Information Technology Services (ITS)

VoIP helps Campus Police improve call tracking and response times

Published on: September 28, 2019

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), a technology that allows you to make voice calls using a network connection instead of an analog phone line, is now being used by U of T Campus Police. It offers many benefits, including cost savings, easy installation and improved reporting analytics.

As of May 1, 2019, University of Toronto (U of T) Campus Police began using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), a technology that allows you to make voice calls using a network connection instead of an analog phone line.

The migration process began in 2017. It was planned and executed by the U of T Telecommunications and led by the VoIP Telecom team.

Read the team’s FAQs below to find out more about VoIP features, benefits and cost-savings.

Why was this update needed to Campus Police?
To replace old infrastructure that they were using, specifically upgrading their call centre and call display directory to a more sophisticated system. The previous system had a lot of duplicated information and was not intuitive enough to extract regulated information required.

What process was improved by moving to VoIP?
Manual weekly records were printed and sent to Campus Police. This is no longer required. The process has been streamlined via real-time updates from departments.

What are some of the benefits of VoIP for students, faculty, staff and Campus Police?  

  • Significant cost saving. For example, Campus Police’s monthly phone bill was reduced about 30 per cent. Also, long distance costs are significantly reduced (no long distance charge for calls within Canada and USA) and there are no extra conference calling charges (with a VoIP premium license).
  • It takes advantage of your existing internet infrastructure. For example, your internet connection carries both data for your computer and voice for your telephone.
  • VoIP is easier to install, configure and maintain.
  • Improved reporting analytics.
  • Employees’ phone numbers now follow them when they move location or campus.

What are some key features of VoIP that Campus Police are taking advantage of now?
Using VoIP, Campus Police are now able to:

  • View the caller’s location via Google Map with a click of a button. For example, Campus Police now have the ability to see in-coming calls from these lines:
    • 911
    • Campus emergency lines
    • Building/trade Issues
    • Campus Police general inquiries
    • Travel safe line
    • Real time updates to any staff information changes made
  • Store every call’s phone number and location in a database
  • Produce detailed call/queue/agent statistics on a daily, weekly and monthly basis
  • Monitor agent/queue status in real time, receive alerts when calls come in to any of the above-mentioned lines

In addition, all incoming and outgoing calls from the Campus Police dispatch centre are recorded and saved on the U of T server on premise. All dispatchers old Meridian telephone sets were also upgraded to the new Polycom VVX411 phones that are being deployed across the campus.

What were the major challenges that you successfully met?
Meeting the very specific client requirements of Campus Police, specifically:

  • Requirement for redundancy was a must-have
  • Call recording must be on-site versus cloud (vendor)
  • Keeping downtime to their operations to a minimum
  • Decommissioning of old legacy infrastructure

Where do people go for more information?
Visit: telecommunications.utoronto.ca.