Case Study: Cloud Telephony Across Nine Schools
Our case studies showcase how important partnership is to us as well as the transformative impact of technology on teaching and learning.
Athena Learning Trust needed to bring nine schools onto a single, modern phone system.
iCT4 turned a complex brief into a straightforward migration, delivering cost savings and more flexibility.
The Challenge: nine Schools, multiple system
Athena Learning Trust oversees three primary schools and six secondary schools. Like many growing trusts, its telephony had evolved school by school, leaving a patchwork of legacy systems, separate contracts and varying infrastructure across sites. With the traditional phone network set to be switched off nationally in 2027, the Trust had a clear opportunity to consolidate onto a single, future-proof solution but doing so across nine schools, each with its own contract timeline, required careful planning and a partner who could manage the complexity without disrupting the school day.
A phased migration, managed from start to finish
Each school moved across to 3CX in a phased migration project over time, when existing contracts expired and with carefully planned timing to minimise distruption to staff and pupils. A dedicated iCT4 team member was assigned to the project and worked alongside the Head of Trust IT from the initial planning stages through to installation and testing.
Consolidating nine schools onto a single 3CX system brought immediate savings on licensing fees and infrastructure costs, as well as a level of central oversight and control that had simply not been possible before.
As a 3CX Gold Partner, iCT4 was able to configure the system to the trust’s exact needs: simple and predictable billing for the hosting and licensing, a mobile app, and the flexibility to scale the system up or down as the trust continues to grow.
"Working with iCT4 to consolidate our 3CX systems and move them to the cloud has been a transformative experience. It has not only brought significant cost savings to the trust, but also streamlined our operations and enhanced our overall efficiency.
The rationale to move our 3 Primary Schools and 6 Secondary Schools to a single system was to reduce the cost of licensing fees and infrastructure, however, there have been so many other benefits. One of which is the overall flexibility and control that the new system gives us as we can easily scale up and scale down as and when we need to."
Danny Garfield, Head of Trust IT, Athena Learning Trust
The impact across the Trust
There is one secondary school yet to move due to a legacy contract that runs until 2027. Aside from this, Athena now operates on a single, unified communications platform. Licensing and infrastructure costs have reduced, day to day operations are more efficient, and the trust has a flexible system that can evolve as its needs change.
With the PSTN switch off approaching, the migration has also removed a significant compliance risk from the trust’s agenda, leaving the team free to focus on what matters most.
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