TASIS

Windsor’s new communications system for The American School in England gets full marks!

The Customer

Founded in 1956, TASIS, The American School in Switzerland is now the longest-established American boarding school in Europe. 20 years later, in 1976, TASIS England opened its doors, a school that today educates over 800 students from more than 60 countries. It’s a school that’s built on four educational principles – culture, wisdom, truth and knowledge – with over 100 staff all aligned to uphold those values.

The Challenge

TASIS England realised that its existing phone supplier wasn’t providing everything they needed to ensure that staff and students were able to talk, collaborate and stay in touch, not only with each other but with parents and vital support networks.

“Our previous phone system simply wasn’t working for us. Our supplier wasn’t very supportive which meant that we had little knowledge of the system – we were missing calls, parents weren’t getting through to their children and phones weren’t always working. We have a duty of care to our children and it simply wasn’t acceptable.”

– Anthony Jorge, IT Manager, TASIS England

TASIS England approached a couple of potential partners, with Windsor Telecom being selected because of the team’s proactive approach, visiting the school and talking to both the IT and wider teams to understand their unique challenges, sharing questionnaires to make sure they captured every requirement for the new system.

The Solution

Several challenges were identified and solved along the way: the school’s phone numbers were previously being recorded against three separate addresses, rather than the one fixed address of the school – this would cause a significant issue for a 999-emergency call knowing where to go and had to be rectified.

Furthermore, the switchover had to be meticulously planned in order to deploy the solution on a specific day, when the school was closed. Plus, all engineers visiting the site had to undergo stringent security checks and specific safety examinations, as part of the school’s safeguarding responsibilities.

The Results

TASIS England now has a phone solution that properly supports every staff member and student to be able to communicate and collaborate in a way that enables their principles and learning.

Windsor ensured that all numbers owned by the school were related to the right address Windsor Telecom designed and tested the new phone solution in just 4 weeks, deploying the entire solution in just 24 hours so that TASIS England could enjoy:
•  50% reduction in call wait time
•  32% reduction in cost
•  Easy routing of calls through a well-structured auto attendant
•  Easy in-house management of the system
•  In-depth call reporting including calls per extension and missed calls, enabling charge backs to parents where appropriate
•  IT team can deploy mobile apps to students and staff as needed
•  International calling can be added to anyone needing it

“Due to our limited internal resource and knowledge, we needed a supplier that would truly partner with us to listen to what we needed, understand our principles and work with us to deliver the right phone solution for us. Windsor Telecom did exactly that and more.”

– Anthony Jorge, IT Manager, TASIS England