Only About Children owns and operates early learning campuses across Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane, providing a unique approach to childcare that gives children the platform they need to thrive.
It’s an approach that goes beyond education, to encompass the health, social development and total wellbeing of every child in their care. When the time came to retire three separate aged phone systems, the brief - and the opportunity for improvement - was much bigger than just a like-for-like replacement. The new platform had to elevate the experience for end users - their educators and carers - and consider their everyday responsibilities to the most precious people in many families’ lives: Their children.
Key objectives were standardising the experience across every campus and providing educators and carers a phone system that was first and foremost designed with child safety in mind, as well as supporting their busy, highly mobile workdays, and allowing future new sites to be easily repeatable. A system that was simple, scalable, with safety in mind. Working alongside Aussie Broadband, Switch Connect delivered Microsoft Teams Phone on Operator Connect across 80 campuses - and shaped the rollout around both the big and little people inside them.
Founded more than twenty years ago, Only About Children (OAC) is one of Australia's largest providers of early childhood education and care, and is owned by the global Bright Horizons family. Its Australian technology function is led by the Director of Technology Andrew White - an experienced technical leader with a strong preference for automation and a low tolerance for vendors who promise more discipline than they deliver.
By the time the voice project began, OAC was managing three separate phone systems across their Australian business - the legacy of growth and acquisition. Over time, each campus ended up in a state of being configured in isolation. Voicemail behaviour was inconsistent. Call transfers worked one way at one site and another at the next. Some campuses had every handset ringing on an incoming call; others had no voicemail at all. Not only was this an inconsistent experience for the staff working across multiple campuses, the ability to quickly and easily exchange information is critical to early childhood care and education: management of medication, allergies, sickness, and families simply being able to hear the voice of the person providing care for their children. Phones connect parents, educators and campus teams every day, so consistency, and reliability matter most when safety, and attention to detail are non-negotiables.
Three phone systems, 80 ways of doing things.
OAC came to the project through Aussie Broadband, who held the carrier relationship and brought Switch Connect in as the voice and Microsoft Teams specialists. Their technology team set the partners a clear bar: the new platform had to consolidate three systems into one, bring a consistent calling experience to every campus, and fit the way early learning actually operates. It also had to make growth easy - OAC opens new campuses regularly, and onboarding a new site shouldn't mean re-architecting voice each time.
There was also an important child safety consideration. Early childhood educators are mobile by nature, spending much of their time alongside children across indoor and outdoor environments. With child safety at the centre of everything Only About Children does, communication tools need to support continuous supervision and responsiveness. Fixed wall-mounted or desk phones can require educators to move away from children to make or receive calls, which is not ideal, particularly in emergency situations.
“What stood out was how thoughtfully technology was being used to support safety, simplify processes and enable our teams to focus on what matters most.”
Andrew White, Director of Technology, Only About Children
One platform, shaped around how educators work.
Switch Connect designed and deployed Microsoft Teams Phone on Operator Connect across all 80 campuses, consolidating the three legacy systems into a single platform. Roughly 700 handsets were deployed, with a handset refresh that deployed cordless Teams phones on every campus. Educators now carry Teams Phone with them, on a device that suits the role.
Rather than configure 80 sites by hand, the team built templated, automated campus onboarding into the platform. Voicemail, transfer behaviour, call groups and out-of-hours handling were standardised, then applied consistently across the network with direct input from each campus's operations team. The same automation means OAC can stand up a new campus as a configured process rather than a rebuild.
Just as important was how the work was done. The project ran over roughly six months, on OAC's timeline, flexing around the availability of campus teams and the dynamic nature of their valued people.
“The team were always available - fluid and dynamic. We had a high-level plan, but things come up and often do need to change, and everyone was flexible and supportive through that. Having an organisation that's as flexible as Switch Connect was a real positive.”
Andrew White, Director of Technology, Only About Children
Outcomes that show up on every campus.
A phone as mobile as the educators and carers (and the children!) With cordless handsets on every campus, educators and carers can stay connected without stepping away from children, helping maintain active supervision and keeping child safety front and centre.
- A consistent experience across all 80 campuses. Voicemail, transfers, ring groups and out-of-hours handling now work the same way everywhere, replacing 80 different local setups.
- Three systems consolidated into one. A smaller supplier base, simpler support, a single set of credentials and unified reporting.
- Reporting that drives accountability. Visibility into which teams answer their queues has shifted the culture from “someone else will get it” to clear ownership.
- New campuses onboarded faster. Automation means adding a site is a configured step, not a fresh build.
- Meaningful cost reduction. Consolidating inherited contracts and right sizing the platform against real need delivered savings that OAC describe as significant.
Corporate office staff can now call campuses directly from Teams, transfer and conference them in. These small things, across 80 sites, and thousands of staff and children, add up to a network that simply works together. From a telecommunications perspective, Only About Children are now well equipped for their growth into the future.
“The team provided the governance and structure needed to deliver a complex rollout successfully, ensuring the project remained aligned, well-managed and focused on outcomes.”
Andrew White, Director of Technology, Only About Children
Why Switch Connect?
- Certified Microsoft Teams Operator Connect partner with specialist voice and converged communications experience.
- Templated, automated delivery that standardises experience across many sites and makes growth repeatable.
- Project discipline - structure, flexibility, and delivery that flexes to the customer's timeline.
- A partnership approach: knowledge and automation shared with the customer's own team as value-add.
- Strength of credentials placed Switch Connect as the voice specialist within a multi-partner delivery alongside Aussie Broadband and Microsoft.
Bring your voice into Teams, on your own terms.
Whether you're consolidating multiple systems onto one, retiring end-of-life phone systems, or looking for a specialist voice partner, Switch Connect can help.
Talk to our team today about what a Microsoft Teams Phone solution could look like for your organisation.
