Millersburg

Just In Time: The City of Millersburg, OR Implements Comprehensive Upgrades to Their Digital Communication Systems

Municipal Infrastructure

Completed in January of 2020, fiber optic Internet, state-of-the-art hosted phones and unified communications transformed the city’s communications capabilities on the eve of the pandemic.

Products

High Speed, Symmetrical Fiber Optic Internet Hosted Phone Systems (VoIP)
Unified Communications (AspenUC)

 

The Challenge

“When I came on board as City Manager,” according to Kevin Kreitman, “the City of Millersburg was in dire straights when it came to our communication systems. Our phone systems were outdated and hardware upgrades would have been outrageously expensive. Our Internet was slow and unreliable, and too often down. It was so bad, we couldn’t get software upgrades for our financial software without the downloads timing out, or the update files being corrupted
upon download.

The fact that we share water and sewer services with the neighboring City of Albany, the need for “smart” digital technology was another critical driver of change. In the past, depending on the location of the caller and the nature of their need, our old system would simply go to voicemail after hours — and often to the wrong municipal number. It was a confusing, inefficient and dangerously antiquated approach to managing real-time, mission-critical communication.”

The Action

LS Networks worked with the City of Millersburg to engineer a comprehensive digital communication system across multiple workstations, hosted phones and unified communications.

  • Provided high capacity, symmetrical fiber optic Internet to Millersburg’s City Hall and Fire Station.
  • Upgraded phone systems to the Yealink hosted phone solution, provided SIP trunking for digital phone service thus eliminating more expensive, tradition phone lines.
  • Tailored a unified communications system to integrate desktop workstations, mobile devices, voice and voice transcription, IM, video conferencing, file sharing, real-time team activity status and more.
  • Greatly reduced costs associated with an overdue phone system hardware upgrade, Internet downtime and a now unnecessary redundant ISP.
  • Designed a phone tree to manage call-in routing for shared Albany, OR and Millersburg, OR utility services, and to reach specific departments, and to forward calls, IM and email to offsite workers.

“The more we learned about Unified Communications through LS Networks’ AspenUC, the more we realized what a game changer it would be for our organization. AspenUC allows all of our technology to work together for real-time collaboration. It’s a multiplier of our electronic devices and our investment in them. As a result, we experience more productivity, greater operational efficiency and customer satisfaction on a daily basis.”

-Kevin Kreitman, City Manager • City of Millersburg

By consolidating from a multi- vendor approach to LS Networks we got more than just performance, we saved money, as well. By being able to purchase redundancy from a single vendor, we don’t have to pay a second Internet provider for full redundancy.

Products

High Speed, Symmetrical Fiber Optic Internet Hosted Phone Systems (VoIP)
Unified Communications (AspenUC)

Nestled in the heart of the Willamette Valley, the small town of Millersburg (population 3,000) is growing steadily due in part to a strong industrial and agricultural base and high paying jobs. The community of Millersburg was first recognized in 1871 when Southern Pacific Railroad established a station on a donation land claim of the Miller family. Interestingly, the very same site is now nearing completion of one of the region’s largest intermodal rail complexes. This same mix of rich history and a dynamic present can be seen in the architecture of the homes and commercial buildings dating from the 1840s through the late 1920s. In fact, Millersburg has one of the most varied architectural collections of historic structures in Oregon. This same rich history is evidenced by the eight wooden covered bridges that surround the village, and reflect the industry of the founding pioneers who settled the Oregon Territory. Visit the City of Millersburg at: www.cityofmillersburg.org

The Results

With their new fiber optic internet connection, their new hosted phone system and the addition of Unified Communications linking all their electronic devices, the City of Millersburg was uniquely positioned to manage remote work and serve their constituents during the pandemic, and to thrive into a bright future.

16x When factoring in increased download speeds by a factor of 6 and increased upload speeds by a factor of 10, the City realized and aggregate increase of Internet performance of 16 times that of their previous Internet provider.

20%By eliminating their redundant ISP provider, forgoing the cost of upgrading the City’s antiquated phone system, and eliminating more costly traditional phone lines, the City saves 20% each month on their communica- tions package while enjoying a vastly superior, integrated communications system.

Headquarters

921 SW Washington St. Suite 370
Portland, OR 97205 TEL: (503) 294-5300

“LS Networks completed the installation of our fiber optic Internet, our new hosted phone system, and our training on the use of their AspenUC Unified Communications solution at the end of January of 2019. Imagine how impactful that timing was. We were able to move to remote work seamlessly; we held City Council meeting by video conference, the people we serve were able to reach first responders and other vital services in real time. The benefits are simply too numerous to list. The whole process of working with LS Networks, from installation, to training to customer service was, and continues to be, exceptional.”

-Kevin Kreitman, City Manager • City of Millersburg

LS Networks operates the largest locally owned and operated fiber-optic network in the Pacific Northwest, serving rural, urban, and underserved communities with high-speed connectivity and market-leading bandwidth that is transforming the regional telecommunications landscape for customers and partners. Our Mission is to bring fiber optic connections to underserved rural communities, helping to bridge the digital divide and social inequalities. Our Vision is to make fiber optic access more available to more communities throughout the Northwest, making it easier for them to live, work and play. We strive to be the most trusted provider through our focus on quality, innovation, and investment in our communities. LS Networks is a portfolio company of Instar Asset Management Inc. Visit https://instarinvest.com. Visit www.lsnetworks.net.

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