Mairie D´Alzonne

innovaphone’s UCC Solution Enables the Town Administration in Alzonne to Migrate Easily to Voice over IP

When optical fibre was installed in the town, the responsible town officials in Alzonne seized the opportunity to modernize the town administration’s communication infrastructure, digitize the services and migrate to All IP. The town’s telephone system was modernized by installing a customized innovaphone PBX, which also significantly reduced communication costs.

Located in the district of Carcassonne in the South of France, the small town of Alzonne has just over 1,500 inhabitants. The new innovaphone PBX system enables easy and efficient access to the various municipal services. Restructuring the communication system at municipal service providers was funded by “Le Plan France Très Haut Débit (PFTHD)”, a project in France that enables towns to gain quick access to optical fibre networks. Town officials recognized the great potential of Voice over IP in order to improve various areas of town life. However, their main goal was to be able to control and, above all, reduce ongoing communication costs. The responsible officials made the decision to install the innovaphone All IP solution.

Régis Banquet, President of Carcassonne Agglo, a French association of municipalities comprising 83 towns in the south of France, and also the mayor of Alzonne, explains why innovaphone was chosen: “We had heard about innovaphone via the grapevine: a European manufacturer that does not have its French offices in Paris or near another large city, but here in Carcassonne. This really benefits our region: creating jobs and expanding the technology park. The geographical proximity and the fact that it is a high-performance, secure “made in Germany” communications solution played a big role in our decision-making process.”

In the course of the smooth migration to VoIP, an innovaphone IP411 VoIP gateway was installed at the town administration’s main office to make the transition from the analog network to SIP, and to connect the fax machines via two analog interfaces. Fifteen innovaphone IP112 end devices with USB interface for headsets, Gigabit Ethernet connection and a wide range of additional functions were installed in the offices. The new medical centre, which is also attached to the town hall, was integrated into the infrastructure via an IP1202 DECT base station with 4 voice channels to ensure the mobility and accessibility of nurses and doctors.

Town hall administration, social services and the local road traffic authority also benefit from the modern functionalities associated with the introduction of VoIP. The employees there particularly appreciate the automated on-call service, which facilitates daily work and helps save time, as well as the telephone answering service, which can be personalized and which can quickly connect citizens with the right contact person, ensuring that no call goes unanswered.

In a second step, innovaphone’s multi-location concept will gradually be extended to the other municipal buildings enabling them and the school to be integrated into the town’s VoIP infrastructure. Régis Banquet explains: “The huge advantage of the new VoIP architecture is that all communication between the municipal buildings is free of charge. In addition, all municipal buildings are connected by a homogeneous numbering plan.” The highly scalable innovaphone solution also makes it easy to add additional workstations thanks to the central remote administration. The mayor of Alzonne summarizes: “By installing the innovaphone VoIP system we have pre-empted the end of ISDN. We are implementing a future-oriented and GDPR-compliant infrastructure, and consistently in line with our requirements and budget."