Madison County Schools Upgrades Telecommunications

Madison County School System (MCSS) has selected ADTRAN’s NetVanta® Unified Communications (UC) solution for its telecommunications upgrade initiative across the school district’s 27 campuses.

Many educational organizations face the challenge of finding affordable solutions with best-in-class technology and next-generation capabilities. “We didn’t think it was possible to implement an advanced communications infrastructure at a price point that we could afford. ADTRAN has enabled us to increase the communications capabilities for our central facilities and a number of the local schools and we are very excited about getting the technology up and running across all Madison County Schools by the end of the next school year,” said Karen Cooper O'Bannon, chief school financial officer at MCSS.

During the first phase of deployment, MCSS is leveraging the following advanced capabilities:

  • Unified messaging for administration and teachers
  • Find-me/Follow-me for superintendents and administrators
  • Replacement of outdated analog fax machines with fax server
  • Conference server to host system-wide school official calls
  • Overhead and handset paging integrated into existing systems at each campus
  • Personal assistants with drag-n-drop service creation

ADTRAN’s NetVanta UC offers scalability that enables MCSS to add additional UC features as they expand their communications system. During the next phase of deployment, MCSS will implement capabilities that will simplify data collection and distribution, reduce human error and mitigate liability with real-time parent communications. These features include emergency alerts, absentee notifications, policy reminders, bell schedule timers and more.

“When considering network solutions, ADTRAN was the obvious choice because the company offered a breadth of advanced capabilities and provided impeccable support throughout the deployment process,” said Tommy Whitten, district technology coordinator for Madison County School System. “ADTRAN has enabled MCSS to not only lower costs while advancing technology and communications, but has provided the infrastructure our community will rely on as we grow our campuses and curriculum.”