The City of Logansport, Ind. is a 150-year-old community of 20,000 residents nestled in the Wabash River valley surrounded by picturesque farms and acres of rich farmland. With 300 acres of parkland including an 18-hole city golf course, it also has its own police department, fire department, utility company, school district and, of course, city hall. When the City of Logansport needed to update its telephone system and to add VoIP and mobility, it turned to Authorized Toshiba Dealer Roeing Corporation of Logansport, Ind.

Cyle Dibble, account executive at Roeing Corporation, worked together with the city officials to review their current communication system, expenses and needs. After the review, Dibble worked with David Roetker, vice president of communications at Roeing Corporation, and together they recommended Toshiba’s Strata CIX670 business communication system to help bring the City of Logansport’s communications into the 21st century, meeting its goals of adding mobility, VoIP, and voice processing features, with the overall goal of helping city employees better communicate with each other and their community.

“Moving to Toshiba for our business communication needs makes good sense for the city,” said Logansport Mayor Mike Fincher.“Toshiba provides a migration path that will allow us to re-use our current infrastructure as we move to future platforms and add new technologies and capabilities. Toshiba also has a reputation for having the most reliable, durable and dependable telephones available today and is a perfect fit with Roeing Corporation’s team, which understands our technology needs.”

Installed by Roeing Corporation, City of Logansport’s new Toshiba Strata CIX670 is a modular system consisting of 40 digital ports, 16 IP ports, eight analog CO lines, and 16 analog ports of which 12 ports are for voice mail. It also has 23 PRI channels. In use are a mix of digital and IP telephones plus SoftIPT softphones on laptops for mobile users, including the mayor. The IP desk telephones can be moved at will and plugged into virtually anywhere there is Internet access, even at a home office or remote location. Roetker said, “Using IP telephones enables fast set-up and ease of staff mobility when connected to the Local Area Network or Internet.”

For the first time ever, the city now has its own voice mail, delivered by Toshiba’s Stratagy ES48 Voice Processing solution. The system also provides unified messaging, which allows email and voice messages to come in on a single email platform, where voice messages are converted to .WAV files and can be listened to over the computer speakers. The mayor takes full advantage of unified messaging, particularly when he is mobile and receiving a lot of messages.

Mayor Fincher uses his Toshiba SoftIPT softphone on his laptop to communicate virtually everywhere he has Internet access. When he travels, he can make, receive and transfer calls from his softphone as if it’s his desk telephone. The mayor appreciates the fact that no matter where he travels, he can be in contact with his office, the press and his constituents wherever there is Internet access, all as if it’s a local call.

Recently, the mayor was traveling in Japan for economic development and he relied on his SoftIPT softphone to do media interviews with the press back at home in Indiana, as well as conduct his normal business affairs. Mayor Fincher said,“Having the softphone on my laptop meant that I could do telephone interviews about our economic development efforts with Japan while I was still in Japan, literally as it was happening. This resulted in timely, visible press on our city’s efforts to do business with Japan.” It also saved $7.00 per minute in long distance calls.

Roeing Corporation was able to connect the Toshiba system to all the city departments. Today, connected together on a single voice platform are the city hall, mayor’s office, police department, building commissioner zoning and code enforcement, and the clerk/ treasurer’s office. Prior to the Toshiba system, each department was on a different telephone system, none of which was networked together, and none of which had voice mail.

“Today, with the Toshiba system, communication between departments is done by direct extension dialing,” explained Ellen Bland, the city clerk/treasurer who headed up the communications committee.“It is important that we have a networked system that allows us to communicate effectively with each other and the public. Toshiba has accomplished this goal beautifully for us.”

The City of Logansport has a diverse community with a large number of Spanish-speaking constituents. Toshiba’s automated attendant at the police department allows callers to choose a Spanish language prompt for immediate attention in their own language.“Having a Spanish language option helps speed along incoming calls to the police department so callers can get the help and information they need without delay,” Mayor Fincher explained.

Having an automated attendant in the police department, also new with the Toshiba system, helps route non-emergency calls to the right person and eliminates the need for other departments to answer business calls to the police department. Bland explained,“911 calls are now completely separate from the general police department number, enabling police dispatchers to deal with true emergencies and not be operators for the police department.”

The Toshiba system has saved the city more than $800 per month by installing a PRI line, thus eliminating high Centrex costs. The city now has a voice mail system, as well as direct dial extension capabilities to all the employees in the city’s many departments. As well, using VoIP has eliminated costly long distance charges, particularly when the mayor travels internationally.

For example, for the mayor’s recent trip to Japan, using his softphone saved $7.00 per minute in long distance calls, with an estimated overall savings of $500 for just that one trip.“I felt comfortable calling from Japan to City Council members and economic development staff because I knew that it was not going to cost our citizens an arm and a leg,” said the mayor.

With the new Toshiba system, the City of Logansport’s employees are experiencing increased productivity and improved communications with each other and their constituents. True emergency 911 calls now are routed separately from general police department calls so dispatchers can respond more quickly than ever before. With Toshiba Stratagy Voice processing, all city employees have their own voice mail, including the police officers, which provides a great improvement in both internal and external communications.

In fact, the city is so pleased with the Toshiba system that it plans to utilize more IP telephones for remote locations to continue lowering costs and also plans to use Toshiba’s Strata Net networking capabilities to connect all its locations throughout the city.

“Together, Toshiba and Roeing Corporation are helping us realize our goal of being a 24/7/365 government that is always there for its citizens,” Mayor Fincher said.