Upload
buituyen
View
218
Download
0
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
CASE STUDY
8x8 and E-Rate Program Help Charter School Expand to 70+ LocationsLearn4Life, personalized learning charter schools
2
CASE STUDY
8x8 Enables Rapid Expansion and E-Rate Subsidy for Charter School Educator Learn4Life
Learn4Life is an education pioneer with a life-changing mission: to
provide personalized learning for the 50–60% of students not served
by the traditional school system. Because these at-risk kids cannot
attend regular classes, Learn4Life uses a distance-learning model that
depends on rapid deployment of phone, Internet and video services at
each location. When a previous VoIP provider could not keep up with
Learn4Life’s expansion, the company turned to 8x8 to deliver the
scalability and reliability it needed.
Founded 13 years ago, Learn4Life began
in Lancaster, California, as a new education
resource for disadvantaged children who
cannot attend traditional full-time schools.
Typically these kids have dropped out—or
are at risk for dropping out—because they
must work to support their families, have
experienced teen pregnancy, are in foster
care, or lack transportation.
Learn4Life addresses these barriers by
setting up charter schools (or “resource
centers”) close to the students’ homes.
The schools go up quickly in nontraditional
spaces such as churches, boys and girls
clubs, and empty storefronts. Students
receive personalized learning plans that
allow them to do their schoolwork at home.
Many also receive vocational training to
help them find jobs. Phone, Internet and
videoconferencing services enable students
to connect with teachers remotely.
“The kids we’re dealing with cannot attend
school five days a week or travel more than
2.5 miles to get to school,” explains Skip
Hansen, senior vice president of Learn4Life.
“Some have jobs; others have babies to take
care of. Typically students spend just one
or two days a week in our resource centers.
That’s why we’re constantly creating new
ones right in their neighborhoods.”
Wanted: “Unified Communications That Can Scale with Us”
Learn4Life needed highly reliable unified
communications that could support both
its rapid expansion and its distance-
learning model. The company had grown
to 800 employees and more than 70
sites in Southern California, and has plans
to expand to Texas, Ohio and Northern
California over the next two years.
Hansen had already recognized the
limitations of traditional landline
phone service and had implemented a
VoIP solution subsidized through the
federal E-rate program, which supports
telecommunications modernization
and upgrades at qualifying educational
institutions. The problem was, the
company’s VoIP provider could not deliver
the uptime or scalability required to fulfill
Learn4Life’s mission.
“We need a service provider who can keep
up with us,” says Hansen. “Unless we can
roll out reliable communications quickly, we
have to delay the opening of new sites—
and that’s not in line with our mission. Our
goal isn’t just to teach kids; we’re trying to
save their lives. Time to market is key for
us.”
Customer Name: Learn4Life
Industry: Education, charter schools
Location: 70 locations in Southern California
Number of Students: 14,000–18,000
Website: www.learn4life.org
8x8 Services: Virtual Office
Favorite 8x8 Features:
• Scalability and rapid deployment
• E-rate participation
• Videoconferencing
• Mobile services
• Group paging
Current Setup: 250 extensions
Time to Deploy: 1–2 weeks per site
Vendor Replaced: CallTower
Primary Reason Chose 8x8: Scalability and reliability
3
CASE STUDY
Hansen and his IT team began searching
online for a replacement communications
system. Their selection criteria included
videoconferencing to enhance distance
learning, scalability and customer support
to enable faster expansion, and E-rate
participation to ensure the new solution
was affordable.
“A lot of VoIP providers charge extra to add
advanced features like videoconferencing,
“says Hansen. “We were looking for
somebody who could deliver unified
communications and scale with us. They
also had to provide customer support that
could accommodate our rapidly growing
organization, because we are opening 15-
20 branches every year.”
E-Rate Subsidizes up to 95% of Communication Costs
After researching a number of vendors,
Learn4Life’s E-rate consultant helped
Hansen zero in on 8x8.
“8x8 has a lot of respect in the industry,”
notes Hansen. “But more importantly it has
the scalability to grow with us and meet our
needs as we continue to add locations and
staff.”
What closed the deal though, was 8x8’s
participation in the E-rate program. Hansen
estimates that Learn4Life recoups 85–95%
of its actual communication costs through
the program, making 8x8’s participation
“essential” to his organization’s success and
growth.
“8x8’s ability to help us through the E-rate
process was invaluable,” he says. “Applying
for federal subsidies is not easy, and having
a knowledgeable vendor who understands
the process makes all the difference in the
world.”
“We need a service provider
who can keep up with us.
Unless we can roll out reliable
communications quickly, we
have to delay the opening of
new sites—and that’s not in line
with our mission. Our goal isn’t
just to teach kids; we’re trying
to save their lives. Time to
market is key for us.”
Skip Hansen
Senior Vice President at Learn4Life
4
CASE STUDY
8x8 Expedites the Opening of New Schools
In late 2012, Learn4Life began rolling out
8x8 unified communications. Within a
few weeks more than 50 sites were fully
deployed—and more are coming online all
the time.
“Since switching to 8x8 we’ve been able
to open new resource centers much faster.
With our previous VoIP provider, deployment
would typically take six to seven weeks.
Our staff was constantly overwhelmed
because equipment would arrive and not
be configured properly,” recalls Hansen.
“Imagine having 25 kids waiting and you
can’t open their school because your phone
system isn’t working! With 8x8, our phones
and routers are preconfigured and ready to
go.”
Meeting and Collaboration Features Support a Mobile Workforce
Learn4Life now uses 8x8’s built-in meeting
and collaboration features on a daily basis.
Conference calls and especially video calls
help teachers stay in touch with students
and their parents. 8x8’s bandwidth-efficient
cloud infrastructure supports video without
degrading phone, Internet or other IP-based
services.
“Being able to see the person you’re talking
to instead of just hearing their voice makes
remote communications more effective,”
explains Hansen.
Group paging enables employees at all
sites to hear company announcements
through the intercom feature on their desk
phones. A mobile app for iOS and Android
devices allows them to access 8x8 features
through their smartphones and tablets
wherever they are.
“Teachers and staff are spending more
time collaborating and less time dealing
with phone system problems since we
switched to 8x8,” observes Hansen. “The
mobile app keeps them close to students
and parents even when they’re working off
site. Employee productivity has definitely
increased.”
In fact, Hansen credits 8x8 with enabling
his mobile workforce of teachers to work
remotely.
“Years ago I implemented VoIP at another
company, and it was a much more laborious
process. We didn’t have a mobile app or the
ability to take our phones home, plug them
in and keep our business going. Now with
8x8’s rich feature set, we have employees
who can actually work from home, which
is a first for us. Schools that looked at VoIP
in the past and thought it was too limited
should take a look at what’s possible today!”
Ongoing 8x8 Support Keeps Schools Open
Because Learn4Life’s distance-learning
model depends on its communications
system, ongoing support from 8x8 is
extremely important. Hansen and his team
are very pleased with 8x8’s responsiveness
when issues arise.
“If we have a problem, which is very rare,
we just pick up the phone and call for help.
Usually it’s a network problem on our end.
8x8 gets in right away and finds out exactly
what’s happening. Typically they just make
a tweak, and everything’s fine again.”
Day to day, Hansen’s IT team appreciates
the ease of 8x8 system administration,
which enables them to make changes
whenever necessary.
“8x8’s ability to help us
through the E-rate process
was invaluable. Applying for
federal subsidies is not easy,
and having a knowledgeable
vendor who understands
the process makes all the
difference in the world.”
Skip Hansen
Senior Vice President at Learn4Life
CASE STUDY
NASDAQ: EGHTwww.8x8.com
© 2014. The 8x8, Inc. logo is a registered trademark of 8x8, Inc. 8x8, Inc. is a publicly traded company. SALES5920214
“One of the great things about 8x8 is that
the system is easy to use and administer,”
says Hansen. “A web-based interface
provides the tools you need to quickly go
in and make changes for immediate impact.
It’s as simple as that.”
8x8: A Long-Term Partner for Educators
Hansen notes that his organization is
large—and growing—with more than
700 employees. But in his view, any size
organization can benefit from 8x8.
“I constantly get calls from business owners
asking us about our phone system. I tell
them whether you have two employees
or 2,000 employees, 8x8 is the answer.
It’s very easy to roll out, the service is
inexpensive, and the ROI is immediate.”
Hansen also believes that 8x8 offers
significant advantages to educators, who
typically have less budget to work with than
their business counterparts.
“If I were a school administrator looking for
a new communications system, I’d certainly
be looking at 8x8,” he says. “8x8 lets you
quickly implement cloud communications
that will make a difference in students’ lives
today—without all the expensive hardware
you don’t have the time or resources to
maintain.”
But given the number of VoIP solutions
available to educators today, what makes
8x8 stand out for Hansen?
“We had a lot of choices and 8x8 was
certainly the right one,” he says. “I would
give this advice to any educator looking at
VoIP solutions: Make sure your provider can
scale with you. 8x8 has the capabilities,
backbone and redundancy to ensure our
communications services are always up.
They understand our business and will be a
long-term partner as we continue to grow
and help disadvantaged students.”
“If I were a school
administrator looking for a
new communications system,
I’d certainly be looking at 8x8.
8x8 lets you quickly implement
cloud communications that will
make a difference in students’
lives today—without all the
expensive hardware you don’t
have the time or resources to
maintain.”
Skip Hansen
Senior Vice President at Learn4Life
To learn more, call 1.866.879.8647 or visit www.8x8.com