Knox County Housing Authority

The Knox County Housing Authority in Knoxville, TN, administers public housing and HUD voucher assistance programs for its citizens. The organization also manages two public housing apartment complexes for low-income families.

“Our phone system must be up 24/7 for maintenance calls from tenants in the apartments.”
- John Pollock, Assistant Director, Knox County Housing Authority.

In 2004, the organization had a Cisco VoIP phone system that was unreliable, and even once even prohibited a call to 911. Fortunately in this case, the housing authority had a backup Telecommunications Device for the Deaf (TDD) that it was able to use during the emergency. The old system also seemed more prone to going down during storms and power surges. In addition to a system that was inexpensive to deploy and manage, the Housing Authority sought a replacement flexible enough to allow them to make last-minute changes to greetings, and to monitor, analyze, and improve its internal communications and operations.

“Upgrading the Cisco system would have been expensive and it wouldn’t even belong to us — it was leased.”
 - John Pollock, Assistant Director, Knox County Housing Authority.

Citing ShoreTel’s cost-effectiveness, reliability, excellent voice quality, and rich feature set, the Housing Authority made its choice. The new ShoreTel system cost less than an upgrade to the leased Cisco system. With its ShoreTel system now in place, the Housing Authority no longer needs all its T1 lines and has replaced them with more cost-effective, high-capacity DSL lines. The system moved all maintenance in-house and eliminated expensive support contracts. ShoreTel Director, the system’s browser-based management interface, lets the IT team manage the system from anywhere on the network. Other benefits include:

• Auto-attendant feature provides the housing authority with 24-hour automated call answering and routing. Individual groups can also have their own menus, greetings, and options.
• Follow Me Find Me feature allows employees to configure the system so that callers can find them on their mobile devices or an alternate phone.
• Tight integration with Microsoft^® Outlook^® gives employees powerful unified messaging tools, such as directory dialing, contact screen pop, and calendar integration.
• Improvement in both internal and external communications, with calls being quickly routed to the right person. Sophisticated reporting and routing capabilities enable more effective use of resources.

“With ShoreTel, we’re looking at savings of $20,000 per year in lease expenses, usage fees, and T1 line charges.”
 - John Pollock Assistant Director, Knox County Housing Authority.