Universities and colleges are growing at rapid rates. With larger and more distributed campuses, expanded operating hours, and increased staff, the cost of keeping everyone connected is skyrocketing. An additional problem is that existing communications systems across campus locations may be incompatible. A universal, cost-effective, mobile communications solution for higher education is required. Tango Networks’ Abrazo Unified Communications (UC) Application delivers just such a solution.  See examples here.

Campus Wide and Beyond

The Abrazo UC application helps keep users connected on or off campus through pairing an individual’s mobile phone with the university PBX or Unified Communications system. By doing this Abrazo enables a mobile phone to act the same as an office phone, even displaying the office number when dialing out. In addition, there is no mobile software required and the user does not need to learn any new technology.

Extend Mobile Capabilities

Abrazo UC extends the functionality of a university’s communications system, IP-PBX, or UC Platform to any mobile phone, including:

• One Number and One Voice Mail Box
• Transfer Seamlessly between Mobile and Office
• Access to PBX Advanced Calling Features
• Continued Access to Existing Campus Dial Plan

Administration & Staff Benefits		Institution Benefits
Improved Connectivity - With Abrazo, faculty, staff, maintenance, and participating students can be reached any time or place based on specified policies.  Improved Productivity - With a single number, individuals can answer calls either on their desk phone or on their cell phone. With a single consolidated voicemail box with a common message-waiting indicator, fewer messages will be missed and users need only check one place for business information. Improved Privacy - The Abrazo allows faculty to stay in touch with students without giving out personal mobile phone numbers. Improved Security – Users can receive campus wide alerts to their mobile devices or unified voice mail box.		Common Platform - Abrazo supports most PBX and UC solutions on the market today; therefore only one platform is required to support both central and extended locations.  Simple to Use – Since individuals use existing mobile phones there is no technology learning curve. Simple to Manage – Administration is simple point and click. New users and sites can be added or removed quickly and easily. Accessible to Students – For students living on campus, Abrazo provides higher education institutions the option of replacing dormitory phones with mobile phones. Cost Containment – Keep growth costs down to a minimum by limited desktop phone expansion. Abrazo UC only requires that a business phone number be set up.

Flexible, Scalable and Affordable:

Abrazo Meets the Critical Needs of Higher Education

In addition to being an incredibly simple solution that improves the communication efficiency of higher education institutions, Tango Abrazo is incredibly flexible – offering multiple deployment options. It also is scalable – allowing a business to start small and expand as needed to support increased number of users or addition of new staff and facilities. And, finally, it is affordable. Using existing mobiles of any type and providing an option to new desk phone installations, the Abrazo UC helps reduce the communication costs of legal firms and judicial offices.

Examples:

University Campus Deployment

Situation

Top Tier University, situated on 700 acre campus, has hundreds of buildings and thousands of faculty and staff. In addition, the university supports two remote campuses.

Requirements

Cost effective and simple to manage means to allow faculty and staff to receive phone calls when not at their desks. It is important for faculty to not give out personal phone numbers as students can be irresponsible when calling. As campus expands, cost of deploying fixed line phones is high. The university desires an alternative to deploying new fixed phones.

Solution

There are several ways to handle call forwarding to cell phones; however, only the Tango Abrazo Unified Communications solution does this in a fully transparent way. With Abrazo, calls to an individual are routed to both Mobile and Office locations simultaneously based on predefined calling policies. Callers need only know one number to reach whomever they are calling. Furthermore, if a call is missed, it is routed to a Unified Voicemail system. Unlike other available options that may route to either the campus voicemail system or the mobile voicemail system, Abrazo ensures only one mailbox is utilized.

Abrazo is deployed in the network and therefore does not require any software on the mobiles. What this means is that any mobile phone, PDA, or smart phone can be used within the Abrazo network. From a cost standpoint this minimizes the need for specialized mobile phone

Immediate Impact

• Simple to Use: From the users standpoint, Abrazo is transparent except for the added functionality to their mobile device. However, if they are comfortable using the campus calling plan or other PBX functions at their desk, then they will have no problem implementing these same features on their mobile phone.
• Simple to Manage: From the administrators perspective, adding or changing users is managed from an intuitive control panel. Calling profiles can be set to establish when and where to route calls to the mobile phone.
• Cost Effective: High-end, specialty mobile phones are not required. Abrazo will work with any mobile device within the Abrazo-powered network.
• Cost-Avoidance: For highly mobile individuals, a mobile phone can fully replace their desk phone. This reduces costs to add or relocate staff.

Added Value

Abrazo is fully scalable. So in addition to providing service to faculty and staff, it can be extended to students as well. This could potentially eliminate the need to place phones in dormitories as the vast majority of students now arrive on campus with a mobile phone in hand.