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Originally Posted On: Follow Your Calling – UC Today

 

Doing good around the world is a worthy cause upon which hundreds of millions of people depend.

Whether it’s helping fight famine, poverty or war, the non-profit sector is hard at work everywhere.

On the frontline, it is often unsophisticated, hard, physical labour that saves lives: building; transporting; nursing.

But – as with every other aspect of our myriad human endeavours – technology plays an intrinsic part.

That means partnering a non-profit can be much more than simply supplying a product or delivering a service.

For the communications sector in particular, it’s a platform upon which to not only contribute to the greater good, but to practically and critically connect all those out there making a difference.

“There’s an extra dynamic at play when you work with a non-profit,” says Mike Nowak, Senior Vice President of Sales at US-based global mid-market managed services provider BCM One, which has recently done just that.

Working with a US and Canada-headquartered charity dedicated to “relief, service and peace” around the world, BCM One switched the organisation’s traditional call-managed telephony to Voice Enabled Microsoft Teams.

Competition was fierce but BCM One won out on several, important fronts: proof, if any were needed, that the non-profit sector is every bit as focused on ALL the procurement check boxes as its commercially-driven counterparts.

First: The Functionality.

Technology can be complex for some – an expert and experienced hand to hold is vital.

“They already used Microsoft Teams for internal collaboration,” says Nowak.

“However, they were also paying a provider for call manager services, equipment and maintenance.

“We explained the Teams functionality, and how we could integrate their telephony AND port all of their existing numbers over.

“We also offered an easy-access graphical e911 portal interface to manage their emergency contact protocols.

“Additionally, they didn’t want to worry about all of the back-end PowerShell configuration, so we took care of that too.

“They saw how a Teams integration could serve their administrative centers and their people out in the field much more effectively AND save the organisation money.”

Then: Trust.

Achieving voice uptime for mission-critical voice services was a cause of concern.

Deploying the new solution over BCM One’s own uber-reliable SIP technology AND with its own powerful hosted SBC at the heart of it all was a potent differentiator.

“Owning our own SIP trunking is what sets us apart,” says Nowak. “It makes a huge difference to what we can deliver.

“They quickly understood that this wasn’t our first rodeo and that our infrastructure was powerful, scalable and dependable.

“We also added automatic disaster recovery functionality in the event that the Teams Phone System was not reachable, which settled their nerves around the critical issue of redundancy”

Next: Pace.

Organizations – no matter their sector or size – face huge change-management challenges when transforming technology or process.

Risk, too, must be mitigated.

“We produced an intelligent plan to allow them to migrate at their own pace,” says Nowak.

“They didn’t want a hot cut-over of all their 400 users so we were able to be nimble and to phase things, starting with their strategic sites but having the ground prepared for when they wanted to jump big later.”

Finally: Cost.

It remains an important (some might say THE most important) factor for most organisations – but doubly so for a non-profit.

Again, BCM One went to church.

“Crucially, we sell our Teams minute plan solutions as opposed to per person calling plans,” says Nowak.

“We provided a 120,000-minute pool for 400 users and leveraged BCM One direct routing calling plans as a phase 1 to help control costs of their rollout.

“Of course, cost is still a big check box for everyone but when considered in the wider context of our other significant differentiators, it was just the final piece of the jigsaw.”

The end result?

Well, BCM One’s customer is surely better-adapted to the extraordinary, daily challenges of helping those in the world who need it most.

And BCM One itself gets to regularly reflect on how it’s playing its own small (but critical) role in the work of an inspirational partner.

Now THAT’S what you call a win, win…

To learn more BCM One and how it can empower your organization through its Voice Enabled Teams solution, visit BCM One.