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District explores moving off IU phone service; administration recommends Extel over Teams given cost and reliability trade-offs
Summary
Administrators reported recurring failures with the Capital Area Intermediate Unit phone service and presented three options — remain with the IU, adopt a traditional hosted provider (Extel) or move to Microsoft Teams telephony; administration recommended Extel as the cost-effective reliability improvement.
Dr. Steven (district technology/administration lead) reported that the district's telephone system, currently managed through the intermediate unit, has suffered intermittent outages and degraded service that complicates day-to-day operations and emergency communications. "For a few weeks, we lost access [to voicemail-to-email]," Dr. Steven said, and he described problems with call transfers, classroom phones dropping and long service response times when the IU updates its systems.
Administration presented three options: remain with the IU (estimated first-year cost ~ $32,000), switch to a hosted traditional telephony provider (Extel) with an estimated first-year cost of about $93,000 and ongoing support near $21,000 per year, or adopt Microsoft Teams telephony (a more feature-rich option) with a first-year cost estimate near $135,000 and recurring annual costs around $43,000. The Teams option would add features such as mobile-phone integration, calendar linkage, voicemail transcription and enhanced security tools, but it was the most expensive.
Dr. Steven and other administrators said the district needs a reliable phone system for safety and operations and that many comparably sized districts have moved away from the IU. The administrative recommendation was to pursue Extel as a balance of improved reliability and cost; administration also noted that remaining with the IU would likely continue the service problems and that as member districts leave the IU offering, per-district costs could rise.
The board asked for confirmation of features and assurances that any vendor would avoid misrouting calls; administrators said they would confirm reference checks and technical details with vendors before an award.
Ending: Administration will prepare a formal contract recommendation and cost comparisons for the board to consider as part of procurement and budgeting for the upcoming fiscal year.
