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San Joaquin County approves migration of phones to Microsoft Teams, county projects $850,000 annual savings
Summary
The Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 to replace the county's aging telephone systems and AT&T Centrix trunks with Microsoft Teams voice services, citing end-of-life hardware, greater redundancy and a projected $850,000 annual reduction in operating costs.
The San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 on Feb. 11 to move the county’s telephone system from on-premises Cisco equipment and AT&T Centrix copper trunks to Microsoft Teams voice services hosted in the cloud. County Information Systems Director Mark Thomas told the board the existing Cisco systems reach end-of-support this year and AT&T is exiting the copper “last-mile” business, exposing the county to reliability and theft-related outages.
County staff said the migration will make desk phones, mobile apps and Teams desktop clients capable of placing and receiving business calls, permit replacement of some Cisco handsets so they operate as Teams devices, and allow call-center modernization. Mark Thomas said the proposal includes redundant, fiber-based carrier connections and expected higher availability compared with the current mix of copper and on-premises servers.
IT staff told supervisors the county already uses Microsoft 365 and that upgrading to Teams Voice unlocks bundled security and management tools. Thomas and other staff said that, after switching vendors for several security and endpoint services into the Microsoft suite, the county expects recurring invoice reductions of approximately $850,000 per year. The board also heard that Teams mobile and desktop clients will provide more options for county employees who need to answer business lines while away from their desks.
Supervisors asked about emergency and generator-backed operation for essential analog lines used in critical facilities. Staff said mission-critical analog handsets and patient phones will be preserved and the design will include redundant connectivity and backup power so buildings retain dial-tone during outages. Several board members raised questions about rural last-mile service and liability for legacy alarm systems; county counsel said those policy and regulatory issues remain subject to state-level proceedings and county advocacy.
The board approved the project 5-0 and directed staff to proceed with the procurement and phased implementation schedule described in the staff report. Staff said a vendor contract and implementation plan would be brought back under the county’s procurement rules.
