Agents
Doubling services with 8x8
Doubling services with 8x8
United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania helps people in five counties improve their lives. The nonprofit also operates three regional 211 hotlines, connecting people in the community with resources to assist them with critical human services.
50
2X
Contact volume
200K
Calls, chats, emails and texts
50
Agents
2X
Contact volume
200K
Calls, chats, emails and texts
50
Agents
2X
Contact volume
200K
Calls, chats, emails and texts
50
Agents
2X
Contact volume
200K
Calls, chats, emails and texts
"When my peers in the 211 community ask about this transition, I can honestly, happily talk about the experiences I've had with 8x8 and connecTel."
Michele Sandoe, Senior Director, United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania
"When my peers in the 211 community ask about this transition, I can honestly, happily talk about the experiences I've had with 8x8 and connecTel."
Michele Sandoe, Senior Director, United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania
"When my peers in the 211 community ask about this transition, I can honestly, happily talk about the experiences I've had with 8x8 and connecTel."
Michele Sandoe, Senior Director, United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania
"When my peers in the 211 community ask about this transition, I can honestly, happily talk about the experiences I've had with 8x8 and connecTel."
Michele Sandoe, Senior Director, United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania
United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania helps people in five counties improve their lives. The nonprofit also operates three regional 211 hotlines, connecting people in the community with resources to assist them with critical human services.
The Challenge: Integrate systems to accelerate growth
United Way’s Director of Information Technology, Ken Norris, saw a golden opportunity coming. The on-premises PBX was no longer supported by Toshiba. The organization’s telecommunications contracts were expiring soon. And United Way’s arrangement with the contact center facilities of another nonprofit was also ending.
“It all dovetailed very nicely,” recalls Mr. Norris. “That old phone system was not meeting our current needs.”
More importantly, not having their own contact center was a roadblock to how many contacts the 211 systems could handle.
“We didn’t have the flexibility to be nimble and provide new programs that resulted in increased call volume, or make changes to the IVR,” says Michele Sandoe, Senior Director of United Way’s PA 211 Southwest.
Previously, by hoteling in another organization’s contact center, the 211 service had limited control of the telephone systems. Needs such as custom reports or software integrations were prohibitive.
The Solution: 8x8 eXperience Communications Platform
The unique opportunity Mr. Norris saw was to start fresh with communications technology. He wanted a communications platform that would support United Way’s next-generation workforce, contact center and office environment. He asked telecom consulting firm connecTel for advice.
“We recommended 8x8 because it’s a single platform,” says connecTel’s Gerald Bush. “8x8’s eXperience Communications Platform enables solutions that aren’t possible from multiple integrated systems.”
8x8 combines contact center and unified communications functionality, erasing the boundary between them. 8x8 also gives customers the ability to add and remove seats when they need to.
"8x8 really gives us the flexibility to work from anywhere"
Ken Norris, Director of Information Technology, United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania
The Results: Flexibility and control
“8x8 really gives us the flexibility to work from anywhere,” says Mr. Norris.
The 211 contact center now has the agility to take on big, new initiatives. When Pennsylvania’s second-largest county funded an emergency basic needs program to help residents with food, rent and utility payments through the cold Northeastern winter, United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania was able to absorb the large increase in contacts from struggling residents.
“We’ve seen our contact volumes more than double,” says Ms. Sandoe. “We never would have been able to handle that influx before 8x8.”
The single management interface for unified communications and the contact center was a big factor in choosing 8x8 because Mr. Norris did not want to hire and train a dedicated administrator. 8x8 is easy to manage – and it gives United Way complete control over the contact center systems they use. That means being able to report 211 successes in detail to the counties and project champions who fund programs. 8x8 also enables critical software integrations.
“Integrating our specialized 211 CRM with 8x8 finally lets us leverage technology to do routine tasks,” says Mr. Norris. “That frees up our resource navigators to focus more on the human- to-human parts of their job that are so essential to what we do.” United Way also plans to integrate 8x8 with Microsoft Teams to make users’ lives easier.
Ms. Sandoe couldn’t be happier. “When my peers in the 211 community ask about this transition, I can honestly, happily talk about the experiences I’ve had with 8x8 and connecTel. And I have the data to back it up.”
The Results: Flexibility and control
“8x8 really gives us the flexibility to work from anywhere,” says Mr. Norris.
The 211 contact center now has the agility to take on big, new initiatives. When Pennsylvania’s second-largest county funded an emergency basic needs program to help residents with food, rent and utility payments through the cold Northeastern winter, United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania was able to absorb the large increase in contacts from struggling residents.
“We’ve seen our contact volumes more than double,” says Ms. Sandoe. “We never would have been able to handle that influx before 8x8.”
The single management interface for unified communications and the contact center was a big factor in choosing 8x8 because Mr. Norris did not want to hire and train a dedicated administrator. 8x8 is easy to manage – and it gives United Way complete control over the contact center systems they use. That means being able to report 211 successes in detail to the counties and project champions who fund programs. 8x8 also enables critical software integrations.
“Integrating our specialized 211 CRM with 8x8 finally lets us leverage technology to do routine tasks,” says Mr. Norris. “That frees up our resource navigators to focus more on the human- to-human parts of their job that are so essential to what we do.” United Way also plans to integrate 8x8 with Microsoft Teams to make users’ lives easier.
Ms. Sandoe couldn’t be happier. “When my peers in the 211 community ask about this transition, I can honestly, happily talk about the experiences I’ve had with 8x8 and connecTel. And I have the data to back it up.”
The Results: Flexibility and control
“8x8 really gives us the flexibility to work from anywhere,” says Mr. Norris.
The 211 contact center now has the agility to take on big, new initiatives. When Pennsylvania’s second-largest county funded an emergency basic needs program to help residents with food, rent and utility payments through the cold Northeastern winter, United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania was able to absorb the large increase in contacts from struggling residents.
“We’ve seen our contact volumes more than double,” says Ms. Sandoe. “We never would have been able to handle that influx before 8x8.”
The single management interface for unified communications and the contact center was a big factor in choosing 8x8 because Mr. Norris did not want to hire and train a dedicated administrator. 8x8 is easy to manage – and it gives United Way complete control over the contact center systems they use. That means being able to report 211 successes in detail to the counties and project champions who fund programs. 8x8 also enables critical software integrations.
“Integrating our specialized 211 CRM with 8x8 finally lets us leverage technology to do routine tasks,” says Mr. Norris. “That frees up our resource navigators to focus more on the human- to-human parts of their job that are so essential to what we do.” United Way also plans to integrate 8x8 with Microsoft Teams to make users’ lives easier.
Ms. Sandoe couldn’t be happier. “When my peers in the 211 community ask about this transition, I can honestly, happily talk about the experiences I’ve had with 8x8 and connecTel. And I have the data to back it up.”
The Results: Flexibility and control
“8x8 really gives us the flexibility to work from anywhere,” says Mr. Norris.
The 211 contact center now has the agility to take on big, new initiatives. When Pennsylvania’s second-largest county funded an emergency basic needs program to help residents with food, rent and utility payments through the cold Northeastern winter, United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania was able to absorb the large increase in contacts from struggling residents.
“We’ve seen our contact volumes more than double,” says Ms. Sandoe. “We never would have been able to handle that influx before 8x8.”
The single management interface for unified communications and the contact center was a big factor in choosing 8x8 because Mr. Norris did not want to hire and train a dedicated administrator. 8x8 is easy to manage – and it gives United Way complete control over the contact center systems they use. That means being able to report 211 successes in detail to the counties and project champions who fund programs. 8x8 also enables critical software integrations.
“Integrating our specialized 211 CRM with 8x8 finally lets us leverage technology to do routine tasks,” says Mr. Norris. “That frees up our resource navigators to focus more on the human- to-human parts of their job that are so essential to what we do.” United Way also plans to integrate 8x8 with Microsoft Teams to make users’ lives easier.
Ms. Sandoe couldn’t be happier. “When my peers in the 211 community ask about this transition, I can honestly, happily talk about the experiences I’ve had with 8x8 and connecTel. And I have the data to back it up.”
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