Assisted Living Management Company

CASE STUDY #3: ASSISTED LIVING MANAGEMENT COMPANY

Assisted Living Management Company Turns Telecom Expense into a Profit Center

Assisted Living / Retirement Community Management Company
10 Assisted Living & Retirement Community Facilities in the Mid-Atlantic Region
620 Residence Apartments
Each of 620 resident apartments had a “residential” phone line provided by the local phone company (RBOC).
The facility had a relatively new CISCO Call Manager providing voice/phone service to the employees and all common areas at each of the 10 facilities. An MPLS network connected the 10 facilities and the corporate office.

Although the 620 resident phones were provided & maintained by the RBOC, the IT staff ended up having to deal with the daily phone issues.
The IT staff averaged 4 hours each day managing the residential phone lines.
When an apartment was vacated the IT staff would have to contact the RBOC to have the residential phone service discontinued.
When a new tenant moved in the IT staff had to once again contact the RBOC to have the phone service resumed and have the billing info changed to reflect the new tenant.

During brainstorming session with the IT staff, CISCO Engineers, and a Telecom Consultant, it was suggested that the facility roll the Residential Phones Lines over to the CISCO CM and completely remove the RBOC from the equation. After several months of research and engineering work, the following solution was put into place. The final design not only eliminated the resource drain on the IT staff, it also generated a source of income for the Management Company, and reduced the cost the residences were paying for the RBOC lines.
The facility installed CISCO phones in each of the apartments (Cat. 5 cabling was previously installed to provide Internet Access to the Residence).
Working with a SIP Provider, the 620 residential phone numbers were ported over to the SIP Provider.
Since the Facility had an MPLS network it was decided to place an MPLS node within the SIP Providers Data Center. Doing so enable CoS/QoS end-to-end ensuring perfect toll quality voice.

Each Resident saved $37 month / $444 year on their phone service. The residences were paying the RBOC an average of $72 per month for the line, fees, and long distance usage. After they switched over to the Cisco network the Facility charged the Residence only $35 month for phone services including unlimited local and long distance usage.
The IT Staff reduced their average time spent on Residences Phone problems from 4 hours down to less than 1 hour per day.
The facility created a new revenue stream from the $35/mo fee charged to the Residences.
With 620 residences @ $35/month, the Management Co. generated a new revenue stream of $21,700 month/ $260,000 year.
The facility had an upfront install cost of approximately $124,000. Monthly recurring cost for SIP Trunking and additional MPLS bandwidth was approximately $7,400, resulting in a monthly net income of $14,300 or $171,600 yearly.