Virginia Women’s Center (VWC) is a full-service OB/GYN practice with seven locations across Central Virginia. With a very active centralized call center, VWC has over 420 extensions shared among five Richmond area locations and their two additional Northern Neck locations—Kilmarnock and Tappahannock.

Virginia Women’s Center (VWC) is a full-service OB/GYN practice with seven locations across Central Virginia. With a very active centralized call center, VWC has over 420 extensions shared among five Richmond area locations and their two additional Northern Neck locations—Kilmarnock and Tappahannock.

In healthcare, communication is critical. Historically, VWC phone usage and long-distance charges continued to rise each year. When Avaya declared bankruptcy and was acquired by a new company in 2017, VWC took the opportunity to explore alternative communication solutions. “The cost of ongoing Avaya support and the requisite system upgrades were concerning,” says Frances Schwartz, Communications System Manager for VWC. “In researching available communication platforms and solutions, we learned that Switchvox does not require a monthly maintenance fee. In fact, all that is required is an annual license renewal.”

Built on Asterisk, the revolutionary open source telecommunications development platform, Switchvox provides the full range of advanced Unified Communications (UC) functionality, incorporating many key features to enable business communications. Switchvox is easily provisioned with a GUI that allows the configuration of multiple users and short timeline for system setup. Switchvox is ideal for any size business that wants excellent performance with a highly redundant, full-featured PBX. Standard operating procedures require that VWC always has someone answering the phone during business hours. They have an auto attendant set up to redirect overflow calls. This attendant system also provides direction for after-hours callers, weekends, holidays, and emergency closings. It is the added SIP trunks that truly make the system affordable while enabling superior call clarity and network flexibility. SIP trunks are a VoIP protocol by which Internet telephony service providers (ITSPs) deliver telephone services and unified communications to customers free from long distance charges and other usage charges. Because Switchvox is continually improved, VWC looks forward to future updates and upgrades to the Switchvox platform, further enhancing the Switchvox features Schwartz feels are necessary to meet their practice needs.