Supporting 4,500 Faculty and Staff; University Cites Reliability as Main Benefit
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif., December 2, 2009 – Communications solutions innovator Applied Voice & Speech Technologies, Inc. (AVST) today announced that Illinois State University (ISU) selected CallXpress as its communications platform. ISU and AVST struck a partnership five years ago when the University was looking to replace its outdated legacy voicemail system for a more reliable, feature-rich solution. Today, CallXpress 8 is deployed network-wide and supports 4,500 faculty and staff.
Located in the twin city community of Bloomington-Normal, ISU has close to 21,000 students and is a residential university that emphasizes undergraduate study. ISU has 34 academic departments in six colleges that include arts and sciences, business, education, fine arts, applied science and technology, and the Mennonite College of Nursing. The campus includes 61 major buildings, with the communications infrastructure made up of Aastra® E1 Digital and Cisco® IP telephony switches, all supported by CallXpress.
When CallXpress was originally selected the University needed a communications solution that was highly reliable and offered voicemail, automated attendant, unified messaging, and message notification capabilities. CallXpress was part of a detailed selection process and was chosen because it offered all the right features and provided additional functionality, like speech recognition, that would take ISU into the future.
Today, CallXpress supports 4,500 ISU faculty and staff members on a single system, with their mobile staff taking advantage of unified messaging. ISU also leverages the CallXpress automated attendant, a powerful tool that manages the flow of incoming calls. With over 26,000 calls per day, ISU utilizes advanced, schedule-based capabilities available in CallXpress to change greetings based on time of day, day of week or week of month allowing callers to get information quickly during peak calling periods and after hours.
However, the single most important CallXpress feature for ISU is high reliability. “We selected CallXpress because it offered all of the features we wanted and could easily build on future features in a cost-effective manner,” said Dan Thames, Illinois State University Voice Engineer. “But when it comes to reliability, CallXpress can’t be beat. We installed the system and basically ignored it. CallXpress continues to run on its own and has allowed us to save a great deal on overhead that was required to maintain our previous system.”
ISU is supported by D&S Communications, a trusted partner and AVST reseller. D&S is well-versed on CallXpress and has a great deal of knowledge about ISU’s network. “CallXpress has been the right choice for ISU and is the perfect fit,” said Manny Taveira, D&S Communications National Sales Director. “ISU needs a system that is robust yet reliable and easy to maintain and upgrade. CallXpress delivers on all fronts.”
CallXpress has been deployed by more than 800 educational institutions to keep students, staff and faculty connected, increase their productivity and improve overall communications. “CallXpress was designed to support even the most complex implementations with the highest reliability,” said Denny Michael, AVST’s Vice President of Marketing. “We understand the criticality of uninterrupted communications for every educational institution, large or small. We’re pleased to have a customer like ISU and look forward to a long relationship.”
ISU has already deployed unified messaging to a subset of its user community and plans to extend the functionality to more users. In addition, ISU intends to roll-out CallXpress speech recognition and personal assistant features to give users hands-free speech functionality for enhanced mobility and to help make them more accessible.
CallXpress 8 delivers a powerful suite of Unified Communications applications, including advanced call processing, voicemail, unified messaging, personal assistant, fax, speech, and notification capabilities to help businesses become more productive. For more information about AVST’s products visit the company’s website at www.avst.com.
About D&S Communications
Since 1986, D&S has been a leader in offering cost effective innovations to the telecommunications industry. D&S services customers throughout the US and is noted for having the size and depth to meet customer’s largest service requirements while also being nimble enough to provide highly customer-centric solutions.
D&S provides best of breed voice and data equipment, nationwide 24/7/365 service and repairs. D&S products are backed by an 18-month guarantee. D&S offers a comprehensive portfolio of maintenance services for environments of all sizes and types with flexible service options. Certified technicians will address customer issues quickly through remote dial-in, on-line support, or on-site response and provide parts replacement when needed.
With D&S Communications, customers enjoy the highest level of customer satisfaction. For service and equipment needs, contact Manny Taveira of D&S at (800) 494-7978. For further information about D&S's products and services, please visit the company’s website at www.dscomm.com.
About AVST
Applied Voice & Speech Technologies, Inc. (AVST) is a leading developer of communications solutions with over 10 million users that rely on its products and services to maximize their productivity. With nearly 30 years of innovation excellence, AVST is focused on delivering solutions that increase user and business productivity. Its flagship Unified Communications platform, CallXpress®, offers unprecedented interoperability and delivers advanced call processing, voicemail, unified messaging, personal assistant, fax, speech and notification capabilities. With CallXpress, an organization can protect and extend its existing data and telephony infrastructure investment — now and into the future.
Headquartered in Orange County, Calif., AVST maintains facilities in Seattle, Wash. and the United Kingdom and has remote sales offices across the United States. AVST's Unified Communications solutions are sold and supported internationally by an extensive network of resellers and OEM partners. For more information contact Denny Michael, Vice President of Marketing, at 949-699-2300 or access the company's website at www.avst.com.
