependent on this.
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Support migration from legacy voice systems to Skype for Business
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Integration with critical school announcement and bell systems
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Remote management and zero-touch installation of devices
"AudioCodes’ IP phones, CCE appliances and management tools provide the basis of a reliable and future-proof voice infrastructure that ensures a high quality calling experience for our internal users and customers."
Results
The combination of Skype for Business Online and AudioCodes One Voice portfolio has resulted in Curro having a future-proof communications solution which is reliable, easy to use and simple to manage. Among the core benefits offered by the AudioCodes solution are:
- Investment protection - IP phones deployed with legacy solutions can continue to be used after migration to Skype for Business
- Future-proof infrastructure - providing support for Skype for Business today and ready for Microsoft Teams deployment in the future
- Centralized management - simplifying processes, saving time and costs
- Lower communication costs - using least cost routing to route PSTN calls over SIP trunk connections and making federated and internal Skype for Business calls
- Pupil and staff safety - seamless integration of critical systems such as school bells and intercom
“With our network of schools expanding rapidly we needed a voice solution that would keep up with the rate of growth without incurring unnecessary costs and delays,” explained Barend Weideman, Enterprise Solutions Architect at Curro Holdings. “AudioCodes’ IP phones, CCE appliances and management tools provide the basis of a reliable and future-proof voice infrastructure that ensures a high quality calling experience for our internal users and customers.”
