Question : When is a phone NOT a phone ?

Answer : When it is a computer …

The internet world is all around, as is the protocol of the internet , IP.  Every time you launch a browser, dial in to the network, sell on Ebay,  order a book from Amazon, register a student, check your rosters, you are using the IP protocol. One of the remaining non-IP protocol devices we have is our telephone, right ? Wrong!

If you have visited the Red Mountain campus, you have seen the Cisco IP phone. We have over 100 IP phones installed at RM at this time, and the install base is moving to Dobson and Southern. Visit the IT department or the CTL and you will see a whole new paradigm in communications. The Cisco 7960 and 7970 phones that are installed provide access to traditional telephone services, but also provide access to applications that were once only available on computers.  Faculty can now check rosters and call their students WITHOUT opening up a browser, or logging in to SIS. The phone provides a gateway for these services. Corporate Directories are now available right from the phone.  There is also an MCC news service that runs when the phone is idle…

go to Cisco.com to watch this video

The Cisco IP phone plugs directly into the DATA network,  and your computer plugs INTO the phone. From an infrastructure point of view, imagine the savings the college will realize by having only one cable plant.  You make changes to your phone by logging into a web page, and not by logging a trouble ticket. There is also a software only version of this phone, so we can now turn your computer into a phone as well…

But what separates this environment from the traditional phone is the services it CAN provide. Mentioned earlier were the faculty rosters application we have written. In the works are emergency services applications allowing, for example,. Public Safety to ‘squelch’ a distinctive tone to all phones at the same time, with messages directed to the screens at the same time, reminiscent of the new AMBER Alert model. Distinctive ring is a terrific feature of these phones. The sky really is the limit when it comes to ‘what could be’ in this integrated system. Video conferencing is the next

application that will arrive, with the phones having built in cameras.

So when someone says to you, “ a phone is just a phone”,  have  them stop by the CTL or IT areas. We’ll help them reconsider.