Verizon Business Helps San Jacinto College Upgrade Its Call Infrastructure to Handle Growing Student Enrollment

With a growing student enrollment, San Jacinto College needed a way to respond more quickly and effectively to the more than 364,000 calls a year the school receives from students and other people seeking information.  A new integrated networking and customer-contact solution from Verizon Business will enable the school to meet its need.

In a $5 million project, Verizon Business is working with the college to upgrade its legacy network to an Internet-protocol-based platform that supports unified communications and collaboration (UC&C) solutions such as audio, Web and video conferencing.  Verizon Business also is providing a range of contact center services to help the college manage incoming calls - which can top 66,000 in the peak enrollment month of August. 

"We embarked on this project because our existing network was beyond the end of its life and our call center infrastructure was not able to handle increased call volumes," said Rob Stanicic, acting chief information officer for San Jacinto College. "The new contact center system provides a path to unified communications. Our primary driver is to make the experience of dealing with the college as seamless and easy as possible. In addition, with this new IP system, we'll have a much richer and instantaneous experience in the classroom in terms of 'cloud' streaming, multimedia and rich instructional material."

San Jacinto College serves a diverse population of more than 29,000 students in more than 140 degrees and certificates in university transfer and technical programs across three campuses in East Harris County. The college also serves its community through workforce training and continuing education courses.

"Students calling into the college often have an immediate academic need, and we are working with the college to help make sure they aren't stuck on hold," said Jared Kearney, vice president of sales for Verizon Business. "No question, adopting advanced UC&C tools can transform an organization's overall performance. We see the move to VoIP as an important first step in an overall UC&C strategy."

About Verizon Business
Verizon Business, a unit of Verizon Communications (NYSE, NASDAQ: VZ), is a global leader in communications and IT solutions. We combine professional expertise with one of the world's most connected IP networks to deliver award-winning communications, IT, information security and network solutions.  We securely connect today's extended enterprises of widespread and mobile customers, partners, suppliers and employees - enabling them to increase productivity and efficiency and help preserve the environment.  Many of the world's largest businesses and governments - including 96 percent of the Fortune 1000 and thousands of government agencies and educational institutions - rely on our professional and managed services and network technologies to accelerate their business. Find out more at www.verizonbusiness.com.

####