High Country Workplace Technologies was awarded the City of Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities’ competitive RFP to replace and modernize its communications environment. HCWT successfully implemented Mitel MiVoice Business, MiCollab and a Mitel CX citizen facing contact center solution supported by Pure IP SIP services.
The completed system provides the Board of Public Utilities with a reliable, centrally managed communications platform for employees and customer-service operations while preserving the specialized call routing, paging and operational workflows required by a public utility.
Project at a glance
Customer: City of Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities
Location: Cheyenne, Wyoming
Industry: Municipal water and wastewater utility
Project: Business communications and customer-service modernization
Implementation partner: High Country Workplace Technologies
Core platform: Mitel MiVoice Business
Unified communications: Mitel MiCollab
Customer-service platform: Mitel CX
Carrier services: Pure IP SIP
Additional integrations: Paging, voicemail and departmental call routing
Project status: Successfully implemented
About the City of Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities
The City of Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities is responsible for providing essential water and wastewater services to customers in Cheyenne and the surrounding service area.
Reliable communications are important to nearly every part of the organization. Employees must communicate across administrative, operational and customer-service functions, while residents and businesses depend on the utility’s published telephone numbers to ask billing questions, request service and report water or wastewater concerns.
Because the organization provides essential public infrastructure, its communications system must be dependable, manageable and capable of supporting both routine customer interactions and time-sensitive operational requirements.
What communications challenge did the Board of Public Utilities face?
The Board of Public Utilities needed a modern communications platform that could support employees, customer-service personnel and utility operations from a common environment.
The project required more than replacing desk phones. The new system needed to support:
- Administrative and operational employees
- Customer-service call handling
- Departmental call routing
- Employee voicemail and collaboration
- Published public telephone numbers
- SIP connectivity
- Existing paging requirements
- Centralized system administration
- Reporting for customer-service operations
- Continued support after implementation
The organization issued a competitive RFP to select a qualified communications partner and technology platform.
Why was HCWT selected?
Following the competitive RFP process, the Board of Public Utilities awarded the project to High Country Workplace Technologies.
HCWT brought extensive experience with Mitel communications systems, SIP services, citizen contact centers and municipal environments. The project also benefited from HCWT’s longstanding relationship with the City of Cheyenne and its knowledge of the City’s broader communications and network environment.
HCWT’s proposed solution combined several important technologies:
- Mitel MiVoice Business for core telephone-system functionality
- Mitel MiCollab for unified communications and voicemail
- Mitel CX for customer-service call handling and reporting
- BCM One SIP services for external voice connectivity
- Integration with the utility’s paging and operational communications requirements
This combination allowed the Board of Public Utilities to modernize its communications while retaining the control and specialized capabilities of a dedicated Mitel environment.
How did HCWT design the solution?
HCWT designed the new environment around the different ways employees and departments use communications.
Mitel MiVoice Business
MiVoice Business serves as the foundation of the solution. It provides centralized call control, extension management, call routing, system features and connectivity for the organization’s employees and departments.
The platform allows the Board of Public Utilities to manage its communications environment consistently while maintaining department-specific call flows and operational requirements.
Mitel MiCollab
MiCollab extends communications beyond basic desk-phone calling. It provides employees with a unified application for calling, voicemail and collaboration.
MiCollab also gives authorized employees greater flexibility in how and where they communicate while keeping business calls within the utility’s managed communications environment.
Mitel CX
The utility’s customer-service operation required capabilities beyond a standard departmental hunt group or basic call queue.
Mitel CX provides a more structured environment for distributing customer calls, managing agents and measuring customer-service activity. It gives supervisors better visibility into how calls are handled and provides reporting that can help management evaluate demand, staffing and service levels.
For a public utility, this information can be particularly valuable because customer contacts may involve:
- Billing questions
- Starting or stopping service
- Payment arrangements
- Water-service concerns
- Meter questions
- Service interruptions
- Wastewater-related issues
- General account assistance
The citizen contact center helps the organization manage these interactions more consistently and provides better operational information than a traditional telephone queue alone.
BCM One SIP services
BCM One SIP services provide voice connectivity between the Mitel environment and the public telephone network.
The SIP design supports inbound and outbound calling while allowing the Board of Public Utilities to preserve the telephone numbers customers and community partners already use.
Paging and operational communications
HCWT also addressed paging requirements within the overall design.
Paging remains important in many utility and public-works environments because employees may work throughout a facility rather than remain at a desk. Preserving this capability helped ensure that the new communications system supported both office personnel and operational workflows.
How did HCWT implement the project?
HCWT managed the deployment through a structured implementation process.
1. Discovery and system documentation
HCWT reviewed the existing communications environment, including users, extensions, telephone numbers, call flows, customer-service requirements, SIP services, voicemail and paging.
This discovery helped identify dependencies that needed to be preserved or redesigned before the new system was placed into service.
2. Solution design
HCWT translated the Board of Public Utilities’ requirements into a coordinated Mitel solution.
The design established MiVoice Business as the core platform, MiCollab for unified communications, Mitel CX for customer-service operations and BCM One SIP for carrier connectivity.
3. System configuration
HCWT configured users, extensions, voicemail, call routing, customer-service queues and other required features.
Departmental workflows were built around how the utility actually receives and manages calls rather than applying the same configuration to every group.
4. Integration and testing
HCWT tested internal calling, inbound and outbound calling, voicemail, SIP connectivity, customer-service routing and paging.
Testing before cutover helped identify and resolve issues without unnecessarily disrupting utility operations or customer access.
5. Cutover and stabilization
HCWT supported the organization through system cutover and post-installation stabilization.
This included validating telephone numbers and call flows, assisting administrators and users, and addressing operational adjustments discovered after employees began using the new environment.
What were the results?
The City of Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities now has an integrated Mitel communications environment supporting employees, customer-service operations and utility workflows.
Centralized communications
MiVoice Business provides a common platform for managing users, extensions, features and departmental call routing.
Improved employee flexibility
MiCollab gives authorized employees access to calling, voicemail and collaboration capabilities through a unified application.
Stronger customer-service operations
Mitel CX provides structured queue management, agent tools, supervisor visibility and reporting for the utility’s customer-service operation.
Reliable carrier connectivity
BCM One SIP services connect the Mitel environment to the public telephone network and support the organization’s established telephone numbers.
Preserved operational workflows
The implementation incorporated paging and department-specific routing rather than treating the project as a simple telephone replacement.
Experienced ongoing support
The Board of Public Utilities continues to have access to HCWT’s experience with Mitel, contact centers, SIP services and municipal communications.
Why is industry experience important for a utility communications project?
A municipal utility has different communications requirements from a typical commercial office.
Its phone system may support customer billing, service activation, field operations, emergency notifications, paging and resident inquiries. A service interruption or incorrectly routed public number can affect both internal operations and customer access.
An experienced implementation partner should understand how to:
- Document existing telephone numbers and routing
- Protect public access during number porting
- Design queues around customer-service workflows
- Integrate paging and operational devices
- Coordinate carrier and SIP services
- Test critical call paths before cutover
- Support administrators and employees after implementation
HCWT’s experience with municipal organizations and legacy communications platforms helped the Board of Public Utilities complete its modernization with a solution designed around its actual operational requirements.
Frequently asked questions
Can a public utility use Mitel MiVoice Business?
Yes. Mitel MiVoice Business can provide centralized call control, extension management, call routing, voicemail integration and communications features for public utilities and other municipal organizations.
What does MiCollab add to MiVoice Business?
MiCollab provides a unified application for calling, voicemail and collaboration. It allows authorized employees to access communications features from compatible desktop and mobile devices while remaining connected to the organization’s Mitel environment.
Why would a utility need a Mitel CX contact center?
A utility may receive large numbers of calls involving billing, service changes, outages, meter questions and account assistance. Mitel CX provides queue management, agent tools, supervisor visibility and reporting that go beyond the capabilities of a basic hunt group or call queue.
Can a Mitel system use SIP services?
Yes. MiVoice Business can use SIP services for inbound and outbound calling. The City of Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities implementation uses BCM One SIP services.
Can HCWT integrate paging with a Mitel phone system?
Yes. HCWT can evaluate existing paging equipment and design connectivity between Mitel and compatible paging systems. Paging requirements should be documented and tested as part of the implementation.
Can existing telephone numbers be retained?
In most cases, existing telephone numbers can be transferred to the new carrier or SIP provider. The implementation team should verify number ownership, carrier records and porting requirements before scheduling the transition.
Does HCWT support Mitel after implementation?
Yes. HCWT provides Mitel design, implementation, troubleshooting, administrator assistance, user support and ongoing maintenance services.
Does HCWT work with other municipal organizations?
Yes. HCWT supports cities, counties, utilities, school districts, special districts and other public agencies with cloud, on-premises and hybrid communications solutions.
Planning a public-utility communications modernization?
High Country Workplace Technologies helps municipal utilities evaluate, design, implement and support business communications and customer-service platforms.
HCWT services can include:
- Existing-system discovery
- User, extension and telephone-number inventories
- MiVoice Business design and implementation
- MiCollab configuration
- Mitel CX contact center deployment
- SIP service design and coordination
- Auto attendants and departmental call flows
- Paging and analog-device integration
- Network-readiness assessments
- E911 and dispatchable-location planning
- Administrator and user training
- Cutover and testing
- Post-implementation support
Contact HCWT to schedule your assessment.