* Business-grade broadband
* Hosted IP Telephone System
* Online inbound call routing management
* Inbound call statistics
* Cost savings
* Localised approach
* Improved efficiency
* Instant support from HIGHnet
* Detailed billing information
* Seamless transition, including office move
* Future proof plug & play solution

Background
In 1982 a group of women in Inverness started a Rape Crisis Centre to offer support to women who had been raped. Today, RAL has developed into a service for men and women affected in any way by rape and/or all forms of abuse. Ongoing volunteer recruitment (they currently have 34, of which around 75% work on the helpline from their own homes) has led the organisation to grow, and they are now in their 5th office. RAL was the first of its kind to deal with men as well as women, providing telephone, face-to-face and counselling support.

The challenge
RAL’s office had two phone lines with one answering machine, and the Support Coordinator had to divert the calls to the on-call volunteer’s home each evening. Julie Fraser, Project Development Worker, described the previous set-up as “antiquated”:

“We would spend hours each morning listening to all the messages, and we couldn’t even answer the phone during office hours in case it was a client; we had no way of knowing who was calling. We had the Internet, but it was dial-up, so we limited ourselves to checking our emails 3 times a day to keep the phone line free, and if we wanted to download any reports or large documents, it took forever. It was all very time consuming.”

RAL needed a new system that simplified the call diverting process, with 24/7 access to change any call routing in real time. They also needed to be able to identify callers from their handsets, and have access to inbound calling statistics. Having no experience in telecoms technology, they needed a system that was easy to use. They also needed to ensure costs were kept to a minimum.

The solution
HIGHnet implemented a solution incorporating high quality business-grade broadband (up to 8MB), hosted IP telephony and inbound call management.

With no equipment on site other than the handsets, Communicator was the most cost-effective solution. The system boasts state-of-the-art handsets where each staff member can receive their own calls, with their own voicemail, and all internal calls are free of charge (and indeed all calls to other HIGHnet IP customers). Most importantly for RAL, the number of the caller is displayed on screen.

In order to tackle the call diversion problem, we ported the helpline numbers onto our inbound call management product, ‘My Inbound Number'. Integration with Communicator cuts out the call termination charges that RAL previously incurred with call forwarding.

- Call routing - Once the rota for the coming week has been drawn up, the Support Coordinator can create a call plan through the online portal to ensure calls to the helpline are routed to the on-call volunteer. If there is a last minute change of volunteer, the plan can be altered instantly.

- Access to online call statistics - Where RAL were previously limited to answered or unanswered statistics, they now receive statistics on engaged calls, as well as other key data including the region where the caller is calling from, when their busy hours are and which days are busiest.

The results
RAL had anticipated a lead time of 6 months for their new telecoms solution to be installed, however, the entire solution was deployed in 6 weeks. This was prior to the move to their new premises, however, the nature of the services deployed meant that RAL could simply ‘plug and play’ when they moved.

The office staff’s workload has been cut dramatically, as has the Support Coordinator’s. The volunteers are also happy as they can focus solely on helping the client without having to worry about the technology.

The statistics highlighted a shocking figure; over 700 calls per week were being met with an engaged tone. This highlights the unsatisfied requirement for the service, and will be used by RAL in all future funding applications. They could not have identified this without My Inbound Number.

“Although making such a change to the organisation was necessary, it was quite daunting. However, with HIGHnet we had complete confidence.

We are technology novices, but HIGHnet were able to convey the solution in a clear way, without being condescending. The transition was seamless, and we now project a much more professional appearance.

The organisation is much more efficient, the volunteers are happy and we have clear visibility of the number of calls we are missing, which is helping with our funding applications. On top of that we are saving money too.

Whenever we require support for any of the services, issues are resolved the same day. Without the instant, on the ball contact the transition would have been much harder. Certainly, to get our previous provider to speak to us was a nightmare.

We’ve never had any billing issues, and the information you get on your bill is just amazing. Despite organisational growth this year, we are already seeing savings.

All in all we’re really happy with our telecoms arrangement now, and we’re excited about the future potential of the system as the organisation continues to grow.”

Julie Fraser - Project Development Worker, RAL