Higher Education Institutions Globally Choose Unify to Transform Student, Administrative & Faculty Engagement

ORLANDO, Fla., Sept. 29, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Unify, a leading communications software and services firm, announced at EDUCAUSE that higher-education institutions around the world are deploying Unify solutions to bring faculty, students and administrative staff together for more enriched on-demand learning and to facilitate a new way to teach, learn, and work. 

In addition to the recent announcement of the Oxford University choosing Unify, University of Greenwich, University of Vienna, Kennesaw State University, Clark Atlanta University, Montgomery County Community College, and Columbus State have selected Unify's OpenScape products to connect campuses because of its technological advantages in creating streamlined workflows for administrations and IT service teams. In particular, the enterprise licensing model enables universities to utilize the functionality they need, without having to purchase services or features they don't need, offering increased flexibility, with software assurance for long-term investment protection.

"Unify's OpenScape technology has enabled us to implement a reliable and scalable contact center that allows us to take nearly 50,000 calls during the 12-week enrollment period," said Paul Butler, director of information and library services, at the University of Greenwich. "Our students, faculty, and administrators are very tech-savvy, so it is essential that we address student and faculty's needs for multi-channel engagement in order to quickly respond to student feedback via mobile and social media."

It is estimated that more than a quarter of a billion students globally will be enrolled at institutions of higher learning by 2025. Accommodating a growing volume of students necessitates the transformation of traditional campus communication systems in order to adapt to millennial lifestyles, and harness new technologies. Unify's focus on developing technology to enable the New Way to Work (#NW2W) is doing just this by providing innovative ways for students, faculty, and administrators to engage.

"Students are coming to campus with multiple devices, particularly mobile ones. As administrators, we've tapped into Project Ansible to bridge the gap between how we once communicated and today's digital habits of Millennials, who seek reliable and accessible tools to reach other students, faculty members and administrators." said John Isenhour, Ph.D., associate chief  innovation officer and chief technology officer at Kennesaw State University.

"The communication and collaboration needs of higher-education campuses are increasingly complex," said Bill Hurley, Chief Marketing Officer at Unify. "By providing innovative technologies that enable students, faculty, and administrators to quickly and easily communicate via preferred channels—such as smart phones and tablets—Unify is changing the way universities work, delivering enhanced engagement among all of these groups."

Following is a summary of how the universities and colleges of University of Greenwich, University of Vienna, Kennesaw State University, Clark Atlanta University, Montgomery County Community College, and Columbus State Community College are creating connected campuses. To learn more, read the full case studies on Unify's website.

• During the UK's 12-week enrollment period, calls into the University of Greenwich admissions office can increase by over 95 percent. The deployment of OpenScape Contact Center Enterprise across three University sites offered a scalable response, automating routing and categorization of calls to dramatically improve first call resolute. The University now has the call-management capabilities to show a professional face to its UK and overseas applicants, while ensuring it meets UK Government student quotas in order to secure funding for the next academic year.
• A complete solution was designed and implemented by Unify to dramatically improve functionality and mobility, while ensuring that services would be more reliable, manageable and flexible at The University of Vienna for 7,000 to 10,000 end users. The university now has a state-of-the-art IP communications system that was rolled out in a flexible, modular manner. By supporting "bring your own device" users and giving them control over where and how they communicate, the system has significantly decreased management and maintenance overhead costs, dramatically improved functionality, and enabled full mobility.
• Georgia's third-largest university, Kennesaw State University (KSU), has tapped Unify to help serve their millennial students with a more mobile, cost-effective communication solution. OpenScape Voice provides seamless integration between mobile devices and the university's infrastructure, enabling KSU to communicate more easily with students.  
• Clark Atlanta University upgraded its outdated communication system by implementing a complete, future-proofed unified communications and contact center solution from Unify. For a one-time investment of $600, 000 and annual support costs of approximately $40,000 a year, Unify is saving the university approximately more than $200,000 annually.
• Montgomery County Community College improved communications campus safety and security to its 49,000 students with Unify. With Unify, more than 80 percent of student calls are answered in the first 30 seconds, with quicker resolution of student issues and improved services, as well as more efficient access to college information.
• The IT Support Contact Center at Columbus State Community College supports some 25,000 students and staff. The College implemented Unify OpenScape in its cloud-based contact center to increase the number of available technical advisors. The hosted solution eliminated the need for new hardware or large cash-outlays. Call abandon rates fell from 21.9 percent to 5.45 percent and web collaboration allows issues to be resolved without students or faculty having to physically visit the service center.

To read more about Unify solutions and services for Connected Campuses, visit the Unify website.

About Unify

Unify is one of the world's leading communications software and services firms, providing integrated communications solutions for approximately 75 percent of the Fortune Global 500. Our solutions unify multiple networks, devices and applications into one easy-to-use platform that allows teams to engage in rich and meaningful conversations. The result is a transformation of how the enterprise communicates and collaborates that amplifies collective effort, energizes the business, and enhances business performance. Unify has a strong heritage of product reliability, innovation, open standards and security.

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