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New phone system bid under budget

Will improve customer service, access to employees

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

Fayetteville’s City Hall and new public safety complex will be getting a new phone system for a price over 25 percent under the original budget.

Thursday night, the City Council approved spending $71,825 with PhoneWorx, Inc. for the phone system, which will allow each department and office employee to have a separate phone number so they can be directly contacted by residents and businesses, officials said.

The phone system also allows each employee to have their calls automatically forwarded to their cell phone, officials said.

The system also includes an automated attendant system for after hours operation to access immediate information or report a repair problem 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

If the problem is an emergency, the system will page an on-call city employee to check the situation.

Ultimately, all the features will help the city improve its customer service, officials said.

The bid from PhoneWorx, Inc. was more than $28,000 under the original budget for the project. The next closest bid for the work was from Southern Business Communications, which bid $95,354 and then Van Ran Communications, which bid $147,420.

Money for the project will come from the city’s capital projects fund.