MATC Matters

The purpose of this note is to provide you with an update on the status of the District’s telephone system replacement efforts.

We are pleased to report that the District recently entered into a major purchase agreement for a comprehensive Cisco communications solution. This purchase includes a new telephone system, telephones, TelePresence video conferencing, enterprise network equipment, software and maintenance services. By bundling all products and timing the purchase at Cisco’s fiscal year-end, the District was able to negotiate unprecedented pricing from Cisco and professional implementation assistance from our selected implementation partner, Inacom Information Systems.

The product and feature set was determined based on input from a diverse stakeholder team spanning the District. This system will provide the college with many new communications capabilities. TelePresence is an especially exciting product with many potential applications within the District. This purchase will permit the college to begin to move away from ITV.

With Inacom and a significant cross-functional MATC team, we will soon be developing a detailed implementation plan for the entire purchase. The enterprise network upgrade must precede other activities as it will enable the deployment of the phone system and TelePresence. We intend to deploy TelePresence as soon as possible and certainly prior to the 2009-10 academic year. Significant phone system deployments will likely commence next summer.