Case Study: Farmington Municipal Schools achieves 90% cost savings and 95% faster VoIP onboarding with Fortinet Unified Communications

Fortinet Unified Communications Improves Connectivity for K-12 Students and Teachers

Farmington Municipal Schools, a 18-school K–12 district in northern New Mexico serving more than 10,000 students across a large rural area, faced inconsistent home connectivity for students and an aging, costly VoIP system that was difficult to manage. The district’s CTO was the sole administrator of the legacy phones, support costs were high, and remote teaching during COVID exposed the need for a simpler, secure way for teachers to call families without revealing personal numbers.

The district deployed Fortinet Unified Communications (FortiVoice, FortiFone handsets and Softclient, FortiAP, and FortiExtender) to replace the legacy system; the core was running within a week and now supports 550 physical phones and 1,000 Softclients. Results included a 95% reduction in onboarding time, more than 90% cost savings versus the prior solution, delegated administration away from the CTO, preserved teacher privacy for remote calls, and FortiExtender LTE units to provide student-only internet access at local daycares.

Farmington Municipal Schools

Robert Emerson

Chief Technology Officer