- It would address roofs, exteriors, mechanical/electrical systems, and parking lots.
Explain to me which category a new, $566,988 [line 388] internet based phone fits into? The $151,640 for new netwok switching [line 389] and expanded wireless $100,000 [line 390] to integrate the new system? Total and add 31% for soft costs and inflation contingency and we are at $1,072,403 that must be financed. 4.6% of question 2.
You can do your own research and determine if you think VoIP is a reliable, cost effective replacement for the district's existing traditional system; which by the way, still works fine. The troubling point for me, is we are being pitched a multi-million dollar maintenance bond to fix leaky roofs, parking lots and boilers and here in the middle of it all is $1,000,000+ of debt for a new phone system.
main·te·nance
[meyn-tuh-nuh
ns] 
noun
3.
care or upkeep, as of machinery or property: With proper maintenance the car willlast for many years.
4.
means of upkeep, support, or subsistence; livelihood: to provide a comfortable maintenance.
With all due respect, the VoIP system is a technical infrastructure upgrade intended to save money over time (just as any of us who have switched to internet phone service have discovered). That is why a logical person would consider replacing an existing functioning system (also note that replacement parts for their system are no longer available - so functioning 'fine' is a stretch).
ReplyDeleteI run an IT Consulting firm who specializes in Assessment, IT Strategic Planning, and helping companies make technology investment decisions (note we're unbiased and don't sell any of the technologies we recommend). When we do an IT Infrastructure Assessment with a company who is using the traditional analog telephone technology, we almost always recommend the switch to VoIP. For companies large or small - the ROI is always less than 3 years and the life of this equipment is 5 times that. While the upgrades to network switching and wireless equipment are a prerequisite to a VoIP telephone, they also provide the Schools with many additional future possibilities (e.g. utilizing mobile devices in the classroom; bringing iPads into the learning environment; interactive online learning tools).
You seem like an intelligent person with a genuine interest in doing what's best for the students while still being a good steward of the community's pocketbooks. I sincerely hope that you're open minded and will consider that the telephone infrastructure line items were added in good faith.
Fair enough, 11:01, and thanks for the post! These are the constructive type of interactions I would like see here as we approach this critical vote!
ReplyDeleteAdmittedly, you have far more knowledge in the VoIP area than myself. However, in the research I have done, quality seems to be a concern and ROI data is hard to come by. Perhaps you could provide a rough ROI schedule for our $1,000,000+ investment since I can't get the original from the district? If someone could demonstrate a sub-five year payback, I would be more inclined to be interested. The conservative in me still makes it hard to shut down a system that still suffices, espeically in our current economic environment.
Thanks again for the post!
Thanks for indicating you're open minded. I'm assuming that the district didn't get an ROI on that particular line item (which consulting effort would probably have cost more than the facility study itself). When I'm hired to draft an ROI on an investment - it commonly costs the company 1% of the estimated investment in order to do the detailed ROI study. There are several articles on the internet about VoIP payback. Also, as individual consumers with a choice of internet phone service vs. traditional land line - most of us have seen that cost savings is sizeable.
ReplyDeleteI could use some clarification about your concern over 'quality'. Commercial grade VoIP is more industrial-strength than consumer-based systems. And it provides a much larger scope of features such as follow-me (for teachers who switch rooms throughout the day) and visual voice mail (where your vm messages are translated and sent to the user via email so you can review them in any sequence).
It's probably unrealistic to expect the district to provide the details behind every line item on the Facility Study list. But on this point, in my professional opinion it's a reasonable investment that any informed person would chose to make.
What happens with this IP system when the internet goes down? Can it be hacked? The school district can't even keep the students from hacking into their computer network, what happens when they start listening to private voice mails?
ReplyDelete10/30 7:52,
ReplyDeleteFor the soft costs loaded into this estimate, we should and ROI analysis in triplicate!
Pronto Pup also raises some valid questions??
As for the quality issue, I have heard this from another person in your field and verified on my own:
{Quality of serviceCommunication on the IP network is inherently less reliable in contrast to the circuit-switched public telephone network, as it does not provide a network-based mechanism to ensure that data packets are not lost, and are delivered in sequential order. It is a best-effort network without fundamental Quality of Service (QoS) guarantees. Therefore, VoIP implementations may face problems mitigating latency and jitter.}
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice_over_Internet_Protocol