Now the district is paying $22,000 less per year for leasing its phone and network gear -- a 25.5% cut in annual costs -- and has an option to buy the gear outright for $1 after the fifth year, says Bob Summers, the IT manager for the Kaukauna, Wis., district that's housed in seven buildings, serves about 4,200 students and has about 600 phones.

THE BIG PICTURE:

There wasn't anything wrong with the Cisco network in 2008 except that it was 4 years old, the lease was running out in a year and Cisco wouldn't give the district a buyout estimate until 60 days before the lease expired, Summers says. It might have made sense to buy the gear depending on the price, but if not, 60 days wouldn't have been enough time to research and fund an alternative, he says. Plus, as a general rule, he felt it was risky to buy gear that old. Cisco was also offering to extend the lease for five years, but by the end of that term the gear definitely would have outlived itself, he says.

So in 2008 the district set the wheels in motion to have funding in place for a new system and checked out VoIP gear from Avaya, Cisco, Mitel and ShoreTel. The phone upgrade called for a data network upgrade as well that was a separate bid, but all the VoIP vendors had to guarantee that their phone solution would be compatible with all the switching gear that was being proposed, he says. Mitel came in least expensive, but Summers was unfamiliar with the company and didn't feel comfortable with it. ShoreTel came in second on price and not that much more than the Mitel bid. Through talks with ShoreTel customers and his VAR, he gained the confidence to enter a lease with the company.

The ShoreTel/HP five-year lease costs $64,000 per year, support included, Summers says. By contrast, the expired Cisco lease had cost $78,000 per year plus $8,000 per year for support.