Looking for a Phone System

[bmy]

Hi,

 

Was wondering if anyone has any reccomendations for a reliable phone system thats easy to manage and use?

 

We have been on a Gamma Horizon System for a long time, recently we have been having issues with call drops etc, our provider has just blamed it on our internet connection, its been a bitter back and forth and we are just tired of it.

 

So we are looking for a new system, open to suggestions, we are very interested in integrations so a phone system that has Arbor or SIMS integration would be incredibly cool, or if you know phone systems that have other features which you consider useful in a school setting, I would be really interested to hear them. Thanks in advance

[DWilson1997]

3CX with EdTechPro portal integration for MIS data. 

[bmy]

Just now, DWilson1997 said:

3CX with EdTechPro portal integration for MIS data. 

Thanks, EdtechPro looks good, will contact them to find out more, do you have a supplier for your phone system that you think is good? 

[synaesthesia]

3CX is a clear winner for me. I've had excellent past relationships with Trilan and a current good relationship with Southern Communications (although the latter is an utterly awful system called Splicecomm, which I wouldn't recommend. Not the supplier's fault  )

[timbo343]

3CX too. We have 11 sites all on a cloud platform with Clarion.

[Synkrox]

+1 for 3CX

[timbo343]

41 minutes ago, bmy said:

Thanks, EdtechPro looks good, will contact them to find out more, do you have a supplier for your phone system that you think is good? 

The EdtechPro stuff can be expensive as I understand it's bought per school rather than number of users. We looked at it and it was £50 per year difference for a primary school and secondary school.

[ITGuyNW]

I've never heard of MIS integration with 3CX. Might be something I have to look into..

[Synkrox]

1 minute ago, timbo343 said:

The EdtechPro stuff can be expensive as I understand it's bought per school rather than number of users. We looked at it and it was £50 per year difference for a primary school and secondary school.

Would you mind sharing pricing to save me running the gauntlet of putting in a sales lead!?

[Rob_D]

Just to add verity to the suggestions,  EvoneX looks like a compelling offering.

[timbo343]

2 minutes ago, ITGuyNW said:

I've never heard of MIS integration with 3CX. Might be something I have to look into..

 

We moved to Arbor and 3CX over summer. EdtechPro uses Wonde to bring the 2 systems together but requires your users to be in / have the 3CX portal / app running on their desktop / laptop.

[timbo343]

2 minutes ago, Synkrox said:

Would you mind sharing pricing to save me running the gauntlet of putting in a sales lead!?

 

£500 for secondary

£450 for Primary 

[hailst0rm]

I have found the phone system offered by Microsoft Teams to be fairly good. It is nice to have something that is integrated with Teams.

 

I'm not aware of integration with the MIS.

 

We use Poly handsets and they have been pretty reliable. Less so with Yealink phones.

[JazzFlute]

Just had a Wildix Cloud system installed over the summer repalcing our current old VOIP Yeastar sytem.  Great system, 3 models of phones plus.  Vision phones for Main Office etc., Workforce phones for everyone else.  Has Android App so can logon to your phone anywhere in the world as well as broswer logon.  Supplier link below and great support and training.

 

Supplier

Contact - Fifteen Group

 

Phone System

Education Communication Solutions | Wildix

[ITGuyNW]

12 minutes ago, hailst0rm said:

I have found the phone system offered by Microsoft Teams to be fairly good. It is nice to have something that is integrated with Teams.

 

I'm not aware of integration with the MIS.

 

We use Poly handsets and they have been pretty reliable. Less so with Yealink phones.

 

We're Teams and have the horrible Yealink phones. What Poly ones do you use?

[HaroonEdTechPro]

+1 for EdTechPro, but I am biased 😀😉

 

We do offer 30-day trials of our solution for Schools to try out the solution. You can either contact us or one of our Partners. https://www.edtechpro.co.uk/partners

 

We are currently developing a Teams - MIS integration solution which will be a gamechanger for schools. 

[StephenPink]

3CX again. With the Teams integration for some users - works well enough, but not perfect.

[Rob_D]

15 minutes ago, hailst0rm said:

I have found the phone system offered by Microsoft Teams to be fairly good. It is nice to have something that is integrated with Teams.

We looked at Teams phones, but the teachers were too worried about getting dinged with calls in the middle of lessons. Did you do anything technical to help with this, or would it just be training?

[HaroonEdTechPro]

41 minutes ago, timbo343 said:

 

£500 for secondary

£450 for Primary 

This price looks like its in the range of our Portal Pro product which includes the features I'll mention below and Attendance Writeback into your MIS in seconds from call pickup.

 

We do have a Lite version, which does Caller Identification of Parents, Staff, Students and Local Businesses, Screen Popping into your MIS, CPOMS integration, Caller History (no more I just had a missed call from the School, who called me?) and direct writeback into Arbor's Communication and Notes (not via Wonde) for around £350-400.

 

Schools with our solution typically save 2-3 minutes per call on average.

Edited September 19, 2025 by HaroonEdTechPro

[hailst0rm]

5 minutes ago, Rob_D said:

We looked at Teams phones, but the teachers were too worried about getting dinged with calls in the middle of lessons. Did you do anything technical to help with this, or would it just be training?

It's not been an issue in my experience. It's fairly rare for teachers to be contacted on their direct numbers. Reception/Admin staff take the brunt of the calls. For most teachers it's been more about making outgoing calls than receiving them. If it is an issue you can just set your status to busy.

[Aprice]

-1 for Teams, we are currently on it, looking to move off. Few customers we've picked up that were on it that also want to move away from it.

[hailst0rm]

36 minutes ago, ITGuyNW said:

 

We're Teams and have the horrible Yealink phones. What Poly ones do you use?

We use CCX600 on reception and mostly CCX400 for all other staff. 

[ITGuyNW]

For those on a 3CX system, what are your typical costs per year? 

[gszech]

UniFi Talk

[Synkrox]

1 hour ago, ITGuyNW said:

For those on a 3CX system, what are your typical costs per year? 

3CX Pro cloud hosted with 16 simultaneous calls, local support company, 6 external line trunk, all calls - £3000 per year.