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Board approves migration from unsupported Mitel phone system to hosted service
Summary
IT staff said the county's Mitel phone system is no longer supported and recommended moving to a hosted system with Paul Bunyan Telephone. Commissioners approved proceeding with a hosted migration to improve remote-worker softphone capability and reduce on-site server maintenance.
IT staff (Fred) told commissioners the county’s Mitel phone system is effectively unsupported and that recent vendor upgrades had caused persistent breakdowns for remote workers. He said Paul Bunyan Telephone — the county’s existing provider — offered a hosted solution that would eliminate the need for on-site servers, support softphones for remote employees, and integrate with Microsoft Teams.
Fred described advantages of a hosted model: fewer on-site servers to maintain, redundant hosting sites in case of outages, and the ability to reprogram existing Mitel IP phones rather than immediately replacing all handsets. Commissioners asked about long-term device lifecycles and possible future handset replacement costs; Fred said the county would phase handset replacement on a planned budget schedule if needed.
A motion to proceed with the hosted migration and associated budget actions passed on a voice vote. Staff will work with Paul Bunyan to finalize costs and transition timing.
