‘(UCXpress) is such an easy phone system to use, and it has increased productivity and efficiency in dealing with phone calls both internally and externally.’
—Conan Chan, IT Technician, Lyndhurst Secondary College
Background
Lyndhurst Secondary College is a Victorian government secondary school with 30+ office areas spread across its grounds. With multiple staff in each and a constant flow of calls, reliable communication is core for the school’s operations.
Effective phone communication isn’t a nice-to-have for a school of this size. Staff need to coordinate between offices, respond to parents and external enquiries, and handle the operational coordination that keeps a school running. The phone system is part of the school’s day-to-day infrastructure.
The Challenge
The college’s existing phone system was no longer fit for purpose. The online management portal was difficult to navigate, which meant the IT team had to log support tickets for routine changes rather than making them in-house.
Chan stated, “Their online portal for managing the phone system was very difficult to navigate. We mainly had to rely on their support desk to make adjustments, and the process was insufficient and inflexible.”
The school was also approaching a forced decision. A phone service the college relied on was being decommissioned, which would have meant upgrading the existing system at significantly higher cost without gaining any additional functionality.
At the same time, parts of the school’s hardware were ageing out. Some phones were already moving to IP, while others remained on traditional phone lines. The split estate was becoming increasingly impractical to manage.
Chan and the IT team wanted a different kind of solution: a fully IP-based, cloud-managed phone system that gave them direct control. They wanted to be able to set up new phones, configure voicemail boxes, manage speed dials, and adjust settings themselves, without raising a ticket for every change.
The Access4 Partnership
Lyndhurst Secondary College connected with Prosum through a personal referral. Chan reached out to a contact working in the telephony space, who recommended Prosum as a provider who could deliver the kind of cloud-managed, IP-first solution the school was looking for.
Prosum recommended UCXpress, Access4’s UC solution built for organisations that want to pay for capacity rather than per user. For a school with 30+ office areas, multiple staff sharing spaces, and uneven call volume across the day, a per-user licence model rarely matches how phones actually get used. UCXpress sidesteps that. The school pays for the number of simultaneous calls it needs, not for every potential handset.
UCXpress met all the school’s requirements: cloud-based management through SASBOSS, full IP telephony with Yealink handsets, self-service configuration, and a price point that worked for a government school’s budget.
“All the boxes where ticked,” Chan said. “We wanted a system that was easy to manage, where we could add features like speed dial numbers, voicemail boxes, and other tools ourselves. The SASBOSS portal has been so much easier to use, with settings we can just set and forget.”
Prosum handled the deployment end to end. New IP handsets were pre-configured before delivery, which meant the rollout across the school’s office areas was effectively plug and play. The Prosum team worked closely with Conan throughout the transition to make sure the new system aligned with how the school actually used its phones.
For an IT team running a school with more than 30 office areas, deployment effort matters. The pre-configuration approach saved hours of on-site setup and made it easy to bring new offices online as the rollout progressed.
Business Outcome
The transition to the new system was completed with minimal disruption. Staff adapted quickly to the new handsets and the updated process for making, transferring, and forwarding calls.
“Since the new system went live, staff have been very satisfied with how it works”, Chan said. “Voicemail messages now go directly to email, which has made it much easier to stay on top of calls.”
For the IT team, the difference is significant. Changes that previously required a support ticket are now handled directly through the SASBOSS portal. Adding phones to new office areas is straightforward. Configuring features for specific staff or rooms takes minutes, not days.
Across the school, UCXpress has delivered:
- A unified IP phone system across all 30+ office areas, replacing a mix of ageing line-based and IP handsets
- Self-service management through SASBOSS, removing the dependency on vendor support tickets for routine changes
- A capacity-based pricing model that suits a school with shared offices and uneven call patterns, rather than paying per user for handsets that aren’t always in use
- Voicemail-to-email, so staff stay on top of messages without having to dial in and check
- Faster onboarding for new office setups, with pre-configured handsets and a plug-and-play deployment model
- A cost-effective replacement for the previous system, with significantly more functionality at a comparable price point.
Looking Ahead
The current deployment is focused on staff offices across the school grounds. Lyndhurst Secondary College is considering extending the system in future to include portable handsets, which would suit office areas shared by multiple staff members. The flexibility of the platform means that’s a straightforward addition when the school is ready.
Conclusion
By partnering with Prosum and deploying UCXpress, Lyndhurst Secondary College has modernised its phone system without compromising on budget or functionality. The school’s IT team has the control they were missing, the staff have a system that’s easier to use, and the school has a platform it can grow with.
The college was impressed with support provided by Prosum. “It’s been a wonderful experience working with the team at Prosum – they’ve given great support with the supply and deployment of the phone system and cloud-based management”, Chan said. “Communication from the team has made the whole process smooth, and we would highly recommend them to any business looking for a new phone system.”
With Prosum’s ongoing support and a flexible, cloud-managed platform powered by Access4, Lyndhurst Secondary College is positioned to keep its communications running smoothly as the school continues to grow.
