X

EMC, a global leader in cloud computing, data storage, and data virtualization, was struggling with an inefficient and slow method of alerting its 68,000 employees about IT system updates. The traditional method involved drafting an email, proofing it, getting approval from several stakeholders, and finally sending it. This process was not only labor-intensive but also unreliable as it depended on the user's email being unaffected and the user actually opening and reading the email. After sending 1.2 million alert emails in a single month, EMC decided to find a more efficient and immediate way to alert employees. The challenge was to find a solution that was not only faster and less labor-intensive but also globally available and scalable to EMC's needs.

Landmax.pro, a cloud software provider for property management, faced the challenge of integrating information from multiple channels such as paper, email, SMS, and phone calls into a single platform for customers to use. The real estate industry, being increasingly mobile, required businesses to embrace technology to stay competitive. However, many real estate agents relied on outdated, cumbersome, and costly communication technology, putting them at a significant disadvantage. Even agencies with multiple business lines couldn't track calls or link them to contacts. The landmax.pro team aimed to create a system that would work for businesses of all sizes and budgets, integrating all paperwork, emails, SMS, and calls affordably and handling that data intelligently.

Toyota Connected North America (TCNA) was in need of a flexible call center solution that could respond to customers’ needs and innovate quickly on a global scale. TCNA's Drivelink, a telematics platform, provides over 6 million drivers with access to emergency and convenience features. However, the technology powering many customer experiences was key to maintaining a competitive edge in a crowded industry. TCNA needed a solution that could scale in North America with more connected vehicles while maintaining high-quality experiences that often connected customers and agents in just a matter of seconds. They also needed a tool that offered direct access to data so that they could drive decisions quickly based on insights. Lastly, TCNA needed an intuitive tool that could integrate into Salesforce CRM and data-management tools.

The traditional model of parent-teacher meetings in schools has been fraught with inefficiencies and logistical challenges. These meetings, typically conducted in-person, often involve inaccurate scheduling, overrunning of meetings, and long waiting times for parents. The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent closure of schools further exacerbated these issues, necessitating a shift towards virtual meetings. However, the existing video conferencing platforms were not equipped to handle the unique requirements of parent-teacher meetings, such as tight scheduling and the need for visual cues to indicate the next parent waiting. SchoolCloud, an edtech company, recognized these challenges and sought to develop a solution that could streamline the process of conducting parent-teacher meetings in a virtual environment.

Duolingo, a globally recognized language learning app, aimed to integrate social sharing into their platform to boost user engagement. The challenge was to create a secure and efficient way for users to connect with their friends on the app. The existing methods of finding friends via a search engine or Facebook were either slow, lacked meaningful validation functions, or were hindered by tightened privacy policies. Furthermore, as Duolingo sought to add more robust social sharing features, the need for enhanced security to protect users' information became paramount. The challenge was to find a solution that could easily integrate with Duolingo's existing technology stack and provide a geographically agnostic way to validate users and connect them with their friends.

The advent of the digital era allowed real estate agencies to expand their operations and manage more properties than ever before. However, this expansion also led to an increased volume of customer information and a greater number of lease agreements to process, resulting in administrative backlog and internal delays. Andrew Colagiuri, CEO and Founder of FLK it over, who had been in the real estate industry for 20 years, was frustrated with these time-consuming processes, especially after experiencing fast growth at his own firm. He sought to reinvent how real estate documentation is reviewed and signed in a more efficient manner.

Fondesk, a mid-sized company based in the Asia-Pacific region, aimed to provide businesses with an efficient online platform for implementing call answering services. The goal was to offer immediate access to experienced operators who could handle customer inquiries and follow-ups via chat or email. The challenge was to set up this service with minimal downtime, ensuring high-quality customer service. The company needed a solution that would allow them to outsource inbound customer calls efficiently, regardless of the size of the business. The solution had to be seamless, eliminating the need for businesses to install, deploy, and operate telephone facilities for home-based operators. Additionally, it had to integrate inbound and outbound calls and voice service into an Operations Control Center.

GlobalGiving, a tech nonprofit, provides over 5,000 community-led organizations with the tools they need to meet their fundraising goals. However, they faced a challenge in creating a fulfilling donor experience that would inspire continuous giving. The traditional online donation process often ended at the confirmation receipt, leaving donors without a sense of having contributed to something greater. GlobalGiving also struggled with personalizing email experiences for their 1.2 million donors. They had cycled through several email service providers, most of which were designed for bulk communication and did not offer the level of customization needed. One provider's system even broke due to the scale of personalization required by GlobalGiving.

The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 led to a sudden shift from traditional classroom learning to remote learning. This change posed a significant challenge to maintaining academic integrity, as monitoring students during assessments became a complex task. The traditional methods of proctoring, such as physical supervision in a classroom, were no longer feasible. The challenge was to find a solution that could ensure academic integrity at an unprecedented scale without compromising the user experience. Honorlock, a company specializing in online proctoring, was faced with the task of scaling their solution to meet the increased demand. Their existing video provider was unable to scale quickly enough to meet their expectations.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, companies worldwide faced a surge in demand and the need to find qualified candidates as efficiently as possible. Traditional on-site interviews were no longer feasible, and the entire hiring process, from application to onboarding, had to be carried out remotely. This posed a significant challenge for Indeed, the world's top job site, which had to adapt to serve users under entirely new circumstances. The company needed to find a way to facilitate the hiring process in the era of COVID-19, ensuring that they could connect with the right candidates at the right time, regardless of their location.

NYU Langone Health, a premier academic medical center, was faced with the challenge of finding a platform that could deliver important health messages to millions of patients across individualized care journeys. The rapid shift to digital healthcare, accelerated in the last 2 years, created complex challenges for healthcare providers. For NYU Langone Health, it meant prioritizing patient experience at every stage of the healthcare journey. The organization, which includes several hospitals and hundreds of ambulatory locations, had to navigate formidable challenges to continue delivering quality care. The array of patient journeys varied widely, requiring digital journeys to be flexible and intuitive, while also accounting for issues like security, regulatory compliance, language, and more. The challenge was to build a solution that could tackle all these considerations.

Phenix, a France-based startup, is on a mission to reduce food waste by connecting retailers with unsold food to customers who value sustainability and a good bargain. The company has served over 50 million meals that would have otherwise been discarded to over 400,000 customers. However, the process is time-sensitive with many moving parts that need to work together; otherwise, the products will be unusable. Sellers post a general description of each day’s offering, including price, number of baskets in stock, and available pickup window. Retailers might only have a few baskets available, and the pick-up windows can be short. Customers can set alerts so they know immediately when a type of food they want or a specific shop they like has posted an offer. The challenge was to ensure real-time communication between the sellers and the customers.

The COVID-19 pandemic presented significant challenges for healthcare organizations, forcing them to quickly adapt and transform their healthcare delivery methods. The concept of 'anytime, anywhere care' became mainstream, with patients expecting the process of booking a doctor's appointment to be as easy as ordering delivery from a restaurant. However, meeting these changing needs of patients required empowering providers. Qure4u, a digital health platform, aimed to create provider-centric innovation that equipped physicians and their partners with all the tools they needed to engage effectively and reliably with patients—both inside and outside of the doctor’s office. The challenge was to ensure continuous delivery of services and high availability of the platform, which was crucial for business continuity for their customers.

Salesmsg, a company that provides a two-way business texting platform, was faced with the challenge of meeting its ambitious short-term and long-term growth aspirations. The team needed a highly stable and adaptable communications service to support their platform. They required a solution that could not only accommodate changing customer needs but also integrate seamlessly within existing workflows. The company was also looking for a way to provide businesses with the immediacy, flexibility, and personalization of SMS, while integrating with existing customer relationship management (CRM) software. This would allow customer interaction data to be centralized and easily accessed by sales, marketing, and customer support teams.

World Central Kitchen (WCK), a non-profit organization founded by Chef José Andrés, has been providing immediate food relief after disasters and strengthening local food systems throughout the Caribbean and Latin America since 2010. The organization has served over 50 million meals to communities affected by natural and man-made disasters worldwide. However, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, WCK faced a unique challenge. Unlike previous disasters where infrastructure was often destroyed, the pandemic left all infrastructure intact. WCK needed to figure out how to use this intact infrastructure to continue providing meals to communities in need. Additionally, the pandemic led to an economic crisis, resulting in a soaring number of families stating they did not have enough to eat. Food banks were seeing record-breaking lines, and food distributors were wasting food due to lack of sales.

Zocdoc, a healthcare marketplace connecting patients and providers, was faced with a significant challenge during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The company had been empowering patients by making it easy to find, compare, and book healthcare appointments. However, with the pandemic and subsequent stay-at-home orders, the need for a seamless virtual care experience became paramount. The company had to quickly adapt its roadmap to meet the changing needs of patients and the healthcare system. While their original system had the option for virtual appointments, changes were needed to enable Zocdoc’s nationwide network of providers to offer virtual appointments seamlessly through its platform.

BGL Insurance, a leading digital distributor of insurance, was faced with the challenge of transitioning its customer service agents to remote work due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The company, which serves over three million customers with their motor, home, and life insurance needs, needed a solution that would allow its agents to work safely from home without compromising the quality of customer service. With nearly 2,000 colleagues across three sites in England, the transition to remote work was a significant undertaking. The company needed to move away from its existing on-premise solution to a fully remote model quickly, without impacting its customers and ongoing operations.

The migrant worker population in Singapore faced a significant challenge during the global pandemic. The need to connect with their families became critical, but technical and logistical issues made it difficult. Many of their families back home did not have access to Wi-Fi or could not afford data plans for calls via WhatsApp or Viber. Landlines were often the only option, but obtaining prepaid calling cards became challenging due to quarantine orders and the risk of virus spread. The situation was further complicated by the fact that many of these workers' families resided in Bangladesh, where the infrastructure for digital communication was not as robust.

Community, an SMS marketing platform, connects businesses, brands, and public figures to their audiences at scale. Since its founding in 2019, Community has experienced massive growth, favored by high-profile figures and businesses alike. The platform's mission is to enable its customer base, referred to as 'Leaders', to drive conversations that increase brand loyalty, build trust, and create impact. However, to achieve this, Community faced the challenge of navigating the complexities of text messaging at scale, which had reached more than 7 billion messages sent. They needed a communications partner that would help them reliably serve their customers’ needs. Prior SMS technologies such as P2P (person to person) couldn’t facilitate the necessary throughput and Community also experienced filtering and blocking.

Concilio, an app-based healthcare service, connects users and their families to a health concierge who assists them in finding doctors and scheduling appointments. With over 25,000 clinicians treating more than 5,000 different medical conditions, Concilio's user base began to grow rapidly in 2018. This growth necessitated a more reliable telemedicine platform for virtual consultations, a challenge for Quentin Hayot, Concilio’s system administrator and lead developer. Furthermore, Concilio's contact center, which was initially using SIP trunks with an Asterisk-based PBX for connectivity, was unable to support the growing population of users and agents. Agents were registering at least one complaint about the system with IT per day, and VPN issues led to poor call quality, degrading the customer experience.

Dentistry practices operate on tight schedules, often leaving little time for patient care. Dentally, a company dedicated to improving patient experiences, envisioned a future where dentists have more time to treat patients. They aimed to build a user-friendly, intuitive portal that would empower dental practices to easily communicate with patients via voice and text. The challenge was to create a system that could streamline processes like appointment booking and reminders, clinical treatments, medical history records, and billing. This would ensure appointments run on time and patients are satisfied with their experience.

Dial-A-Doctor, an after-hours medical service provider, was facing significant challenges with their existing PTSN fixed-line call centre. As they transitioned into the digital age, they switched to a VoIP system, hoping it would provide a more reliable and efficient service. However, the VoIP system proved to be inadequate, leading to poor call quality, instances where callers couldn't hear the agent, and calls dropping out in the middle of conversations. The most concerning issue was an instance where a second caller dropped into a private conversation between an agent and a patient. Dial-A-Doctor needed a flexible, reliable, and intuitive technology solution that could handle not only calls but also other forms of customer contact like SMS, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and WebChat.

Edureka, an online education marketplace, prides itself on having the highest course completion rate in the industry. However, they faced a significant challenge in maintaining this rate due to the lack of immediate response to user support queries. This delay often led to students losing interest and discontinuing the course. The company wanted to create a support system that not only answered student queries but also encouraged them to continue, monitored their progress, and celebrated their achievements. However, providing 24/7 phone support was a daunting task. Edureka’s agents began to receive a surplus of calls from their students daily, which were often plagued with connectivity issues. As the company began to scale internationally, the platform founders started to search for a partner that would allow a smoother user experience for both the Edureka students and support agents.

The global pandemic brought about a significant challenge for businesses across all industries, including Electrolux, a global leader in home and kitchen appliances. The company, which sells more than 60 million household and professional products in over 150 markets annually, had to quickly pivot to maintain strong customer engagement and keep operations running. However, Electrolux's contact centers were not cloud or Internet-based, making it impossible to support remote work. The company needed to quickly develop a solution that would allow them to keep their contact centers operational. The challenge was to find a partner that understood their vision for the future and could help them find the appropriate solution to simplify communication functions between clients to ensure fast and efficient engagement with customers at every interaction.

Fred IT Group, a technology provider to the pharmacy industry, was tasked with transitioning the medical industry from paper to electronic prescriptions. In 2020, the company was working to make ePrescriptions a legal option for prescribing medication in Australia. They had a six-month timeline to design and build out the new platform. The challenge was to centralise the process by enabling the technology and connecting all the various 50-60 industry vendors to the eRx platform, as well as getting everyone onboard to the new system. However, the Covid-19 pandemic forced the Australian government to request that ePrescriptions become a reality in eight weeks versus six months. Fred IT Group had to find a reliable solution to meet this new deadline.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced businesses to rethink their operations, particularly the return of employees to the office while adhering to government-issued safety requirements. In countries where the virus is still uncontrolled, only 10 to 15 percent of employees are working on-site. The challenge lies in creating a safe environment for employees to return to work. Freespace, a company that specializes in making workspaces intelligent, had been helping businesses optimize office occupancy and reduce operating costs before the pandemic. However, the onset of COVID-19 meant that Freespace had to pivot its services to help businesses keep their employees safe. The company needed to make occupancy data available to everyone in the building, which required the installation of sensors on desks and in meeting rooms to collect occupancy data. However, this solution presented technical challenges, including the need for security, reliability, and scalability.

goUrban, a company that started out renting mopeds to Vienna users, soon realized the third-party software they were using to run their shared mobility business could be created more efficiently in-house. They began developing and testing their own transportation sharing software on their own fleet. However, as they expanded their customer base globally, they faced challenges in scaling their software and ensuring its reliability. They also had to overcome the arduous aspects of rideshare software with seamless, easy-to-use, secure technology. The company found that the slow verification times and finicky software were hindering their growth. They also needed to implement better hardware, remove unnecessary steps for their consumers, and ensure top-notch safety and security.

Planning for financial future is a complex task that requires an authentic, human touch. Hearsay, a financial services client engagement platform, was built to help advisors leverage digital channels to maximize their reach to prospects, optimize client engagements, and deliver exceptional service in a compliant manner. Over 100 of the world’s leading enterprise financial firms rely on Hearsay’s platform. However, Hearsay sought to empower their customers to develop deeper client connections with more personal, 1-to-1 channels like voice and SMS. During the recent global shift to remote work, many enterprise banking, wealth management, and insurance organizations decided to move away from corporate-provided devices and instead permit employees to communicate with customers from their own mobile phones or laptops. Hearsay needed a solution to quickly and compliantly build new channels for texts and calls— all while ensuring a smooth transition for enterprise field teams.

The healthcare industry is increasingly leveraging technology to improve patient experiences. However, this push for innovation often overlooks those who are not digitally inclined, lack access to certain technologies, or prefer traditional communication methods. Icario, a health action platform, was faced with the challenge of ensuring healthcare is accessible to everyone, regardless of their technological capabilities or preferences. They aimed to engage and motivate health plan members to take control of their health using the communication channel that suits them best. However, they faced difficulties in integrating a seamless Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system into their platform, which was crucial for their largely government healthcare customer base, many of whom still prefer voice calls over other communication methods.

Magazine Luiza (Magalu), the largest Brazilian retail chain, faced a significant challenge in maintaining its customer service strategy of demonstrating 'human warmth' as it expanded its digital platform. The company had successfully grown its Marketplace to support 200,000 sellers, but the digital platform posed a challenge in maintaining the personal touch in customer service. The company identified four key points of contact with the customer: attraction, onboarding, relationship, and retention. However, the existing process of attracting new customers and onboarding them onto the platform was not effective. The company used Click to WhatsApp ads on social media to attract potential sellers, but the subsequent registration process lacked context about the platform and did not provide a channel for potential sellers to ask questions. Furthermore, the company found that 79% of the emails sent to potential sellers with instructions for completing the registration process were ignored, indicating that email was not the most effective means of communication.