TechPulse 360

Voice-over-IP phone systems have steadily eroded the sales of traditional PBXs, or private branch exchanges.

Customers that make the change to VoIP hope to save money, but are typically apprehensive about the inconsistent quality of phone calls routed over the Internet instead of a more reliable network built specifically for voice.

SF Giant's Bill Schlough discusses his new VoIP phone system

But the San Francisco Giants, just finishing an implementation, say quality has not been an issue, despite worries early on. And savings amount to $1,000 a day, cutting the team’s telecommunications costs to $135,000 a year from $490,000 previously.

“We’re saving enough with the new system to put another player on the field,” says Bill Sclough, chief information officer.

The Giants purchased a half-rack system from ShoreTel, and, on Monday, Schlough showed it off publicly for the first time. He said the organization evaluated products from Cisco Systems, Avaya and Nortel (all were “solid solutions”), but selected to spend $1 million on the ShoreTel equipment.

The payback will be three years, says Schlough. “Cost savings was the real driver for this,” he adds.

The 42,000-seat AT&T Park has 457 IP phones.

ShoreTel has publicized its success selling VoIP systems to other sports teams, including the Buffalo Sabres and Sacramento River Cats.