Christs College

About

Christ’s College, a renowned boys’ school in Christchurch, is committed to nurturing young men to become individuals who positively impact society. With the guiding mission, “Each boy at his best,” the school combines 175 years of tradition with modern technology. To support their advancing technological requirements—essential to delivering an exceptional daily educational experience—Christ’s College sought a trusted and well-established telco partner.

The Challenge

Unhappy with their previous service provider, Paul Rodley, Director of Digital Services at Christ’s College, saw the search for a new telecommunications partner as an opportunity to not only enhance their voice solution but also find a partner capable of evolving with their connectivity needs.

“We were looking for a true partner. Christ’s College has its own in-house IT Team that carries a full workload, and we needed a telco that we could work alongside to ensure the best possible outcome.”

In their pursuit of a scalable, cost-effective, and user-friendly voice solution to meet the needs of the entire school, Christ’s College sought a provider that was both dependable and innovative. Paul set clear expectations from the start, determined not to compromise after experiencing subpar telco service in the past.

The Solution

From the outset, it was clear that Christ’s College required a versatile voice solution capable of supporting diverse call flows, users, and functionality across the school. This solution also needed to include a seamless onboarding experience and premium redundancy to avoid disruptions to daily operations.

Voyager embraced the challenge. Through in-depth discussions between Patrick Gensch, Principal Consultant at Voyager, and Christ’s College’s Paul Rodley and Mark Gillette, Voyager gained a thorough understanding of the school’s unique needs. Working within the timeframe of the school term break, Voyager successfully completed an on-site installation and training program. Beyond the initial implementation, Voyager continued to provide ongoing support to ease the workload of the in-house IT team and ensure uninterrupted connectivity for students and staff alike.

Voyager’s Chief Technology Officer, Cliff Black, collaborated with the school’s existing IT partner to recommend a critical network upgrade to dedicated fibre. This upgrade delivered faster, more reliable connections with enhanced privacy, reduced contention and enterprise grade redundancy. Additionally, Voyager equipped staff working remotely with business-grade broadband and VoIP services, ensuring their work with students remained uninterrupted.

Deidre Steyn, Voyager CEO, reflected on the project noting: “collaborating with Paul and Mark to understand their needs, drivers and desired outcomes highlighted numerous areas for improvement to existing processes.”

The result was a comprehensive VoIP phone system powered by Voyager Voice, featuring softphones that allowed users to make calls via their desktop or mobile devices. This eliminated the need for physical hardware and enabled seamless remote capabilities—an invaluable feature during lockdowns. As noted by Paul; “Scaling up our softphone usage, when necessary, over lockdowns was a seamless process, and it was achieved in a very quick timeframe thanks to Voyager’s rapid response.” The final solution went beyond expectations, incorporating a highly redundant dedicated fibre network to keep Christ’s College running smoothly, with two dedicated fibre connections diverse in hardware, carriers, and geography.

The Result

By partnering with Voyager as their telecommunications provider, Christ’s College not only achieved their goal of a superior voice solution and service but also discovered a partner committed to going above and beyond. Voyager’s dedication was evident in the seamless network upgrade, rapid implementation, ongoing training, and cost savings delivered throughout the process. Voyager is proud to support Christ’s College and looks forward to continuing to enhance their connection and voice solutions, ensuring they stay equipped to meet future needs with confidence.

“Voyager was excellent to work with, from scoping through to delivery and ongoing support. We appreciated their patience as they worked with us to understand our requirements and allow us to reflect on what we were actually doing in order to come up with a best-fit solution. It’s a true partnership-based relationship with two-way communication and discussion. Voyager’s outstanding project management led to a seamless migration with minimal disruption to business as usual. And on top of all that, they delivered significant cost savings. "