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Jefferson County hears cloud phone proposal from Gordon Flesch; board delays decision
Summary
A Gordon Flesch representative demonstrated the Elevate cloud phone system, describing desktop and mobile apps, web fax and archiving. Supervisors asked about costs, RFPs and continuity; the board agreed to gather departmental input and consider the proposal through the budget process rather than approving it today.
Andrew, a Gordon Flesch representative, presented the company's Elevate cloud phone system to the Jefferson County Board of Supervisors on Jan. 19, describing a hosted Voice-over-IP platform that runs over the county's Internet service and includes desktop and mobile apps, web fax, team chat, SMS and meeting archiving.
Andrew said the system would allow users to log into a work number from personal phones, receive voicemail transcriptions by email, and access a web-based fax portal so the county could eliminate traditional fax lines. He also described a pre-installation test (VoIP Scout) and said redundancy comes from Intermedia's East/West server farms; the contract he described would be a 36-month agreement. "We'd be able to add lines for one month or take them off again," Andrew said, noting the system is scalable for temporary staff such as election volunteers and tax-season hires.
Supervisors pressed on costs, procurement and continuity. Several supervisors said they wanted competitive pricing and an apples-to-apples comparison before committing public dollars; one asked whether the county should issue an RFP and who would write the specifications. "We have to know what it is we're asking for," a supervisor said, adding that an RFP costs money and requires clear requirements. Andrew suggested he could supply pricing for the board's review and assist with comparing vendors if the board solicited additional quotes.
Board members also raised implementation limits. Supervisors confirmed that life-safety connections such as elevator and alarm monitoring would continue to require physical lines, and asked what would happen if a vendor left the market. Andrew said Intermedia provides the back-end hosting and that Gordon Flesch, a regional vendor, would provide local support; he noted Gordon Flesch's national scale and 24/7 U.S.-based support.
Rather than approve the proposal, the board agreed to gather more input from department heads during upcoming budget meetings and to consider the vendor's pricing as one input to a potential RFP. Andrew said he did not expect a decision that day and offered to help the county translate proposals into comparable specifications.
