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IT director pitches cloud phone migration, cites high long-distance costs
Summary
The county IT director proposed moving an aging on‑premise phone system to a cloud platform to gain redundancy and softphone features and said current long-distance and trunk charges could be several thousand dollars per month; the director suggested the cloud option could eliminate some recurring trunk and long‑distance fees.
The county IT director (Speaker 7) told commissioners the on‑premises phone system is aging and that migrating to a cloud-based phone service would provide redundancy, softphone apps and the ability to answer county desk calls on mobile devices. "But if you had a cloud system, as long as you have Internet access, you're gonna have your phones," the director said, listing benefits such as remote connectivity, call recording for specific offices, and simplified disaster recovery.
He also flagged recurring costs that are not currently visible in the communications-maintenance line item, such as long-distance bills and SIP trunks; he estimated long-distance charges are "anywhere from... 5 to 9,000" per month in busier months. Commissioners discussed how the phone-system and related software costs are grouped in the county budget and asked for follow-up about cost comparisons and possible savings in trunk and long-distance fees under a cloud model.
