Success Story with the Municipality of Volketswil
During the evaluation process, the St. Gallen-based IT and installation company com4all AG, in collaboration with peoplefone, made the strongest impression. Andreas Fritschi, IT Director for the municipal administration, particularly values the “VoIP Manager” developed by com4all. “Thanks to this tool, the effort we put into planning for staff absences has been drastically reduced,” he explains in our new success story.
The Municipality of Volketswil put a new phone system into operation in October 2022. Why did you need a new solution?
There were several reasons. Our old solution was a traditional phone system with very limited capabilities. We had absolutely no flexibility to configure the system to our needs. We were also dependent on the provider. Even the smallest adjustment had to be carried out by our system administrator. As you can imagine, this resulted in high costs every year.
Can you describe the selection process for a new provider?
Since this was a replacement for an existing solution and the total cost was too low, no formal bidding process was necessary. As a first step, we evaluated all the solutions that were even remotely suitable for us. I reviewed the proposals and held initial discussions with the various providers. In a second step, we requested proposals from three candidates—and it quickly became clear that we wanted to work with com4all and peoplefone.
What was the deciding factor?
Flexibility and cost. As a municipal administration, it’s important to us that we can independently and efficiently make certain configurations to the phone system ourselves, such as managing employee onboarding and offboarding. The 3CX system we chose offers us this flexibility and was the most cost-effective solution, both in terms of initial costs and ongoing maintenance costs. Additionally, it is a cloud-based solution that aligns with our entire IT infrastructure. In fact, we haven’t had any in-house server systems for several years now.
Do you have any specific requirements for your phone system?
Yes, because we have numerous branch offices: fire stations, maintenance depots, daycare centers, sports centers, etc. We need to be able to connect these locations to one another. That’s why a VoIP solution was the only option for us. The 3CX app is a huge help to us, especially since employees at the branch offices are often on the go and not sitting at their desks. I’m thinking, for example, of the building superintendents or the maintenance yard staff. And finally, many of our employees also regularly work from home. It goes without saying that everyone must be reachable regardless of their location.
March 28, 2023, by Alexia Zufferey