MS TEAMS // ON-PREM TO CLOUD MIGRATION
SIGHT AND SOUND THEATRES
ABOUT SIGHT & SOUND THEATRES
With a decade of operating two theaters, producing and premiering a brand-new show every other year, and designing each production to travel between Lancaster and Branson, Sight & Sound Theatres has honed the craft of bringing stories from the pages of Scripture to life on stage. What began with a dairy farmer, his wife, a few slide projectors, and a passion for creativity grew into the Sight & Sound Theatres we know today—the nation’s largest organization of its kind and one of the top three theater destinations in the country. Sight & Sound remains a family-owned business, led by the next generation of the Eshelman family, with a passionately committed team of more than 700 employees.
CHALLENGE
Sight & Sound Theatres has a practical policy of reviewing their technology upon contract renewal.
“If the product is not functioning the way we need it to, we need to keep track of the lifecycle. When it comes due, we need to review and see what else is out there.”
– Matthew Miles, Sys Admin and IT Supervisor, Sight & Sound
The team recognized it was time to move from an on-premises phone system to Microsoft Teams for better features, improved pricing, and reduced IT workload.
“With our on-prem solution, we were at the end of our lifecycle change. We knew there were going to be lots of licensing to repurchase, dedicated SIP trunks needed to be renewed, and all the phone hardware was going to have to be replaced. We were in a prime spot to go out and look and see what the options were – and when we found CallTower, we were like ‘well, this is kind of perfect.’”
– Rob Taylor, Director of IT, Sight & Sound
SOLUTION
CallTower offered a robust and native Microsoft Teams Direct Routing solution with great features at a lower cost. As a Microsoft Gold Partner providing cloud voice solutions, CallTower has years of experience voice-enabling Microsoft solutions. Their monitoring and management services ensure the highest quality user experience. Globally, CallTower is one of the few organizations certified to provide voice with Microsoft Teams and has extensive experience transitioning companies from on-premises systems to Teams.
THE RESULTS
One of the standout features for Sight & Sound was the minimal disruption during the transition from their on-premises system. The Sight & Sound and CallTower teams worked over a holiday weekend to switch out all the hardware in one sweep. The following day, the tech team only needed to field a few connection issues, as most employees continued using the system seamlessly.
Adoption has been exceptional across the board. For example, the security team can now easily coordinate efforts with their “desk phone” always accessible.
“The sheer mobility it’s giving people to work from home now is nothing but good.”
– Matthew Miles
Sight & Sound Theatres has praised the transition to Teams, highlighting benefits such as:
- No more desk space needed for phones
- Great features
- Simplified helpdesk queries
The support and implementation teams have been top-notch, and Sight & Sound looks forward to enjoying their new system for years to come.
ABOUT CALLTOWER
Experience seamless, intelligent communication with CallTower, your trusted cloud communications provider.
We specialize in:
- Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS)
- Collaboration
- Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS)
- Conversational AI (CAI)
Our expertise and commitment to exceptional Customer Experience (CX) empower businesses to connect, collaborate, and grow with ease. From streamlining workflows to proactive management and strategic guidance, our innovative and scalable solutions are designed to meet your unique business needs.