VoIP is more than just a four-letter word that means cheap
phone service for the Head of the Charles Regatta. It means fully
enabled communications for event organizers, athletes and media
professionals at the event, which annually attracts 8,000
participants and 250,000 spectators to both banks of the Charles
River in Massachusetts.
To keep all those people communicating efficiently used to be
one of the major headaches of Assistant Director Ben Hamilton, who
was tasked with organizing and ensuring the smooth installation and
running of the communications system that had to be in place for
just two days each year.
"Between the coordination with the service provider, the billing
details and the actual installation -- putting in those extra lines
each year was my biggest headache," Hamilton said of the
communications system installed each year with a traditional
service provider.
To have a system that could handle the two-day increase in
communications, 15 additional lines had to be installed. With the
traditional service provider, each new line had to be added
separately and billed separately -- a duplicate issue from the
Regatta's headquarters communications service -- leaving Hamilton
with a number of stuffed binders of paper bills. @44121And the
installation of the additional lines tended to be extremely
difficult and time-consuming, often requiring more than a full
day's work before everything was correctly installed and
functioning.
After years of struggling with existing services, the Regatta
explored alternative communications solutions. Following some
research and due diligence on different alternatives, focusing
particularly on VoIP, a third party introduced Hamilton to two
independent VoIP providers. Whaleback Systems was one of the two
providers and the one that the Regatta chose for its new
solution.
For Hamilton, the idea of turning to VoIP for service took more
than a little adjustment. His family had previously tried VoIP for
consumer use, only to find that the service did not meet their
expectations. After a bad consumer experience, he was reluctant to
turn to VoIP for a professional environment.
Before a final selection was made, vendors were invited in to
explain and demonstrate their products. Whaleback Systems presented
the advantages of its products for both the Regatta's office and
the event's needs, highlighting the built-in redundancy on their
servers when used with an office of the Regatta's size.
In selecting Whaleback Systems for its VoIP service, the Regatta
elected to replace not just the temporary communications system but
also that of its daily operations. For the majority of the year,
the Regatta's office is staffed by a bare-bones crew of dedicated
workers who oversee everything from organization to sponsorship.
But in July and August, as the event weekend approaches, additional
volunteers and temporary staff are added to the office. This means
that even within the office, additional phone lines could prove
useful.
By working with Whaleback Systems and its CrystalBlue service,
the Head of the Charles Regatta office received an additional five
lines with a new server. The Whaleback Systems server comes with 10
lines, so for the Regatta's office, which needs only five lines
during the majority of the year, the extra lines become a built-in
redundancy plan. They act as fall-back lines, as the lines through
the Whaleback Systems server are dedicated to voice use only.
In addition to the built-in redundancy of the Whaleback server,
the Regatta also received the assurance of 24/7 monitoring. Though
a smaller service provider, Whaleback Systems equips each of its
support engineers with a Network Operations Center at home. So
regardless of which of the engineers has on-call duty, they can
quickly and efficiently solve any service issues -- ideally before
the issue actually affects the customer's service and without the
delay of driving to the office.
For the event weekend, the Regatta also found Whaleback to be an
ideal provider because of the ease of installation. Installation
took place two weeks in advance, allowing ample time to ensure that
the equipment could be tested -- and it took about six hours to set
up the additional servers and phones.
"Our overall downtime was only about 10 minutes," Hamilton said.
"The system is amazingly scalable."
Utilizing the managed service that is named for a lighthouse in
Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where its headquarters is located,
Whaleback -- which names its product releases not by numbers but
with the names of other New England lighthouses -- was the ideal
solution for this water-centric office and event. With the fixed
fee per user per month, billing has become a lot easier, Hamilton
said. The fixed rate means that he always knows what the cost per
month will be, even during October when the Regatta takes place.
Included in that fee is also immediate access to customer service,
which Hamilton said is more effective than his previous experiences
with traditional VoIP services. And with Whaleback Systems' recent
release of its CrystalBlue package, Diamond Shoals, Hamilton said
the Regatta and Whaleback's other users will have access to more
functionality.