Red de Colegios Semper Altius is an international network of schools with more than 60 years of experience in 18 countries throughout Latin America, North America, Europe, and Asia. They operate over 100 schools around the world, including 65 schools in Mexico. Semper Altius provides continuity from preschool through high school and offers undergraduate and graduate programs through the Anahuac University Network, which has 13 campuses in Mexico and presence in the United States, Spain, Chile, and Italy.
A network of three schools and a central office operated by Semper Altius in Mexico City was in need of a new communications platform and endpoints. They were using an outdated Avaya analog PBX that supported mostly analog trunks, along with outdated analog phones. They wanted a solution that could integrate various platforms (analog or SIP; E1, T1, and J1 ports) and technologies (voice, video, data, mobility). Semper Altius needed the ability to frequently, manage, customize and update their voice platform, specifically IVR and auto-attendant messages. Lastly, they wanted to avoid licensing and other ongoing fees.
Semper Altius was also interested in building a WiFi network in one of the three schools. They needed a solution that would offer fast WiFi speeds, support hundreds of users, offer high-end security protection, and a centralized installation and management platform. Semper Altius reached out to a local technology installer, Emer Communications, to request a bid for the project. After consulting with their distribution partner, SYSCOM, Emer Communication submitted a bid for all Grandstream solutions for the Semper Altius deployment, including multiple UCM series IP PBXs, multiple IP Phone models, and GWN series WiFi Access Points. After considering a number of other bids, Semper Altius selected the Grandstream solution submitted by Emer Communications.
The anchor of Semper Altius’ new solution is the UCM series of IP PBXs. This powerful on-premise IP PBX allows the school’s network to integrate both analog and digital services and devices. The UCM series provides a fully comprehensive unified communication platform, including video, data, mobility, and security support, with all features included and no licensing fees, ever required. A total of three UCM6510’s were installed, with one at each school, and a UCM6202 was installed in the central office. All IP PBXs are peered together on the same network to create a redundant network that allows in-network calls from school to school while still enabling each school to manage its own IVRs, auto-attendants, and more. Additionally, the UCM series offers a number of mobility options important to the school, including voicemail forwarding to email, the ability to register an extension on multiple devices, customized call forwarding, and more.
Because they chose the UCM series of IP PBXs, Grandstream IP phones were the ideal choice for Semper Altius. Though they will support any third-party endpoint, the UCM series offers a variety of extra features and functionalities to Grandstream IP phones. This is highlighted by the Zero Config provisioning process it offers to Grandstream phones, which allows any UCM series device to instantly detect and automatically configure any Grandstream endpoint.
To take advantage of the features offered by the UCM series and to support a quick and easy deployment with seamless ongoing management, Emer Communications installed a variety of Grandstream IP phones for Semper Altius.