With a Verge IP phone on your desk and the Allworx Reach™ mobile app in your pocket, you can talk on the go or in the office. Without missing a beat.
Isn't it time your desk phone knows who your important contacts are?
In a non-profit organization where there is never enough disposable income, choosing to invest in a new business communication system requires careful planning and a clear return on investment. Habitat for Humanity Halton- Mississauga chose the Allworx® VoIP communication system to support its rapid expansion while also realizing significant cost savings. Allworx helped the organization scale from one to three ReStore retail outlet sites and from one to three home build construction sites; increase staff productivity; and improve communications with donors and volunteers.
There are three different Habitat for Humanity affiliates that serve the Greater Toronto Area. Habitat for Humanity Halton-Mississauga is one that specifically serves the cities of Burlington, Oakville, Mississauga, Milton, and the Halton Hills to ensure hard-working families in need have safe and affordable places to call home. Local communities support the organization via volunteer work, monetary donations, and word-of-mouth recommendations.
Habitat for Humanity Halton-Mississauga initially worked with ACI/Arch Communications to replace their first phone system to a Norstar system. However, the organization quickly outgrew the Norstar system when it expanded from one to three locations — all within a span of one and a half years. They needed a new, more effective communication platform that would enable them to work more productively across multiple sites, while also saving time and money.
““The Allworx VoIP system has paid for itself three times over since it has been installed...”
—John Gerrard, CEO
Habitat for Humanity Halton-Mississauga came to know Allworx through Keith Cameron of ACI/Arch Communications and Jamie McCammon of JM Telecom — both long-time Allworx Authorized Partners in the Halton-GTA area. They recommended Allworx because it offered more features than the current Norstar system and, more importantly, could unify multiple locations cost efficiently.
One of the tangible benefits of unifying the geographically disparate sites using the Allworx Multi-Site software was an enhanced donor/volunteer experience. The front-desk team can easily transfer incoming calls to other staff members using extensions, and see presence/status of all the staff members regardless of their work locations. Another tangible benefit was reducing telecom costs by eliminating inter-office local calls. With the Allworx Multi-Site integration, they were able to reduce from three to one centralized receptionist, delivering additional cost savings.
Allworx also provided a robust mobility solution, Allworx Reach™, which let staff members access their Allworx phone systems directly from their iOS or Android mobile devices. Whether they were on the road, out of town, or on a build site, they could communicate with both internal staff and external donors and volunteers — as if the staff were at their offices. Reach enabled the staff to be accessible no matter their locations.
John Gerrard, Chief Executive Officer for Habitat for Humanity Halton-Mississauga, said that the Allworx system enabled
the organization to increase the staff-to-volunteer ratio while enabling the real-time communications that the donors
and volunteers expect from the staff. The cost savings they realized from implementing Allworx were immediately put towards purchasing other important equipment and goods needed. “The Allworx VoIP system has paid for itself three times over since it has been installed by delivering savings in multiple avenues,” said Gerrard. “The Allworx system gave us the extra staff we can’t afford to hire.”
Allworx Reach™ for iOS or Android connects you to your office desk phone from anywhere you need to work, offering access via both Wi-Fi and cellular data networks.
The future for Habitat for Humanity Halton-Mississauga is more growth. The next phase of the Allworx implementation will focus on Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) that will help intelligently manage and distribute incoming calls so the organization can provide even more personal, one-on-one attention to donors and volunteers in the community. They also plan to provide remote Allworx IP phones to volunteers who can work from home, which will allow the organization to continue to grow without adding additional physical office space.
✔ Centralized reception that supports multiple sites
✔ Local, centralized ReStore retail donation line
✔ Mobility: Replicate desktop phones via cell phones
✔ Voicemail-to-email: Retrieve voicemail messages as WAV files directly from inbox
✔ Multi-site networking across construction, retail, and admin sites for real-time communications (e.g. paging)
✔ Work-from-home support: Plug-and-play remote IP phones with “ghost” extensions
✔ Reduction in long-distance call costs
✔ Flexible individual handset controls (e.g., out of office notifications)
✔ Music and messages for callers on hold
Industry: Non-Profit
Locations:Burlington, Milton, and Mississauga
Website: www.habitathm.ca
Allworx VoIP Systems: Three (3) Allworx 6x servers
Allworx IP Phones: Approximately 50 handsets
Allworx Advanced Software Options: Allworx Reach™ and Allworx Multi-Site
