Government Done Right: How Intorrent Increases Efficiency in the Public Sector

Equipping Elected Officials In and Out of the Office

Through a wide variety of features and an easy-to-use, intuitive user interface, Intorrent streamlines communications, helping public servants make their cities and towns better places to live and work.

About Cannon Township

Cannon Township is a local government serving 13,000 people on the north side of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Its many duties include property assessment, planning and zoning, code enforcement, operating the fire department, and parks and recreation.

Identifying the Problem

Cannon Township had been using an outdated analog phone system for many years. The voicemail system was wearing out and was difficult to access outside of the office. Though it handles many public functions, and is staffed by numerous officials, Cannon Township did not have the ability to forward voicemails.

Better Voicemail, Conferencing, Remote Access

With Intorrent’s Western Michigan partner reseller, VanBelkum Companies, Cannon Township was approached with a new and improved way to communicate with constituents. Intorrent Cyclone, Intorrent’s customer premise VoIP solution, was identified as the best option. After implementation, Cannon Township was using the improved system’s easy-to-use switchboard seamlessly from day one. Formerly a problem, voicemail is now forwarded through email as audio files. And conference calling enables remote meetings and faster decision making. “Conference calling has been a big help to us here in the sense that we’re able to conference in board members when they’re on remote trips, and it allows to us have conference discussions with our computer and software vendors while we’re doing hands-on work,” said Jim LaPeer, Treasurer of Cannon Township.

Disaster Recovery

Cannon Township expanded its phone connectivity to a remote fire station site three miles away. In addition to linking communications between the two locations, the fire station now serves as a disaster recovery site. Should a fire, tornado or other disaster befall the office, phone communications can be reestablished within two days at the fire station. “We have everything we need to run the township operations from that site in a disaster situation,” said LaPeer.