Hosted Telephony for Charities

Ensuring Charities are available 24/7 with Horizon

Background

Due to the nature and urgency of the work that takes place within charities, a reliable telephone system is of paramount importance. Helplines need to be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week – should a crisis occur, there must be a continuity plan in place.

The Challenge

Charities deal with many sensitive subjects, therefore privacy is a big issue when it comes to technology. The phone system must ensure that any information held is confidential and secure. Many charities have shops and help points spread over a wide area which can be challenging to administrate. They need to provide a reliable, efficient service which is capable of providing help to those who need it, and also deal with calls from people wishing to make donations.

An issue for many charities is the high number of employees spread across different locations. the phone system must allow people to get through wherever they are, and to the correct person and location. While the telephony system is a crucial aspect especially for charity helplines, a reliable service is needed within a limited budget. Unfortunately high quality telephony features often come with a high price tag.

The Solution

• Sophisticated disaster recovery
  Vital for charity helplines, this will enable calls to continue to be received even in the event of a disaster. Calls can be sent to a mobile, another office, or any UK number
• Advanced call reporting
  Staff allocation can be difficult for charities that take a lot of inbound calls. But, with an advanced call reporting solution they can see where the peaks and troughs are in terms of calls that come in, and allocate staff accordingly.
• Centrally managed administration portal
  Many charities operate from a central office and then have multiple satellite shops, making administration a very long and often expensive affair, with engineers travelling large distances just to make small changes to a system. The Horizon portal ensures that changes can be made remotely, saving travel costs and time.
• Sequential ring sequence
  Should a call come into a shop that is unable to take it, a sequential ring sequence can be initiated to enable the call to bounce from one shop to the other. Likewise within a call centre environment, if an agent is not available, the call can be bounced from one agent to another. This way, calls (whether from donors or a call seeking help) need never be missed.
• Affordable and user-friendly
  Some charities are stretched financially, and therefore simply cannot afford to hire a full time telecoms or IT engineer to administrate their systems. Horizon is jargon-free and despite being an advanced product, you do not need technical experience to administrate it.

Horizon ensures that Charities are always available 24/7 whenever the need arises.