When the State of Ohio wanted to upgrade its antiquated phone system and adopt more innovative and collaborative communications technology, it turned to experienced partner CBTS.
CBTS partners with organizations across a wide range of industries in the private sector throughout the United States and Canada, and our clients include Fortune 20 and Global 2000 corporations.
This background perfectly positioned CBTS to support the State of Ohio, a complex governmental organization in its own right that serves 88 counties, 611 individual school districts, and 14 four-year public universities with 24 branch campuses. The CBTS Communications Practice subsequently designed and deployed an award-winning hosted unified communications system for the State of Ohio that brought an estimated cost savings of $6.8 million during its first 24 months alone.
Since then, CBTS has partnered with the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the State of Indiana as we continue to showcase our strength as a proven, experienced partner to organizations in all verticals, in this case Government.
Expertise and Agility
Requirements vary considerably among customers based on numerous factors, including the industry and size of the organization. An auto insurance firm with 400 workers has very different requirements than a healthcare facility employing thousands. So how does CBTS manage to partner so well across such a diverse clientele?
There are two key reasons, says Dave Absalom, practice principal at CBTS. First, the CBTS engineering staff of approximately 700 professionals delivers an extensive range of skill sets and vertical market know-how. Second, the size of the CBTS staff provides the necessary agility to deliver differentiated solutions.
The vast majority of the State of Ohio’s 55,000 employees previously used antiquated and sometimes disparate phone systems. These legacy systems were costly to maintain and were approaching – or far beyond – the end of their technical life. In fact, some agencies were leveraging eBay for parts.
CBTS engineered a unified communications system, internally dubbed the Next Generation Telephony Service (NGTS) that brought the State of Ohio into the mainstream of IP telephony. NGTS is available to all Ohio funded agencies, higher educational institutions, local governments, and K-12 schools.
CBTS collaborated closely with several state agencies, along with technology partners including Cisco and VMware, in designing and supporting the new VoIP system, which it installed and manages proactively. In 2016, the National Association of State CIOs recognized the CBTS-led team with a first-place award for Information Communication Technology Innovation.
Compelling Cost Savings
The solution has also delivered significant cost savings and efficiencies across multiple organizations. Prior to implementation of the unified communications system, the State of Ohio received a separate phone bill for each of the 38 agencies, with phone calls billed at five cents each. Now, the state pays a single, more affordable rate on an OpEx basis.
The state’s old infrastructure also required three IT professionals at each of the 38 state agencies just to administer the various PBXes. Today, it takes only three state employees to monitor and manage the entire hosted communications system.
On to More State Partnerships
CBTS has subsequently partnered with the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the State of Indiana. The State of Indiana deployment features a brand new unified communications system. In the case of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, CBTS purchased an already constructed unified communications architecture from the state, and now rents it back to the government on a monthly pay-as-you-go basis.
Whether you’re a public or private organization, CBTS would be pleased to learn more about your business and leverage our expertise as a proven, experienced business partner to help you grow and thrive.
To find out more about the CBTS partnership with the State of Ohio, read this case study.
