Industry
K-12 Education
Size
1,900 students
Location
Lizton, IN
North West Hendricks School Corporation & VoIP Phone Systems
Challenge
North West Hendricks experienced poor voice quality on their legacy phone system. Furthermore, they were hindered by limited features.
The district found it difficult to make changes to existing phones and was confronted with increasing maintenance and annual support costs.
Solution
The team at Five Star helped manage all aspects of the project, including gathering an accurate inventory of legacy phones in place, working with 3rd party telco providers for the necessary lines and long-distance service, ensuring 911 location services, programming and installing the new phone system, placing all new phones, training office staff, and providing instructions and support to teachers.
The new system included:
- 2 new phone system servers
- Call Assistant
- 21 Reach and Interact licenses
- 30 Allworx Verge 9312 IP Phones
- 208 Allworx 9304 IP phones
- ATA Voice Gateway with Router
- Installation, Configuration, & Training

Results
- Since the migration, North West Hendricks has had increased uptime on their phone system and has received many comments about the improved look and quality of the phones.
- The district has not incurred any additional costs from relying on support from outside phone system providers.
- Call routing has been more tailored and customized to meet the unique needs of the schools.
- Unified messaging has allowed administrators to receive voice messages via email, allowing them more flexibility and increased productivity.
Summary
The district’s legacy phone system lacked desired features (ex: voicemail-to-email and the ability to extend features of an office phone to an iPhone or Android phone) and was becoming increasingly unreliable and difficult to support. Basic changes and support often required the school to pay and wait for communication from an outside provider. Through working with Five Star, North West Hendricks was able to transition to a VoIP phone system, which created opportunities to customize solutions, have on-demand support, and provide quick and seamless installations to avoid learning disruptions.