Improving Mobility and Resilience While Controlling Migration Costs
The Club at Rolling Hills depended on its Avaya IP Office phone system to coordinate communications across the clubhouse, golf and tennis operations, pro shop, pool, snack bar, grounds department, and administrative offices. As the club’s communication needs evolved, the limitations of a premises-based phone system became increasingly apparent.
The club wanted greater employee mobility, easier control over call routing, and the ability to continue operating during a local power or phone-system outage. It also wanted to avoid replacing serviceable equipment unnecessarily.
High Country Workplace Technologies helped The Club at Rolling Hills migrate from Avaya IP Office to RingCentral while preserving compatible phones and using the club’s existing Cisco Meraki wireless network.
The Challenge
Many club employees do not spend their day sitting at a desk. Pro shop and hostess-stand personnel need to move around while remaining available to members and guests. Pool and snack-bar employees also require portable phones that can travel with them during operations.
Grounds and operations employees work throughout the property and need reliable communications without being tied to physical extensions.
The club’s back-office staff also needed a simpler way to manage call routing. With the legacy Avaya system, making changes often required access to the on-site phone system or assistance from a technician.
Business continuity was another priority. A power outage affecting the clubhouse could disrupt traditional desk phones at the same time members were trying to reach golf or tennis operations.
A Cost-Conscious Migration Strategy
High Country designed and implemented a RingCentral cloud communications solution that introduced new capabilities without requiring the club to replace every existing telephone.
Where new phones were not operationally necessary, High Country reflashed and reprovisioned compatible Avaya J169 phones for use with RingCentral. Reusing this existing equipment reduced the number of new phones the club needed to purchase and helped optimize the project’s one-time costs.
New devices were introduced selectively where they provided a clear operational benefit.
Greater Mobility Across the Club
Selected Avaya phones in the pro shop and hostess area were replaced with Mitel 6940 desk phones. The Mitel 6940’s integrated Bluetooth capabilities allow employees to use the Mitel bluetooth handset which frees them up from being tethered to a deskphone.
The pool and snack bar are now equipped with Yealink AX83H Wi-Fi phones. These portable handsets connect directly to the club’s existing Cisco Meraki Wi-Fi network, eliminating the need to purchase, install, and maintain a separate DECT system.
Employees can carry the AX83H handsets throughout the covered operational areas while continuing to make and receive calls through the club’s RingCentral service.
The grounds and operations departments are taking advantage of the RingCentral mobile application. Employees can make and receive business calls while working throughout the property without exposing their personal mobile numbers.
Remote Call-Routing Management
Back-office personnel can now log in to the RingCentral administrative portal from an authorized internet-connected device to manage call routing, business hours, users, and other system settings.
This gives the club greater control over day-to-day communications without requiring staff to be physically present at the clubhouse or dependent on the legacy PBX for routine routing changes.
Improved Business Continuity
Because RingCentral is cloud-based, an outage at the clubhouse does not necessarily prevent employees from communicating. If local power or internet service is interrupted, authorized golf and tennis personnel can continue making and receiving calls through the RingCentral mobile application using cellular service.
This mobility provides an additional layer of operational resilience, helping the club remain accessible to members and guests during certain local service disruptions.
The Results
The migration from Avaya IP Office to RingCentral provided The Club at Rolling Hills with:
- Greater mobility for pro shop, hostess, pool, snack-bar, grounds, and operations employees
- Yealink AX83H Wi-Fi phones operating over the existing Meraki wireless network
- Portable calling without installing a separate DECT infrastructure
- Mitel 6940 phones with wireless-headset capabilities at selected high-activity workstations
- Continued use of compatible Avaya J169 phones through reflashing and reprovisioning
- Lower one-time costs by replacing phones only where new capabilities were needed
- Business calling through mobile devices without exposing employees’ personal numbers
- Remote control of call routing through the RingCentral administrative portal
- Continued communications during certain power or internet outages
- Reduced dependence on aging premises-based PBX equipment
A Communications Platform Designed Around Club Operations
The Club at Rolling Hills now has a communications platform that better reflects how its employees work. Staff can remain connected while assisting members, managing golf and tennis activities, operating the pool and snack bar, maintaining the property, or working remotely.
By combining RingCentral cloud communications with reused Avaya J169 phones, Mitel 6940 phones, Yealink AX83H Wi-Fi handsets, the existing Meraki wireless network, and the RingCentral mobile application, High Country Workplace Technologies delivered a flexible and resilient solution while carefully controlling the club’s upfront investment.
Contact HCWT to schedule your migration to RingCentral