When Sandy Griffin, Chief Engineer at Jacobs Media, which runs three commercial radio stations in Atlanta, received a quote for $1,400 simply to upgrade to the latest version of their Bell South telecommunications system, he knew it was time for a change.

Sandy kept the ancient phone system largely intact, since it was put in place before he got in. But the impossibly difficult administration and dependence on specialized telco technicians pushed him over the edge. "We are going to deploy IP phones, and we are starting today," he said to his staff. "We are done with Bell South."

With one transmitter tower, three radio stations, 25 analog phone setups and 35 handsets, ease of administration was critical in the decision making process. As an existing Kerio Connect customer, Sandy already knew about the benefits using a Kerio product.

Sandy called Walter Huff of Huff Technologies, a Kerio Preferred Partner, and asked him to demonstrate Kerio Operator PBX. Pretty quickly it became apparent this was the right product. Together they installed a Snom 720 phone at one of three transmitter sites using the existing Internet connection, and the once isolated location finally got a internal phone connection to the teams across the multiple offices. It worked.

The team then put in Cisco SPA8000s (which allows traditional phones to connect to VoIP systems) to connect the analog telephones the stations already had in place. Installation was quick and easy with the help of Walter. With his recommended SIP provider, Kerio Operator lines were running within an hour.

Everybody at the radio stations seems pretty happy with the switch. "Jacobs Media now saves over 75% annually on telecommunications service costs," says Sandy. "And that's on top the saving I get from being able to do complete management of our PBX with my team."