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.
