St. Kilian Congregation, a Roman Catholic parish and grade school, ministers to the spiritual, physical, educational, and emotional needs of the local faith community. Located on a campus in Hartford, Wisconsin, the church of St. Kilian’s has been a presence in the area since the mid-1800's.
St. Kilian’s is an OnSIP customer, having deployed our VoIP service back in 2020. We sat down with Jenny Trimberger, IT Coordinator, to discover how the staff there uses OnSIP to support their communication needs.
Ministering to the Faith Community of Central Wisconsin
The roots of this church go back far: St. Kilian Congregation was established in 1863, while the school was set up in 1864. In 1999, St. Kilian’s merged with St. Patrick (a church in the nearby town of Erin, WI) to create the St. Kilian Parish of today.
The church and school are located on one central campus in Hartford. The clergy and staff there take care of many areas of the campus, including classrooms, administration offices, neighboring cemeteries, along with in-home visits to parishioners’ homes.
The Congregation also offers the St. Kilian Scrip Fundraising Program to grade school and Christian Formation families of the parish. This program is third source funding designed to assist in the budgetary needs of the ministries of St. Kilian Parish. Families that use this program will reduce their tuition expenses each year.
Gaining Phone System Features through a Hosted Phone System
Before OnSIP, St. Kilian’s had been utilizing a Nortel Norstar phone system that was 25 years old. Due to the age of the phone system, the parish staff were unable to repair or even replace equipment parts. While dealing with a limited phone call feature set, they also began experiencing connectivity issues. This unacceptable situation caused them to look for a new phone service.
Jenny consulted with Rhyme Business Products, a Midwest-based technology and workplace solution partner, to find a new provider. Rhyme introduced her to OnSIP hosted VoIP.
During OnSIP's 30 Day Free Trial period, Jenny and the staff were able to make test calls and set up features like voicemail boxes and attendant menus in our web-based admin portal to gauge the quality and standards of our phone service.
“The OnSIP option worked well for our budget and provided the options and features we wanted,” says Jenny. “In addition, the support available for technical questions is fantastic.”
St. Kilian’s selected OnSIP to be their new phone service in December of 2020.
OnSIP Features that a Church and Grade School Staff Can Use
Jenny and her staff set up OnSIP to enrich communication lines with parishioners and the public. An auto attendant answers each call to the parish phone number with a pre-recorded greeting and menu options for callers to choose from (e.g. ‘Press 1 for the parish office, press 2 for the school administration office...’). A dial-by-name directory lets callers use their phone keypads to be automatically transferred to a specific staff member. And OnSIP’s call reporting features enable parish staff to keep track of their monthly phone usage.
Many of St. Kilian’s staff log into the OnSIP app to make and take calls wherever they find themselves working that day. The OnSIP app is a softphone that is available in a web browser window or as a downloadable application on a laptop or smartphone. Staff members can use the version that best suits their work habits. Users of this app can also play and delete voicemails and set call preferences right in the app dashboard.
Jenny elaborates on the staff’s use of the OnSIP app: “The system is easy to use. All staff have the option to access their phone through their dedicated office/classroom phone, on their computer, or on their cell phone. Setting up features is a breeze and intuitive for our users.”
Notably, Jenny discusses how OnSIP can help the church and grade school get the message out to families during times of bad weather or other unforeseen closures. St. Kilian’s staff can log into OnSIP’s web-based admin portal and use the Announcement feature. This pre-recorded announcement can be played when callers call the parish phone number to alert them of the closure. “The online access to the phone system and features works well for situations when we need to cancel school and/or Mass due to weather.”
Finally, Jenny only has compliments for OnSIP’s Customer Support Team. If an issue ever arises, she knows that OnSIP support is only a phone call, email, or support ticket away. Of our support reps, she says: “Fantastic! Whenever I have a question for the support team, they respond quickly and walk me through the steps so I understand how to fix the issue.”
In closing, Jenny sums up St. Kilian Congregation’s switch to OnSIP in a few words: “It’s been a fantastic investment for us!”