Telecom and collaboration services funding model FAQ

Introduction

Learn more about the University of Oregon’s new funding mechanism for communications and collaborative technologies (CCT), announced in January 2023. It replaces historic per-line telecom billing.

Table of Contents

• Overview of Funding Model Change
• Service Details
• Finance Details
• More Information

Overview of Funding Model Change

When will the new funding model take effect?

January 2023.

What will my unit be charged under the new funding model?

The initial charge for each Level 3 unit will be the amount it paid for telecom services in fiscal year 2020 (FY20), plus a 3% inflation factor per year up to 2023. General Fund budgets will be moved from the Level 3 units to Information Services (IS) during January 2023. Auxiliaries will have increased assessments to accomplish the same objective.

In addition, funds that units have been paying toward the UO’s Microsoft site license (informally known as “pass the hat”) will also be moved from the Level 3 units to IS to fund these services.

Why was the telecom funding model changed?

With the shift from a traditional phone system to Teams calling it no longer makes sense to charge on a per-line basis. However, costs for providing communications and collaborations technology persist and need to be sustainably funded.

We want to focus on getting the UO community the services it needs rather than distributing costs among units. It makes sense to have a single funding model for services that most UO departments use. It wouldn’t be practical to implement a fee-for-service model.

When will I find out how much my unit's budget will be reduced for the new funding model?

Budget and Resource Planning (BRP) will be sending out the CCT amount of General Fund budget change in January to each Level 3 unit. Each Level 3 unit will be asked to provide an index to move funds from. Level 3 units will be responsible for making budget changes to units within their organization that have historically been paying for telecom services but will no longer be charged.

Service Details

What services are covered by the new funding model ("in model")?

The following services are covered by the new funding model. They include cloud services used extensively throughout the UO, plus a limited number of replacement phones for specific critical safety and business uses.

• Zoom site license and existing storage.
• Voice-enabled UO directory service.
• Utility phones (traditional analog or IP phones) for specific critical safety-related and business uses, if the phone line already exists.
• Microsoft 365 site license, including:
  • Dozens of Office apps and other services available to all UO affiliations, such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneDrive, Outlook, UOmail email, and Teams.
  • Teams calling service available to UO employees, as noted in the table below.

    Microsoft 365 services by UO affiliation.

    UO Affiliation	Office apps	OneDrive	UOmail	Teams Calling
    Administrative Faculty (OA)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
    Staff	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
    Faculty	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
    Emerit	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
    Trustee	Yes	Yes	Yes	As needed*
    Graduate Employee	Yes	Yes	Yes	As needed*
    Student Employee	Yes	Yes	Yes	As needed*
    Temporary Employee	Yes	Yes	Yes	As needed*
    Associate	Yes	Yes	Yes	As needed*
    Courtesy	Yes	Yes	Yes	As needed*
    Retired (upon request by dept.)	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
    Student	Yes	Yes	Yes	No

    *Teams calling may be available to these affiliations if needed for UO business. Departmental phone coordinators can contact IS to inquire about each individual.

What services fall outside the new funding model ("out of model")?

The following telecom and collaboration services, which are used by a smaller portion of the UO community, won’t be covered by the new funding model and will require separate fees for service:

• Utility phones (traditional analog or IP phones) for certain other business uses (see What will a utility voice phone cost?), plus all new traditional phone lines after January 2023.
• Amazon Connect call centers.
• Telephone lines for fax services.
• International calls.
• Toll-free service (to receive toll-free calls to a dedicated 800 number).
• Hardware for running any CCT services (examples: desktop computers, laptops, tablets, smartphones).
• Headset replacements.
• Significant configuration changes to existing Teams calling call queues or auto-attendants.
• Data network connectivity for remote sites.
• Event-related network and voice services.
• Network jack activations.
• Network wiring installation.
• Residence hall student network services.
• Wireless access point installation.
• Phone lines from Lumen and other local phone companies.
• Two-way radios.
• Cable television service.
• Zoom storage expansions.
• Dropbox. (See How does Dropbox fit in here?)
• Dedicated Zoom webinar licenses and other non-standard Zoom licenses.
• Conference room licenses for Teams.
• Microsoft services beyond the UO site license (examples: SQL Server, Project, Visio).

The following additional services aren’t provided by Information Services at all:

• Physical phones for running Teams calling.
• Cellular devices or services beyond Teams calling in the Teams smartphone app. (UO-issued cell phones are provided by individual departments.)
• Conference room speakerphones and videoconferencing hardware.
• Fax machines.
• Phone lines for alarm panels. (FASS-IT supports cellular dialers for alarm panels.)

How does Dropbox fit in here?

In 2020, IS provided Dropbox, a secure cloud storage service, to all UO faculty, staff, and students to support remote work and learning during the pandemic. Dropbox complements OneDrive, the secure cloud storage service already available to the UO community through our Microsoft license.

Although Dropbox is considered a CCT service, it falls outside the above new funding model. IS will be reviewing whether this service is still needed university-wide, and, if so, what the funding model will be for licensing beyond the UO research community. IS plans to work out those details with our UO partners before the start of FY24. Until then, there will be no new charges for new or existing UO Dropbox users.

What will a utility voice phone cost?

All utility phones requested by UO departments will incur the following charges:

• For phone service:
  • $31/month per line.
• For phone installation (in each work order):
  • $80.00 for the first or single phone installation.
  • $40.00 for each additional phone installation (in the same work order).

Non-UO customers

Phones requested by a non-UO entity, typically a tenant, will be charged $61/month per line. (Fees subject to change.)

Additional fees

If no wiring exists for a phone installation, any capital construction costs incurred from installing any wiring will be charged to the requesting school, department, program, or institute.

Finance Details

Are there any discounts for part-time staff, nine-month academic employees, or people who currently don’t use any UO phone service?

No. The university will no longer have a per-line telecom charging system for most services. Please see above for details about the funding model.

The new funding model will ultimately provide the above services to the affiliations noted, regardless of their current phone usage.

How will the new funding model work for grant-funded staff?

Going forward, grants won’t be charged for communications and collaborative technologies, including for phone service through Teams calling.

Utility phones, if approved for a grant-funded purpose, would fall outside of this funding model and would therefore require a separate per-line monthly service change. (see What will a utility voice phone cost?)

If new numbers must be assigned to people who previously shared a traditional phone, will my department need to pay more?

If those people have transitioned to Teams calling, then there are no additional charges.

However, if your department asks to keep a traditional phone for any out-of-model business use, there will be an additional per-line monthly service charge. (see What will a utility voice phone cost?)

How will the budget reallocations be adjusted over time?

For General Fund units there will be no changes over time. The university will centrally manage cost pressures associated with inflation or increases in employee counts. For those units charged overhead assessments, the cost of providing communications and collaboration technologies will be included in the regular overhead assessment adjustment process. As costs change for CCT, they will be reflected in changes in overhead assessment rates published on the BRP and Business Affairs (BA) websites.

Any new General Fund units that require additional services covered in the CCT funding model will be included without charge, like all other General Fund units. New units which are subject to assessments will have CCT services funded through those assessments.

My unit doesn’t pay overhead charges currently. Will we be charged for the funding model separately?

If you are charging a phone to Designated Operations, Service Center, or Auxiliary funds and not paying overhead, a permanent one-time budget change will come from the Level 3 unit's General Fund allocation.

How can I see the monthly billing for my department?

Units will no longer be billed monthly for costs within the CCT funding model. This will be covered through a permanent one-time budget pullback from General Fund Level 3 units and a permanent assessment change for Auxiliaries.

Units may still be billed monthly for out-of-model telecom and collaboration services. That information will continue to be available in the existing telecom billing system, viewable by departmental phone coordinators and other employees with budget authority. Bills reflecting updated telecom charges are available for viewing as of June 21, 2023. If you have any questions, please submit a ticket at Voice Services Support.

More Information

Who can I contact for more information?

• If you have questions about CCT program technology services, please contact cctprogram@uoregon.edu.
• If you have financial questions, please contact Stuart Laing, director of budget operations at BRP, at slaing@uoregon.edu.