Network unites city, school district - Product Information

Communications News, July, 2000 by Sean Kelly

The city of Grandview, MO, near Kansas City, needed a cost-effective voice and data computer network, to connect its city hall/police department, three firehouses and two maintenance facilities that house 167 full-time employees. Grandview's solution was to piggyback onto existing computing and communications resources of local Consolidated School District #4. The school district's network backbone, designed for future growth, was installed in 1997. Siemens Information Communication Networks (ICN) implemented the network, with specifications developed by Maxtel, a computer consulting firm.

"The new communications and computing network has become a four-way partnership between Grandview schools, the city, Siemens and Maxtel," says John Martin, Grandview schools' superintendent. "Maxtel spotted the opportunity for the schools and city to share the new technology. Siemens was contracted to supply the lion's share of the equipment, and to install and maintain it. The city and schools get modern computing and communications at a price that, frankly, neither of us could have afforded had we done this separately."

"The Grandview school district and city have discovered a very creative way of combining resources to get the most benefit for the entire community--from a very advanced digital network," says Harry Wilson, Grandview mayor. "Ultimately, this will mean a much higher level of service for the community' s taxpayers from both the school district and the city."

The voice and data system consists of a T-1 and fiber-optic-based wide area network running between various school and government buildings, and local area networks (LANs) at each building. New services installed in the schools include PhoneMail, a computer-controlled voice processing system, and telephones; up to six PCs with Internet connections in each classroom; and a library-management system.

The system consists of a Siemens 9751 Model 80EX, Model 30EX and six Siemens Hicom 150E PBX's in a transparent CorNet network. Connected to the network are 33 LAN file servers and more than 1,500 new phone and computer connections.

Grandview's city government now has high-speed Internet access and modern digital telephones. The network enabled the city to upgrade to an all-digital voice and data communications system for all municipal offices, including police and fire departments. The network also enables school facilities to be integrated into the city' s emergency communications.

www.icn.siemens.com Circle 259 for more information from Siemens ICN