CAN/AM's on-premise ShoreTel PBX was creating service interruptions for remote employees whenever the internet went down at their Lake Geneva headquarters — leaving staff unable to communicate with clients during active event seasons.
CTPros migrated CAN/AM to Mitel MiCloud Connect — removing the dependency on the on-premise PBX, restoring service reliability for remote staff, and saving thousands in upfront hardware and license renewal costs.
CAN/AM is a full-service provider of hockey camp and tournament destination event packages. Each year, CAN/AM manages over 600 youth hockey teams — 26,000+ players and their families — running marketing campaigns, managing team registrations, handling scheduling and rostering, securing hotels and meals, and overseeing events from start to finish. The team operates year-round from their Wisconsin headquarters and remotely from event locations across the U.S. and Canada. When communications go down, the operation goes with them.
CAN/AM had been running on a ShoreTel on-premise PBX for nearly a decade. The system worked when it worked — but whenever internet service went down at the Lake Geneva headquarters where the PBX lived, remote employees who depended on that connection lost the ability to make or receive calls entirely. For a team that spends much of the year organizing and running events across the country, that kind of single point of failure wasn't acceptable.
Eric Chapman, CAN/AM's Director, was also facing the practical question of what to do next. Several service renewals were coming due, and the cost of refreshing the on-premise infrastructure — new hardware, license fees, support agreements — was significant. Chapman reached out to CTPros, who had installed the original ShoreTel system and remained their support partner throughout, to understand what the options actually were.
"We needed to determine if it was worth paying several thousand dollars in upfront costs for a new PBX, or if we should look at other options that might be available, so I reached out to CTPros for their advice."
Eric Chapman, Director, CAN/AM
Scott Dressel, Major Accounts Manager at CTPros, led the engagement. With service renewals coming due and a remote workforce that needed reliable connectivity regardless of what happened at HQ, the analysis pointed clearly toward a hosted solution. Moving to Mitel MiCloud Connect removed the dependency on the on-premise PBX at headquarters entirely — each employee connects directly to Mitel's geo-redundant servers through their local internet connection, independent of what's happening in Lake Geneva.
Chapman was concerned about disruption — long-term employees who knew the old system well and might find the transition difficult. The migration turned out to be straightforward. The differences between the old system and the new one were described as minor, and the hosted platform proved easy to adopt.
"CAN/AM's on-premise system was initially deployed nearly ten years ago at a time when hosted VoIP solutions for businesses were not as feature-filled and reliable as they are today. For CAN/AM's situation with remote workers frequently in direct communication with clients throughout the U.S. and Canada, we had to look at all different angles to determine the best course of action."
Scott Dressel, Major Accounts Manager, CTPros
The move to MiCloud Connect resolved the service continuity problem completely. Remote employees connect directly through their own internet service — the headquarters PBX is no longer in the path. Service uptime improved immediately, and staff can respond to clients without the interruptions that had been limiting their effectiveness during active event seasons.
On the cost side, CAN/AM avoided the upfront expense of a PBX refresh — no new hardware, no license fees, no support renewal costs for on-premise infrastructure. Vendor billing simplified as well, with all telecom services outside of local internet now consolidated through a single provider.
Chapman's summary was direct: employees are happy, customers are happy, and the organization has the infrastructure it needs to keep growing.
"We are very grateful that we have CTPros as our Mitel partner. They are hands down my favorite partner to work with, and I cannot speak highly enough of them. Their expertise with our products and services helped us think through all of our options so that we could come to the right decision. I can confidently say that our employees are happy, our customers are happy, and our future is looking very bright."
Eric Chapman, Director, CAN/AM
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