VoIP Solutions and Non-Profits: Swimming with Sharks

These statistics are noted in the research of strategists such as Hinchcliffe and Kim, and indicate developments which are causing us to re-evaluate the nature of business itself. With Facebook now using VoIP technology to provide free calls for its members, your clients and customers are increasingly likely to be accessing your organization not only through phones, but tablets, computers, even gaming consoles. A successful organization needs a service that can take account of that.

VoIP allows your non-profit to engage with customers according to their preferred method of communication, providing centralized, inclusive service provision and analysis designed to identify specific network issues and enable you to deal with them in real-time.

The “M” word

Despite nothing less than a revolution in network and communications technology, many non-profits and charities remain in a kind of limbo. Dissemination of traditional values in traditional ways takes precedence over trend analysis, and terms like “Marketing” can seem like dirty words. Lacking the profit incentive of ordinary business, the drive to excel often remains only latent, enshrined in noble intentions that get swallowed by the day-to-day minutiae of running a company. The development of communications technology takes a back seat, ear-marked for later consideration when it should be an imperative.

This in itself is a trend. With the advent of cinema, the nation proclaimed the death of theater; with the arrival of the radio, the death of conversation. In reality, theater became more refined, and radio became the new hearth, initiating conversations on all manner of topics among the family. From the discovery of bacteria ridiculed by the scientific establishment, to the first electric motor being overlooked for half a century, many people are slow to adapt to changing technologies.

Today, the idea that you can survive without digital media, and without the network technology designed for integrated services and analysis, is akin to the idea that you can survive by word-of-mouth and not that new-fangled “Yellow Pages thingy”.

Building better worlds

The standard features of VoIP are well known – traffic analysis, data collection, the ability to create multiple layers of raw data to identify key factors in KPIs and ROI and customizable reports to ensure quality of experience and identify specific areas in need of attention. In using internet protocols as the basis of communication, organizations can send text, images, videos and other data through the same provider and consolidate a host of services and features. Along with cheaper installation and maintenance costs than standard PBX systems, VoIP systems contextualize an array of systems in a standard social business model.

VoIP offers a host of timely solutions for your non-profit, all of which serve to remind us that we are not installing new office furniture for the ease of running a business that we can cope with well enough already. We are instead creating an environment for feedback, interaction, collaboration and the growth of our organizations. The most important aspect of VoIP services for your non-profit is the ability to integrate and streamline all areas of operation. Phone-lines, fax-lines, computers, social media, you name it. It increases mobility, allowing staff to be “on call, all the time, wherever they are”. All you need is internet access, and with the many casual, volunteer and geographically dispersed members that so often make up non-profits, the need for integration is paramount.

Business has moved from isolating markets to creating communities, providing an inclusive environment that adapts to trends and innovation. We are no longer in the business of disseminating information. We are in the business of conversation, discovering that relationships generate value as much as products.