UCI Telephone Planning Advisory Group
Summer 2006
The content on this page was written before the IT Consolidation and thus references Network & Academic Computing Services (NACS) instead of the Office of Information Technology (OIT).
Network and Academic Computing Services (NACS) is forming the “Telephone Planning Advisory Group” (TPAG) to review UCI telephone system plans and provide guidance on various options and strategies available to the campus. TPAG will meet 3 to 6 times over the course of the 2006/2007 fiscal year, as needed to complete review and discussion of telephone plans. Topics will include:
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The current voice mail system, which has served us well since 1987, must be replaced soon to provide modern functionality, integration with the Web and/or email, and capacity to meet campus growth. The current system is no longer supported in any significant way by any vendor.
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The campus Ericsson telephone system works well, and can continue to provide adequate service for many more years, assuming we continue to invest in Ericsson hardware and software. However, there are significant advantages of replacing it with VOIP telephones over the next 2 to 8 years. We have started to use Cisco VOIP phones in new campus buildings; we’d like to review that decision as well as options for campus-wide migration to VOIP.
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In the past, NACS has investigated “automated attendant” systems that augment the function of campus directory assistance operators. Although there are some downsides of completely replacing human operators, these systems provide additional functionality that may of value to the community. We’d like to discuss the ins and outs of acquiring and implementing such a system.
TPAG participants will include campus technology managers, other campus managers, NACS staff, and one or more faculty members. The principal telephone planning questions and tradeoffs relate to desired functionality, technology directions, and business models.
The outcome of TPAG discussions will be one or more planning documents representing draft plans. These documents will be presented to other campus advisory groups for review. These groups will include the NACS Faculty Advisory Group, the Academic Senate Council on Research, Computing and Library Resources, the School Computing Coordinators, and the Academic Senior Managers.
Dana Roode
June 27, 2006
