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CUSTOMER STORY

Palm Springs Nonprofit Social Services Agency Turns to Broadvoice for Reliable Mobility

Overview

Jewish Family Service of the Desert (JFS Desert) is a non-sectarian nonprofit agency that provides social services to the Coachella Valley community in Palm Springs, California. Founded in 1982, the agency provides mental health counseling services on a sliding scale for those without insurance and will never turn someone away because of their inability to pay. JFS Desert provides emergency financial assistance for low-income households and community programming for home-bound seniors and local Holocaust survivors. JFS Desert is guided by a mission to provide for the social service needs of the Jewish and general community of the greater Coachella Valley with a commitment to promoting the well-being of people of all ages, incomes, and lifestyles. Every year JFS Desert provides services to approximately 3,000 clients.

The Challenge

JFS Desert’s leadership was exploring the benefits of remote work well before the pandemic made it mandatory for many. The flexibility of remote work would enable the agency to serve clients more effectively, but the agency lacked the proper tools to support remote work and enable employees to maintain professional, confidential communications.

JFS Desert, a loyal Broadvoice SIP Trunking customer since 2017, began researching hosted voice over IP (VoIP) phone system options in 2019. In early 2020, the onset of the pandemic forced the company to step up its search to meet the urgent need for a reliable communications and collaboration solution to support remote work for its 22 employees. As the Director of IT and Operations at JFS Desert, Alex Aguilar was intent on finding a cloud based phone system that provided the following functionalities:

  • Portability. When the pandemic forced the agency to close offices for in-person services, their clients needed more support than ever. Because of this, the agency wanted a communications solution that could provide 24/7 mobility for every staff member.
  • Manageability. As a small nonprofit, the agency needed a phone system that would require a small amount of Aguilar’s time and be easy for employees to use and access.
  • Continuity. Aguilar wanted to ensure that callers could reach staff directly while displaying the agency’s number on the caller ID rather than employees’ personal numbers.
  • Reliability. The agency needed a system with dependable uptime compared to the frequent outages they experienced with their legacy, on-premise PBX system.
  • Confidentiality. Because of the sensitive nature of many client interactions, the solution needed to be HIPAA-compliant to protect clients’ personally identifiable information (PII).

The Solution

Aguilar’s search for the right solution led him to the Broadvoice b-hive platform. Broadvoice b-hive is a unified communications as a service (UCaaS) platform designed for small and mid-market businesses like JFS Desert. It combines enterprise-class cloud PBX, unified communications (UC), and virtual call center features in an all-in-one integrated platform.

The cloud based solution would enable employees to work from home — or any other location — using their office phone numbers and extensions. Employees can also connect and collaborate with clients in ways that were not possible with the agency’s existing PBX system.

“What really made Broadvoice stand out was their willingness to work with us to customize our solution,” said Aguilar. “Our agency has specific communication and collaboration needs, and Broadvoice walked us through the best way to address each of them.”

The Benefits

Aguilar said JFS Desert could not have effectively provided services to clients during the pandemic without Broadvoice’s support. After deploying the b-hive platform, the Broadvoice team helped JFS Desert transition to a telehealth model so they could continue providing services to the community. The reliability and ease of use of Broadvoice’s solutions allowed the agency’s employees to be mobile whenever needed.

The agency experienced additional benefits from the b-hive platform, including:

  • Portability. The platform is purpose-built to support 100 percent mobility, and JFS Desert employees use this functionality extensively.
  • Manageability. Aguilar spends very little time managing the b-hive system and notes that employees find it easy to use.
  • Continuity. Calls to clients now come from the agency’s main phone number, which enhances the agency’s professionalism and ensures client confidentiality.
  • Reliability. Because b-hive operates in the cloud, services are always on, and the agency no longer experiences outages as it did with its on-premise PBX system.
  • Confidentiality. Broadvoice technology is HIPAA-compliant, so JFS Desert employees can connect with clients confidently and confidentially.

The Results

Broadvoice’s cloud communications solution has allowed JFS Desert to continue serving thousands of clients in the Coachella Valley. The solution enables employees to work from home and at remote locations efficiently and effectively. Aguilar says the team consistently praises the b-hive mobile app and its efficiency.

“Broadvoice is very dependable,” said Aguilar. “The solution allows us to be available to staff and clients whenever we are needed, which is our main goal at the end of the day.”

Aguilar said he’s also pleased with Broadvoice’s customer service, especially the ability to reach account representatives and tech support. He added that the Broadvoice support team quickly resolves any issues, making it easy for the agency to continue business as usual.

“Broadvoice has taken a personalized approach with us from the beginning,” said Aguilar. “Things in our business have changed, but our exceptional service and support have stayed consistent. Broadvoice solutions make a difference for us.”

“Things in our business have changed, but our exceptional service and support have stayed consistent. Broadvoice solutions make a difference for us.”

Alex Aguilar, Director of IT and Operations at JFS Desert

Do you need to streamline, scale, and future-proof communication at your company? Contact us for a demo to learn how Broadvoice solutions can help you with all this and more.

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