New phone system means all village lines down for half hour July 28

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Updated: July 21, 2011 3:37AM

Because of a planned telephone outage between 7 and 7:30 a.m July 28, Lincolnwood’s municipal offices will receive no non-emergency telephone calls, and emergency calls will be routed to Skokie’s dispatch center during that time.

The reason is the installation of a new telephone system in the municipal center that will function in many ways that the present, 20-year-old system can’t, said Douglas Petroshius, assistant village administrator.

The present telephone system was first installed when the municipal center was constructed in 1990. A few years later the public works main facility was built and a separate telephone system installed.

But several operational deficiencies were noted in public works’ communications: equipment failures and static during telephone conversations; and the six incoming and outgoing lines result in busy signals, Petroshius said.

Also, there is an inability to transfer voicemail messages between the municipal center and public works facility; and the inability to expand the number of call takers in a weather emergency, he added.

The village board in 1999 approved a telephone system upgrade to the Nortel system that exists today, which was installed by Ameritech, Inc. for $71,548.19.

Then, the public works telephone system was upgraded in 2002 by SBC Business Communications for $19,545.00.

But there were still operational deficiencies throughout all departments: lack of call accounting capability; limited mobile worker connectivity tools; an expensive and cumbersome process to change features and adapt system to operational needs; and separate voicemail systems for public works and village hall.

“Up until recently, Nortel had the majority share of the telephone system market. But in the past two years, the company went bankrupt and was purchased by another large telephone system manufacturer, Avaya,” Petroshius said.

“Then Avaya announced that the village’s version of Nortel technology will not be supported in two years,” he added.

Because the existing system cannot be upgraded to meet the village’s needs, the best solution is to replace it, he noted.

And it will be replaced with Voice Over Internet Protocol system.

VOIP systems have the most advanced technology available for municipalities and utilize the data network lines for voice traffic in addition to computer traffic, Petroshius said.

He noted that it will:

• increase capacity by providing more call paths to public works, and between public works and village hall, eliminating busy signals;

• improve emergency response because staff can easily relocate phones and create call-receiving groups to accept additional callers during emergencies;

• enhance feature and software flexibility by providing a software system that can be easily changed and enhanced to match the village’s needs and new advancements in technology;

• increase staff availability by integrating landlines and cell phones so that if an employee receives a call at the office, the employee is able to have the call automatically transferred to his or her cell phone;

• and voicemail integration — voice mails can be accessed via e-mail.

From seven bidders, the board chose Advanced Telecommunications of Illinois of Naperville to provide a Shoretel system for a total project cost of $179,280.

The 911 dispatch center is not included in this project, because its technology was upgraded in recent years, Petroshius said.

But it must be shut down because it shares some of the circuits involved, he added.