Victim Support Turns to Technology to Help Those in Need

Victim Support Turns to Technology to Help Those in Need

New Zealand, 23 February 2016 – Victim Support has employed a new Contact Centre system to help it meet the growing demand for services. Victim Support is an independent incorporated society in New Zealand that provides free 24/7 community response to help victims of serious crime and trauma.

The new Contact Centre system, provided by Dimension Data based on Cisco technology, will help Victim Support to keep up with the nearly month-on-month increase in the demand for its services.

“The number of calls we are getting is continually increasing, last year we received 77,000, up from 63,000 the previous year,” says Victim Support New Zealand Chief Executive, Kevin Tso.

“Our telephone system is at the heart of our administration – it is where most of our referrals come from, but it was struggling to handle the increase in volume.

“We are the only national provider of free support services and advocacy for victims of crime and trauma, and these people are relying on us at their most vulnerable time.”

Victim Support contracted Dimension Data to ensure it is equipped to help all clients and to meet the growing demand. Tso says Victim Support chose to work with Dimension Data because of the tailored solution it offered and the high level of the support it could provide.

“We were able to share with the Dimension Data team our experiences of what victims are looking for when dealing with our service,” says Victim Support’s Contact Service Manager Chris Law

Dimension Data New Zealand CEO, Jo Healey, says working with Victim Support to find the right solution was a major priority for Dimension Data.

“Our team worked with Victim Support in their own environment to ensure we really understood the issues,” says Jo.

“We knew how important this was to the organisation and its clients and we wanted to make sure we found the best possible solution. Our focus is always on understanding the challenge first, and then finding a way for technology to solve that issue.”

Victim Support assists those impacted by natural disasters, such as the Christchurch earthquakes and people returning from Cyclone Pam in Vanuatu as part of its work for the Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management

“The solution from Dimension Data has improved our business continuity and recovery systems so that in a local disaster we not only have the infrastructure in place to continue providing our systems but to also scale up the service as needed,” Law says.

It was also essential that Victim Support found a solution to provide it with accurate reporting on call statistics, Law says. “With the new solution we can now analyse call patterns down to 15 minute intervals. This has been invaluable when it comes to aligning staffing numbers within the contact service.”

Victim Support has a team of 760 people, 640 of whom are its dedicated base of volunteers.

“Victim Support is looking for new volunteers to join the team. Anyone interested can call on 0800 865 868 to find out more.”

ENDS

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