Case Study: Citizens Advice North East Suffolk

About Citizens Advice North East Suffolk

Citizens Advice North East Suffolk is an independent charity that is dedicated to helping its local community.

Their twin service aims are:

• To provide the advice people need for the problems they face.
• To improve and influence the policies and practices that affect people’s lives.

Their work is based on four clear Principles.

They are a member of the national Citizens Advice service that provides the online extensive information system they use to advise our clients and sets standards for advice, training, equal opportunities and accessibility.

They are also a registered reporting centre for hate crime. With specialist staff can provide advice to those who have been subjected to a hate crime or hate incident and tell you where you can get more information and support. A hate crime is a criminal offence that is motivated by hostility or prejudice upon a person’s disability, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation and transgender identity.

The Challenge

Faced with the pandemic and an incumbent system that was no longer fit for purpose, CABNES were struggling with the demands of a remote working world. The legacy ISDN did not have the capabilities to support working from home, meaning the team were left without the ability to stay in touch with the people who needed them most during one of the most challenging times we have faced.

Alongside this CABNES were running two systems, both of which had fixed handsets further adding to the frustrations of remote working and the added inconvenience of divergence in communication. It was time to look for a more modern solution better suited to the changing needs of the organisation.

The Solution

After speaking to Wavenet and discussing their requirements Wavenet Hosted Voice was chosen as the solution. The system alongside the addition of softphones means that all team members had the flexibility to work remotely when required.

This solution has no expensive equipment and no lengthy on-site installation, just a unified way of working and futureproofed technology. The team members are all able to use softphones via their laptops meaning they can easily take calls from home, and also transfer them with ease.

The flexibility of the system means that CABNES can also scale the solution to meet their requirements, representing substantial cost reductions and increased agility.

The Results

Through our work together CABNES has been able to take advantage of the following benefits:

Time-Saving: With no complicated onsite equipment making changes to the system just takes a quick call to their dedicated account manager.

Reliability: With a cloud-based solution, CABNES no longer have to worry about their system hardware failing.

Usability: A simple, user-friendly system has allowed the team to seamlessly transition to remote working without a complicated new system to learn.

Remote Working Capabilities: Cloud solutions allow the CABNES to work from anywhere, anytime as easily as when they are in the office.

Cost Savings: Scalability and free internal calls offer significant cost savings on telephony.