The Orangetown Council will discuss the continuation of the Town Network Infrastructure Project as part of its workshop meeting 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Orangetown Town Hall.
The next part of the project would be switching to an internet-based phone system, a move that was put on hold in 2011 due to changes in the town's IT staff.
Anthony Bevelacqua of the Orangetown IT Department and Director of Fiscal Services Ann Maestri provided a memo with the current status and recommendations regarding the move to the new phone system, which is attached to this report as part of the backup information for the workshop.
The current recommendation is the 3CX system, which was first tested in the Orangetown Parks and Recreation Department. It has since been used with Blue Hill Maintenance, the Blue Hill Pro Shop, the town building department, fire prevention and building maintenance and town hall extensions for Bevelacqua, Maestri and Town Justice Patrick Loftus.
Next in line would be all other departments with the short-term exceptions of the Orangetown Police Department, museum and Broadacres Golf Course.
According to the memo, 3CX offers the following benefits:
- Allows direct four-digit dialing among town phones.
- Allows the public access to all departments via the main town phone number, but also allows the departments to keep their current direct dial numbers.
- Residents can be transferred to any four-digit extension.
- Calls are not limited by phone lines, only bandwidth.
- It offers increased user flexibility, such as receiving voicemail messages as e-mail attachments and setting up call forwarding.
- System maintenance can be handled by existing town staff, including adding numbers and extensions.
- There is a one-time payment for the system, with maintenance costs going forward.
The quote given the town for the purchase of 3CX was $37,000, though the town would also have to pay a one-time fee to its current phone system, Avaya, when the current contract expires in June.
The town will also consider adding a policy for notification of computer system security breaches. The primary goal is to alert individuals to any threat of potential identity theft.
The full agenda for Tuesday's workshop is attached to this report.
