In occasions of disaster, armed battle, or pure disasters, individuals are pressured to adapt and make huge, life-changing selections beneath excessive strain. Access to well timed, correct, and simple security info is a useful useful resource for these communities as they relocate, seek for crucial companies and wrestle with complicated issues. The International Rescue Committee (IRC) teamed up with Mercy Corps to offer sturdy options for folks whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by battle and catastrophe. Together, they created Signpost: a responsive, digital info service that leverages progressive software program to reply to the informational wants of populations impacted by crises.
Partnering with IRC from the beginning
Cisco has supported the event of Signpost since its inception. Our partnership with IRC started by our work with Mercy Corps in 2015, when Cisco offered funding to develop “Refugee Info Hub,” the precursor to Signpost. At the time, Cisco’s Crisis Response crew was deploying Wi-Fi connectivity to refugees in Greece—directing touchdown pages to Refugee Info Hub, signposting them to the place they may get related assist and assist.
With the elevated want for digital info companies to achieve notably susceptible populations through the pandemic, Cisco funded the launch of Signpost in three new nations and supported the event of extra options essential to scale Signpost’s affect, together with off-line performance.
Cisco solutions the decision with a voice resolution
In April 2022, in response to the invasion of Ukraine, Google.org, a long-time associate of IRC and Signpost, approached Cisco to collaborate on a contact middle resolution. IRC had partnered with United for Ukraine to offer crucial info to these affected by the warfare, and Google.org was searching for a contact middle specialist to assist them create a responsive voice bot that might deal with disaster caller-requests. Their request for experience led them to Paul Tindall, the EMEA lead of Cisco’s contact middle technical crew. With his crew’s devoted efforts, Paul shortly circled with a proposed resolution.
“In the midst of a crisis, it’s a rare occurrence for someone
to ask if there’s a contact center specialist in the house.”– Paul Tindall, EMEA Lead, Cisco Contact Center Technical Team
The proposed resolution concerned Signpost making a name middle geared up with native telephone numbers, interactive voice response capabilities, and multi-lingual voice companies (providing assist in English, Ukrainian, and Russian). If the automated voice bot failed to satisfy the caller’s wants, they’d have the choice to hook up with an area agent.
Challenges on the way in which to options
However, the trail to implementation was not with out its hurdles. To arrange a name middle with native numbers, the answer required a associate with a public switched phone community supplier. Finding a supplier able to working shortly with out incurring prices was a problem that launched some delays. Ultimately, Signpost acquired invaluable assist from a Cisco associate, NameTower, who offered pro-bono service numbers in Romania, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Google performed a crucial function in supporting the IRC know-how crew with a sturdy fellowship program by Google.org that make the Ukraine program attainable and generously supported staffing of the decision middle with personnel from their buyer success division in Poland. While callers may now join by these native numbers, the native brokers responding to a name introduced a further problem. These brokers utilized quite a lot of gadgets, exposing sudden safety dangers. Cisco’s devoted crew labored diligently to assist brokers by patching any platform and program vulnerabilities.
One of essentially the most heartwarming points of encountering and overcoming these challenges was the unimaginable responsiveness of our companions as soon as they grasped the profound significance of Signpost’s mission.
Signpost’s exceptional affect
Cisco continues to spend money on Signpost, enabling the platform to scale to over 20 nations throughout 5 continents, impacting the lives of greater than 12.8 million folks in over 25 languages. This collaborative effort has confirmed that know-how and shared dedication could make a tangible distinction within the face of humanitarian crises, reaffirming the ability of partnership and innovation.
Learn extra about Cisco Partnering for Purpose Crisis Response and how one can become involved:
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