Merced College Moves to the Cloud

What Changed

Merced College already used Zoom for instruction and meetings through a licensing agreement with the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office. When it came time to evaluate cloud phone platforms, Zoom was a natural starting point. The team also looked at Microsoft Teams but found it more complex to configure and manage. Zoom was already familiar, already trusted, and the Chancellor’s Office contract offered competitive pricing for Zoom Phone.

Maverick Networks helped the college evaluate the move and then led the migration from start to finish. The project team, led by Harrison and Susan, worked alongside Merced’s internal project coordinator to plan and execute every detail. That included inventorying every phone and extension, mapping call routing and auto-attendant trees, coordinating number porting from AT&T, and managing the physical swap of handsets across multiple buildings.

“When Maverick offered to bring their team in and manage the entire process for us, that was exactly what we needed.”

— Arlis Bortner

The team found ways to stretch the budget. The college’s newest handsets turned out to be compatible with Zoom, so those were reused. Inexpensive Poly phones filled the remaining gap. And before the cutover, the college ran a campaign encouraging users to drop their physical phones entirely in favor of the Zoom desktop and mobile app, a trade many were happy to make.

Fax lines had been a lingering concern, but a timely update to Zoom’s licensing added fax capabilities at no additional cost. E911 compliance, another worry, was resolved through Zoom’s per-user building identification, which gave the college enough granularity without requiring complex IP mapping. Emergency devices like elevator phones and code blue stations were transitioned to a dedicated provider.

The team began staging phone handset moves over the weekend leading up to cutover. Staff relocated phones between buildings in a carefully sequenced plan, reconfiguring and redelivering handsets based on a shared tracking spreadsheet. By cutover Monday, the phones were online. 

After go-live, Harrison remained on-site for several days, resolving call-routing adjustments, working directly with departments like the police department that had specialized needs, and fine-tuning configurations in real time.

Results

The impact was felt almost immediately. Staff can now take and make calls from any location, whether they are on campus, at home, or at a satellite facility. On High-Flex Fridays, student services staff relocate to a single building, but students never notice. The phone numbers stay the same, and calls route to the right people regardless of where they are sitting.

Every user now receives voicemail transcriptions delivered directly to their email, a feature previously limited to a small group on a higher-tier license. The college also eliminated its network of analog copper lines and ATA devices, reducing maintenance and physical infrastructure.

Faxing, once dependent on dedicated hardware, now runs through Zoom at no extra cost. Group and individual fax capabilities gave departments flexibility without requiring physical machines.

“All the features and functionality of a traditional phone system, but available from anywhere you are. That’s huge for us.” — Arlis Bortner

Why It Worked

Maverick Networks had supported Merced College’s communications for a decade. That history meant the project team already understood the college’s infrastructure, its call flows, and its operational quirks. There was no ramp-up period, no discovery from scratch.

“Maverick already knew our environment. They guided us through the entire process so we didn’t have to figure it out on our own.” — Arlis Bortner

The Maverick team coordinated number porting, managed the phone inventory, configured the new platform before the cutover, and worked directly with departments to design call routing that matched how people actually wanted to work, not just how the old system had been set up. Training sessions helped staff build confidence before go-live, and post-cutover support ensured that issues were addressed on the spot.

“The team is dedicated to getting it right. They have real expertise, and when they don’t know something, they find out. You never feel like a burden. It’s always about solving the problem.” — Arlis Bortner

When an issue surfaced early in the project, Bortner reached out to Maverick CEO Aaron, who took the call while on vacation and made sure it was handled. It turned out to be a non-issue, but the responsiveness left a lasting impression.

“Even at the CEO level, Aaron was always there for us. That tells you a lot about the kind of company Maverick is.” — Arlis Bortne