Local Non-Profit Future Proofs Phone System with a Budget Friendly Full-Service Voice Solution
Challenge
The Ronald McDonald House’s mission is to keep families together and promote the health and well-being of children. The Ronald McDonald House Charities of Eastern Wisconsin was built because families had no place to stay while their seriously ill child was being treated at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin. The house never wants to have to turn a family away and wants to be able to keep family members together while their child is receiving care. Over the years, they have grown as the needs of their families have changed. Since the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Eastern Wisconsin opened its doors in 1984, they continued to add on to their building as each addition and renovation has allowed them to provide all the comforts of home for the families they serve.
The house was about to break ground on a 14-room expansion that would also add other fantastic new amenities to the house. The expansion would allow them to provide a community of support to even more families. Any time a major expansion or renovation is about to take place it is important to evaluate all the infrastructure that is in place to make sure that it will continue to meet the needs of the organization.
One of the items that was flagged as needing review and attention was their aging phone system. Over the years it had become more cumbersome and costly to maintain. To move around phones, it required having their existing vendor come out and onsite for billable service calls. Replacement hardware costs continued to rise as parts became harder to come by. They needed an easy-to-use phone system that also brought them up to date and provided more robust features that their antiquated system could not provide. Most importantly they needed this solution to be budget friendly so their dollars could go to their families that they support and serve.
Solution
DataComm Plus uncovered while collaborating with the staff that the most important items to them were ease of use, affordability, flexibility, and ongoing support. Knowing that these were key, DataComm Plus kept these in mind as we reviewed their current needs and what would be needed with the expansion.
Knowing that every dollar that DataComm Plus could save them would be able to go towards their mission we completed a phone bill analysis to ensure that the new solution would not only have the proper number of lines, but also that RMHC were not overpaying for this service. We found that the house was oversubscribed on their phone lines and paying for unused circuits. We were able to provide them with the proper number of phone lines at a more affordable price.
We provided them with easy-to-use IP phones for each of their phone locations to ensure that all their volunteers & staff would be able to easily navigate them to be able to use them as needed. With these new IP phones they could also easily move them around as needed without needing to have us come out and move wires around in the backroom to make them work as they should.
The new Full-Service Voice Solution will grow with them while remaining up to date. The ability to add and remove users no longer requires costly hardware any longer. The house only pays for what they need today and does not have to invest today’s dollars for possible needs in the future.
“Having an easy-to-use flexible phone system for our team has really helped the house. Being able to move phones around easily is so nice! Also, we no longer wonder how much changes are going to cost us as DataComm is now an extension of our team. It allows us to be able to focus on our families.” Jessica Greb – Director of House Operations
Benefits
- System always up to date – System maintenance is included ensuring that the system is secure
- Easy to use – Volunteers and Staff can easily navigate the desk phone with pre programmed one touch buttons
- Budgeable Monthly cost – Phone lines and solution are a fixed monthly cost which includes system maintenance
- Partner to Manage Solution – DataComm Plus includes service and support on our full-service voice solutions
Summary
The obsolete phone system was replaced with a Full-Service Cloud Voice Solution. We worked with their existing line provider to port over existing phone numbers and now manage their lines and phone system for them. The house no longer has to worry about unexpected maintenance costs and will always be up to date on their hosted IP phone solution for one affordable monthly amount. We also implemented user-friendly desk phones for their volunteers and staff that are easy to move around as needed. This allowed the house to have a budgeted monthly number, one phone partner and ability to continue to focus on caring for the families that they support.
