Church Staff and Congregation Stay Connected with Cisco Unified Communications Solution
Located in North York, Ontario, the Church of St. Luke – Lutheran serves a mid-sized worship community in the Greater Toronto Area. The church occupies a 50-year-old building where space is limited and staff members don’t have their own designated workspaces. As a multifunctional facility the church routinely has staff and members of the community using its phone system. With plans for future growth, the church needed a solution to upgrade its existing communications infrastructure.
St. Luke’s had an outdated analogue phone system that wasn’t reliable. Often times, messages left on a central voicemail system would either be missed or the message would be taken by someone but may not be communicated to its intended recipient for several days. Church staff wanted to receive messages in a timely fashion and be able to answer phone calls from the congregation even if they were away from their desk. St. Luke’s approached Cisco certified Premier partner End to End Networks for a solution.
After reviewing the existing technology in the church and considering staff requirements, End to End recommended the Cisco Unified Communications 500 solution. This solution combines voice-to-email messaging, Cisco Internet Protocal (IP) phones, wireless and soft phones, extension mobility and connects the church to the Internet over a Local Area Network (LAN) with firewall protection capabilities.
“This technology is an effective tool for our congregation. Any of us can work off site as effectively as we can in the office because communications are not missed or lost and messages can be saved for later reference. More importantly, we are able to more timely and efficiently respond to requests from our congregation and our community,” says Lead Pastor, Derek Mathers.
The Cisco UC500 network-based infrastructure easily allows staff to access their messages remotely when they out of the building, and when they return, simply log into any phone at any desk to access their own extension. With simplified internal dialing, staff can now easily leave or forward voicemails, making internal communication more efficient.
End to End also provides an all-in-one Managed Service which takes care of any technical issues.
“St. Luke’s didn’t have any full-time resources available to maintain the network and voice systems. The Managed Services from End to End is essentially an entire IT team available to make adjustments, service and troubleshoot 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,” says Heath Freel, director of technology for End to End Networks.
The customized and easily modified Auto Attendant allows the church to make announcements and changes to the church directory very quickly. Voicemail-to-email integration enables Mathers and other staff members to respond quickly to incoming calls and the Managed Services program from End to End means the church does not have to worry about the technology.
“Crucial to the system itself is the support we receive from End to End. They are responsive to our needs and to monitoring our system remotely. If the system goes down for any reason, they often call me about if before I even notice. The Managed Services support we receive allows us to focus on better serving our congregation and community, which is our top priority,” says Mathers.
For more information about the Church of St. Luke – Lutheran, please visit www.stluketoronto.com
For more information about End to End Networks, please visit www.endtoend.com
For more information about Cisco Unified Communications, please visit http://www.cisco.com/web/CA/smb/products/voice_conferencing/unified_communications_500/index.html
