Industry Deep Dive: How the City of Baltimore Uses Mitel to Power Citywide Communications
By Simon Etta, City of Baltimore | Mitel User Group Board Member
For city government, communications are critical infrastructure. Every call supports public safety, city operations, or a resident seeking help. At the City of Baltimore, we support more than 10,000 end users across dozens of departments, which means our communications platform has to be reliable, scalable, and ready for both everyday operations and emergency situations.
My name is Simon Etta, and I work for the City of Baltimore. We are a large government Mitel customer, and I have been working with Mitel for approximately seven years. In my current role, Mitel serves as the City’s primary voice and data communications platform, delivering end-to-end Unified Communications across all departments.
Mitel replaced the incumbent ILEC that had provided communication services to the City for decades. This marked a significant shift in how communications are delivered and managed across city government.
Over time, Mitel has evolved from a traditional telephony replacement into a comprehensive Unified Communications solution. Today, it supports critical services such as Police, Fire, and 311 operations. This evolution has allowed the City to modernize its communications infrastructure while maintaining the reliability, security, and performance required for mission-critical public safety and citizen services.
Addressing Public-Sector Communications Challenges
One of the key communications challenges unique to city government was that our legacy system offered limited features and was not cost-efficient. Telecom expenses continued to rise while delivering little added value to meet the growing needs of residents and city operations.
The City also required robust call centers with IVR capabilities to manage high call volumes and deliver consistent service across multiple departments. These were capabilities the legacy system could not support. Public accountability and the need to deliver reliable constituent-facing services made system reliability and visibility especially important.
Why Mitel Was the Right Fit
Mitel helped address these challenges by providing a cost-effective, feature-rich solution that could scale with the City’s growth. The platform delivered strong call center functionality, including ACD and IVR, while also supporting modern collaboration tools such as chat, messaging, and video.
Mitel was the right fit for Baltimore due to its competitive pricing, carrier-class reliability, and proven experience delivering solutions for both government and private-sector organizations. This combination of cost effectiveness, dependable performance, and experience in complex, multi-agency environments made Mitel the ideal partner for the City’s Unified Communications needs.
Implementation at City Scale
Implementing VoIP in a public-sector environment presented challenges beyond a typical private-sector deployment. Migrating from a legacy Centrex system to VoIP significantly improved productivity by assigning each user a unique Direct Inward Dial number rather than shared lines.
However, this change introduced strict E911 compliance requirements. Every number had to be accurately entered and maintained in the E911 database with correct street addresses, suite numbers, and location details. Ongoing user moves and changes required constant administrative oversight to remain compliant and ensure public safety.
The City’s decentralized structure added further complexity. Each agency operates as an independent business unit with its own cost centers, billing requirements, and operational needs. As a result, all system programming, call routing, and billing had to be configured and tracked at the agency level. While the VoIP system delivered modern capabilities and operational efficiencies, success depended on careful coordination, detailed data management, and strong governance.
Training, Adoption, and Ongoing Support
Successful VoIP adoption required deliberate changes to workflows and focused staff training. End users needed structured training to understand and accept the new technology, particularly to move away from legacy practices such as holding and paging calls in favor of transferring calls.
Training was conducted in small groups to maintain call coverage and reinforce new call-handling procedures. Agencies also required ongoing training and configuration support for advanced features such as call center logins, callbacks, and call recording. These capabilities required frequent follow-up and adjustments to meet operational needs, making continuous training and process refinement essential.
Unexpected Benefits and Long-Term Value
After Mitel was fully implemented, several unexpected benefits emerged. One of the most significant was the City’s ability to capture accurate, centralized call totals for the first time. Previously, call data was fragmented across more than 50 separate systems. Mitel enabled comprehensive call tracking and reliable statistics to support planning and decision-making.
Over time, the system design evolved beyond the original implementation. Increased resiliency and additional features were introduced as Mitel continued to support new technologies and adapt to a changing technology landscape. This flexibility allowed the City to modernize incrementally while maintaining a stable and dependable communications platform.
Measurable Impact Across the City
Since implementing Mitel, the City has seen clear improvements in efficiency, responsiveness, collaboration, and continuity of service. Citywide deployment of MiCollab enabled telework capabilities, allowing staff to continue operations during disaster situations or service disruptions.
Call centers were enhanced with MIR call recording and chat functionality, improving quality assurance and customer engagement through exit interviews and post-call analysis. The migration to the CX Call Center softphone further increased flexibility by allowing agents to answer calls from virtually anywhere. Together, these enhancements strengthened workforce mobility and modernized the City’s communications environment.
Perspectives d'avenir
Unified Communications will continue to play a critical role in supporting the City’s operations and public engagement. Tools such as Mitel Revolution provide reliable connectivity during special or emergency situations. The Power Dialer enables rapid outreach to more than 50,000 residents for important programs such as Water for All.
City employees benefit from MiCollab’s mobile and desktop applications, ensuring they remain reachable and responsive regardless of location. Overall, Mitel has significantly expanded the City of Baltimore’s telephony and communication options, providing a flexible platform that will continue to evolve alongside the City’s operational and community needs.
Advice for Other Public-Sector Leaders
Public-sector leaders should recognize that premise-based systems are not going away. They remain essential for building secure, reliable, and resilient communications environments. A well-designed on-premises solution provides the call clarity, quality of service, and control required to operate a successful telecommunications department.
At the same time, hybrid approaches such as Mitel’s CloudLink connector offer the flexibility and AI-driven capabilities typically associated with cloud systems without sacrificing reliability or performance. Balancing on-premises stability with cloud-enabled innovation allows public-sector organizations to meet today’s demands while remaining prepared for future technologies.
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