International School of Geneva enhances connection across campuses

Overview: Smoothly migrating from Fuze to 8x8 Work helped the International School of Geneva elevate its communications and empower faculty and staff to work efficiently from anywhere. With the ability to take calls across devices—from mobile phones to iPads to laptops—staff now enjoy greater flexibility, improved call quality, and streamlined telephony management. In turn, greatly streamlining the admissions and education process.

“Moving to 8x8 gave us the optimal hybrid working approach, supported by the ideal mix of physical and softphones, with a solid unified communications roadmap to grow. We also felt confident they were the best choice in terms of reliability, integration possibilities, and migration support. That trust soon paid back when we completed the upgrade from Fuze without any trouble."

Roman Larran

ICT Infrastructure Manager, International School of Geneva

Inspiring a brighter tomorrowlink to this section

International School of Geneva, known also as Ecolint (École Internationale de Genève), is one of Switzerland’s top private, non-profit education providers. Birthplace to the International Baccalaureate academic program, it serves students from ages 3 to 18 across three campuses, offering bilingual (French and English) and international education.

What sets the school apart is its strong humanitarian focus—teaching students to be global citizens with the courage and capacity to create a just, joyful tomorrow. A mission that relies heavily on an effective voice platform, enabling over 1,000 staff and 4,400 students to engage and collaborate with ease across three campuses. Behind this is a team of IT experts who share the same humanitarian values and excel in problem solving.

“I want to do my best for the children and our teachers and administrators who inspire them to create a better future,” says Roman Larran, ICT Infrastructure Manager, International School of Geneva. “That means making sure our systems run smoothly and securely, while always looking to improve the learning experience.”

However, achieving those goals with on-premises legacy telephony systems and desk phones was challenging, offering little room for progress through feature-rich features. Roman and his team sought a futureproofed, cloud-based communications solution.

Ticking all the essential boxes link to this section

As part of a thorough search and evaluation process, the school compared several vendors before selecting 8x8 as its innovation partner.

“Moving to 8x8 gave us the optimal hybrid working approach, supported by the ideal mix of physical and softphones, with a solid unified communications roadmap to grow,” Roman notes. “We also felt confident they were the best choice in terms of reliability, integration possibilities and migration support. That trust soon paid back when we completed the upgrade from Fuze without any trouble.”

Flexible teaching and learning, powered by smart cloud communicationslink to this section

Now, with 8x8 Work®, faculty and administrators find it much easier to stay connected, engaged, and productive—regardless of their location or choice of device. Dedicated and wall-mounted phones in staff rooms, sports halls, and corridors complement softphones that allow users to take calls on the move.

“Improved call quality was another big win for us,” says Josué Mouco, ICT Network Administrator, International School of Geneva.

Parents and community members calling school reception also enjoy a better experience—delivered faster and with much less strain on IT resources. The new system also offers the choice of conversing in French or English as well.

For example, the IT team used to exert lots of effort manually managing call queues and announcements, which need to be recorded in both English and French. Messages are now recorded by end users without IT support, in a fraction of the time that it used to take. Other key system changes include the ability to schedule staff working hours and holidays, in turn re-routing calls to the next best-placed colleague.

“We’ve even started to train our receptionists, so they can make their own changes using the admin console,” adds Josué. “It was also pretty simple to integrate our stored Google contacts and phone numbers, which was another huge time saver.”

Operational efficiency smooths peak admission spikeslink to this section

International School of Geneva has successfully unified voice communications across three campuses, significantly boosting staff mobility, and the handling of 6,500 inbound calls during peak admission months.

“Improved call quality was another big win for us.”

Josué Mouco

ICT Network Administrator, International School of Geneva

Along with losing the cost and burden of on-site telephony and infrastructure maintenance, the school’s IT team enjoys a simpler relationship with one carrier, one call plan, and predictable pricing.

Looking ahead: next steps for innovationlink to this section

Roman and Josué are already exploring new ideas to build on 8x8 Work to further improve the experience for students, parents, and staff.

“We’re considering integrating other systems, like our CRM, to automatically display student records and payment histories during calls,” says Roman. “For example, to streamline the enrolment and admissions process. Or to improve security and emergency management.”

The solution also provides a ready-made roadmap for unifying voice, video, chat, and meetings on a single platform.

The future looks bright as the school remains strongly placed to achieve its humanitarian mission in inspiring tomorrow’s new generation of problem solvers.