White PapersEducational institutions are just as likely as the average organization to have IP telephony implemented. Over one-third (35%) of educational institutions either have IP telephony implemented or are in the process of implementing it now.
Within the education sector, college/university and K-12 institutions have similar deployment levels, although those at the college/university-level are slightly more likely to be implementing IP telephony right now.
The two biggest phone system challenges in the education sector are costs for moves/adds/changes and management time/complexity. Management time/complexity is something educational institutions found even more challenging than did their counterparts outside of education. Those in the education sector are also more likely to be challenged by end-user complaints/difficulties and are significantly more likely to report long-distance costs as a challenge.
The Education Sector RatesImportance of IP TelephonyFeatures, Management andApplicationsSponsored by:White PaperN ovember 2006Research conducted by:Untitled DocumentThe Education Sector Rates Importance of IP Telephony Features, Management and ApplicationsContentsOverview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3Profile of respondents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3Executive summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4IP telephony implementation education sector vs. all industries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5IP telephony implementation comparing educational institutions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6Phone system challenges education sector vs. all industries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7Phone system challenges comparing educational institutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Important telephone capabilities education sector vs. all industries . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9Important telephone capabilities comparing educational institutions. . . . . . . . . . . 10Important management functions education sector vs. all industries. . . . . . . . . . . 11Important management functions comparing educational institutions. . . . . . . . . . 12Additional telephone system capabilities education sector vs. all industries . . . 13Additional telephone system capabilities comparing educational institutions. . 14Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15Research conducted by:Sponsored by:November 2006 | Page 2 of 15Untitled DocumentThe Education Sector Rates Importance of IPTelephony Features, Management and ApplicationsOverviewIn October 2006, Computerworld invited IT influencers in the education sector to participate in a surveyon IP telephony. A pop-up appeared on Computerworld.com inviting visitors to take the survey. The goalof the survey was to better understand the challenges of IP telephony within K-12 and college/university-level institutions and see how those challenges differ across these types of educational institutions. Thesurvey was commissioned by ShoreTel, but data was gathered and tabulated independently byComputerworld Research. The following report represents top-line results of that survey and is meant toserve as a brief benchmarking tool for IT managers in education seeking information about how theirpeers are managing their telecommunications systems.Profile of respondentsTotal respondents: 134The survey was conducted among IT influencers in K-12 and college/university-level institutions only. All134 respondents were qualified as employed at one of the two types of educational institutions andalso involved in IP telephony decisions at their organizations. The following is a breakout of respondents bysector.For the purpose of analysis, this report will at times compare responses to this survey with those to thissame questionnaire when it was given by Computerworld Research to 388 IP telephony influencersacross all industries in March 2005.Note: Because of the somewhat small base sizes we see when we break out overall respondents by industry, results comparingone industry to another should be taken as directional only.The Education Sector Rates Importance of IP Telephony Features, Management and ApplicationsResearch conducted by:Sponsored by:November 2006 | Page 3 of 15Untitled DocumentExecutive summary" Educational institutions are just as likely as the average organization to have IP telephony imple-mented. Over one-third (35%) of educational institutions either have IP telephony implemented orare in the process of implementing it now." Within the education sector, college/university and K-12 institutions have similar deployment levels,although those at the college/university-level are slightly more likely to be implementing IP telephonyright now." The two biggest phone system challenges in the education sector are costs for moves/adds/changes and management time/complexity. Management time/complexity is something educationalinstitutions found even more challenging than did their counterparts outside of education. Those inthe education sector are also more likely to be challenged by end-user complaints/difficulties andare significantly more likely to report long-distance costs as a challenge." Interestingly, within the education sector, those at the college/university-level don t consider incon-sistent/incompatible systems to be as big of a challenge as those at K-12 institutions. However,those at the college/university-level are particularly challenged by management time/complexity." Across all industries, system reliability is the most important capability desired for a phone system.While respondents in the education sector assign a similar level of importance to most of the capa-bilities measured as those in other industries, these respondents (especially those employed at thecollege/university-level) place a greater degree of importance on advanced features/applications." In terms of management functions, all industries are also in agreement that simplifyingmoves/adds/changes and setting up new users quickly is important. Educational institutions feelparticularly strongly about each of the functions and place a noticeably higher level of importanceon the ability to manage systems remotely using a Web browser." Across all industries, phone system managers are looking for mobility and conferencing as the twokey additional phone system capabilities.The Education Sector Rates Importance of IP Telephony Features, Management and ApplicationsResearch conducted by:Sponsored by:November 2006 | Page 4 of 15Untitled DocumentIP telephony implementation education sector vs. all industriesWhen comparing responses from influencers in the education sector to those across all industries fromthe March 2005 survey, we see similar implementation levels, indicating that educational institutions arejust as reliant on IP telephony as a standard company.The Education Sector Rates Importance of IP Telephony Features, Management and ApplicationsResearch conducted by:Sponsored by:November 2006 | Page 5 of 1501 0 %2 0 %3 0 %4 0 %5 0 %Untitled DocumentIP telephony implementation comparing educational institutionsBased on responses to this survey, K-12 and college/university-level educational institutions appear tohave similar deployment levels. In fact, one quarter of the influencers in each group indicated that theirorganizations have already deployed IP telephony. The Education Sector Rates Importance of IP Telephony Features, Management and ApplicationsResearch conducted by:Sponsored by:November 2006 | Page 6 of 1501 0 %2 0 %3 0 %4 0 %5 0 %Untitled DocumentPhone system challenges education sector vs. all industriesWhen comparing what influencers in education consider their biggest challenges to what influencers across allindustries consider challenging, we see that educational institutions are significantly more likely to be concernedabout long-distance costs. Influencers at educational institutions are also more likely to report managementtime/complexity and end-user complaints/difficulties as challenges with their current phone systems.The Education Sector Rates Importance of IP Telephony Features, Management and ApplicationsResearch conducted by:Sponsored by:November 2006 | Page 7 of 1501 0 %2 0 %3 0 %4 0 %5 0 %6 0 %Untitled DocumentPhone system challenges comparing educational institutionsManagers within K-12 and college/university-level institutions reveal some different perceptions of what they findchallenging with their phone systems. College/university-level managers seem more likely to see managementtime/complexity as a challenge than their counterparts at the K-12 level but are less likely to see inconsistent/incompatible systems as a major issue. Managers within each sector are therefore clearly striving to have phonesystems that address their unique challenges.The Education Sector Rates Importance of IP Telephony Features, Management and ApplicationsResearch conducted by:Sponsored by:November 2006 | Page 8 of 1501 0 %2 0 %3 0 %4 0 %5 0 %6 0 %Untitled DocumentImportant telephone capabilities education sector vs. all industriesWhen looking at what IP telephony managers in educational institutions or in any industry consider the mostimportant issue related to their phone systems, it can be summed up as follows: reliability, reliability, reliability.Respondents to both this study and to the study across all industries in 2005 showed system reliability to be farand away the most important issue, while advanced features and applications were least likely to be consideredimportant. However, respondents from the education sector do feel more strongly than their counterparts outsideof education about having access to advanced features and applications.The Education Sector Rates Importance of IP Telephony Features, Management and ApplicationsResearch conducted by:Sponsored by:November 2006 | Page 9 of 1502 0 %4 0 %6 0 %8 0 %1 0 0 %Untitled DocumentImportant telephone capabilities comparing educational institutionsWhile respondents at each type of educational institution appear to place a similar amount of importance on thevarious capabilities measured, those at college/university-level institutions seemed more likely than their counter-parts in K-12 institutions to place importance on advanced features and applications.The Education Sector Rates Importance of IP Telephony Features, Management and ApplicationsResearch conducted by:Sponsored by:November 2006 | Page 10 of 1502 0 %4 0 %6 0 %8 0 %1 0 0 %Untitled DocumentImportant management functions education sector vs. all industriesIn terms of management functions that are important, we see that educational institutions place a slightly higherlevel of importance on each function measured, especially the ability to use a Web browser to manage the systemremotely and the ability to create new users quickly.The Education Sector Rates Importance of IP Telephony Features, Management and ApplicationsResearch conducted by:Sponsored by:November 2006 | Page 11 of 1501 0 %2 0 %3 0 %4 0 %5 0 %6 0 %7 0 %8 0 %Untitled DocumentImportant management functions comparing educational institutionsRespondents at college/university-level institutions appear to feel more strongly than those at K-12 institutionsabout the importance of using a Web browser to manage the system remotely. Those at the college/university-level also place a higher importance on simplifying moves/adds/changes and the use of a single interface to managethe entire system.The Education Sector Rates Importance of IP Telephony Features, Management and ApplicationsResearch conducted by:Sponsored by:November 2006 | Page 12 of 1501 0 %2 0 %3 0 %4 0 %5 0 %6 0 %7 0 %8 0 %Untitled DocumentAdditional telephone system capabilities education sector vs. all industriesEducation sector respondents, like those across all industries, see conferencing and mobility as the two mostimportant additional applications they need for their phone systems. Those in the education sector are just slightlyless likely than respondents in all industries combined to rate automatic call distribution (ACD)/contact center asan important application.The Education Sector Rates Importance of IP Telephony Features, Management and ApplicationsResearch conducted by:Sponsored by:November 2006 | Page 13 of 1501 0 %2 0 %3 0 %4 0 %5 0 %6 0 %7 0 %8 0 %Untitled DocumentAdditional telephone system capabilities comparing educationalinstitutionsWhen comparing which additional capabilities the different educational institutions favor, we see that mobility isequally important across the industry. However, respondents at college/university-level institutions are significantlymore likely to consider ACD/contact center as important, most likely due to the larger size of these institutions. Notsurprisingly, conferencing is also seen as slightly more important among those in the college/university-level sector.The Education Sector Rates Importance of IP Telephony Features, Management and ApplicationsResearch conducted by:Sponsored by:November 2006 | Page 14 of 1501 0 %2 0 %3 0 %4 0 %5 0 %6 0 %7 0 %8 0 %Untitled DocumentConclusionIt s clear from this survey that educational institutions core needs for their phone systems are similar to those ofcompanies outside the education sector. All organizations are looking for systems that are reliable and have mobili-ty and conferencing capabilities, and for systems that can set up new users quickly. Educational institutions alsoshare with other organizations the desire to overcome some of the major challenges of phone systems, such asthe costs for moves/adds/changes. There are some issues related to phone systems that are specific to the edu-cation sector, however. First of all, influencers in education see long-distance costs as more of a challenge than dothose outside of education. Educational institutions, particularly those at the college/university-level, are also more inneed of advanced features and applications, such as access to the entire phone system through a single interfaceand the ability to manage the phone system from anywhere using a Web browser.So what does all this mean for influencers in the education sector who are contemplating what to do regardingtheir companies phone systems? Basically, if you re an influencer in this industry, you can use responses from thissurvey as a sort of a benchmark for how your peers are addressing these issues. If you don t have an IP telephonysystem implemented and have no project in progress to make this happen, you are in the minority (22%). If youare planning to implement IP telephony, it s important that the provider you seek understands the challenges ofphone systems expressed by respondents in this survey. Make sure the systems are reliable and address issuessuch as long-distance costs. Most of all, make sure the provider has experience specifically serving the educationsector, because the needs within this field are unique.The Education Sector Rates Importance of IP Telephony Features, Management and ApplicationsResearch conducted by:Sponsored by:November 2006 | Page 15 of 15
