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.

In early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced many testing centers to halt in-person operations, leading to a dramatic shift from onsite testing to remotely proctored exams. This sudden change put a strain on virtual testing platforms, many of which were not built to handle the surge in demand. Prometric, an industry-leading testing and assessment provider, was faced with the challenge of quickly scaling their ProProctor remote assessment platform without compromising its security and reliability. Prior to this, Prometric was using a legacy on-premise AV infrastructure that lacked the reliable connectivity and scalable features needed for a global remote assessment solution. They also wanted to tailor ProProctor’s user interface to the needs of fully remote candidates, but building a new UI from scratch would have delayed the launch and created a larger backlog of exams.

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.

The case study revolves around the challenge of ensuring safety in high-risk work environments, such as construction sites. The situation is exemplified by a scenario where a construction worker notices a problem with a bolt holding a beam in place, a failure of which could lead to fatal accidents. The challenge is further compounded by the fact that some workers may not fully understand or be able to accurately complete safety checklists due to literacy issues, dyslexia, or lack of training. This was a real-life problem encountered by George Bancs, the CEO and founder of Talk5, during a motorway remediation project in Sydney. Bancs used a 'take 5 safety checklist' to identify potential hazards before work began, but found that some workers were unable to complete the checklist accurately, thereby increasing the risk of workplace incidents.

The automobile sales industry in Spain has been slow to evolve, with dealerships often relying on traditional communication methods such as landline phones. This has resulted in a significant number of customer calls going unanswered, with as many as 30% of incoming calls being missed. The lack of modern communication channels such as SMS or Whatsapp has led to a situation where important customer queries can be overlooked if dealerships forget to return phone calls. This has left customers without the support and service level they need. Walcu, an automotive CRM, recognized this gap and knew it needed to build communication channels for its car dealership customers.

In Japan, managing patients’ medication records is a daunting task due to the country's population of over 126 million people. The challenge is to keep track of numerous medications for each patient with utmost precision. The situation was further complicated in September of the previous year when the Pharmaceutical Affairs and Medical Device Act enacted a revision requiring patient follow-ups after specific medications were dispensed. This increased the workload of pharmacists, necessitating an efficient communication solution. Previously, medication guidance was primarily given over the phone, requiring the pharmacist to keep a record of the conversation with the patient. However, many patients didn’t answer their phones, making it difficult to conduct necessary follow-up calls. The revision to the September Act presented an opportunity to re-examine communication tools that could help reduce the burden on pharmacists while ensuring patients received the necessary medication guidance.

Hotels strive to provide a memorable stay for their guests, but the check-in process can often be a tedious task. The traditional method of checking in, which involves interacting with front desk staff, can take up to ten minutes. This not only wastes the guests' time but also puts a strain on the hotel's staffing resources. Furthermore, communication between the hotel and guests was primarily through voice calls or emails, which proved to be ineffective. Hong Kong-based software and robotics company, Blue Pin, identified these challenges and aimed to streamline the check-in process and improve communication channels.

The challenge faced by talent recruiters and other cold callers was that 80% of their call efforts were wasted on unanswered calls, rejections, or bad timing. This inefficiency was a significant drain on resources, with recruiters having to make twenty to thirty calls each day for each role, only to narrow it down to about five or ten prospects. The CEO of Callify, Chetan Indap, experienced this issue firsthand when he ran his own recruitment agency. He realized that automating calls could screen and filter out only the qualified candidates, saving recruiters both time and money.

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.

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.

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 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.

Keap, a company that provides a user-friendly customer relationship management (CRM), sales, and marketing automation solution for entrepreneurs and small businesses, was facing a challenge in optimizing its communication services. Keap's core customer base, which includes small, service-oriented businesses or sole-proprietorships, like coaches and consultants, needed a personalized platform to manage their leads, convert them into clients, and then stay in touch with them. However, many small business owners preferred to communicate with customers via text message, a feature that was missing in Keap’s automation platform. This gap in communication was causing Keap to miss out on a large segment of the small-business communication journey, forcing their customers to use multiple tools to fill that gap.

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.

PhoneUnite, a company offering hosted PBX services to small and medium-sized businesses, faced a significant challenge in finding a scalable, pay-as-you-go communications provider to support their growing business. The co-founders, Henry Weber and Bryan Heitman, initially planned to route calls to their customers' mobile phones, aligning with the BYOD (bring your own device) trend. However, they discovered that their customers also desired traditional business phones, alongside lower communication costs. The challenge was to satisfy these customer needs while also future-proofing their communications infrastructure.

Handy, a platform that connects individuals with pre-screened independent service professionals for household services, faced a significant challenge in efficiently connecting home and apartment dwellers with verified home service professionals. The traditional process of finding a housecleaner or handyman was often tedious and time-consuming, involving getting a list of providers from friends or online services, making phone calls, conducting reference checks, and finally scheduling an appointment. The process was not only inconvenient for customers but also for the professionals who had to advertise and market their services.

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.

Airbnb, a global community marketplace for booking accommodations, faced a challenge in facilitating secure, automated mobile communication between rental hosts and potential guests. The platform allows hosts to post listings of available rooms or properties, which guests can then filter and search according to their needs. However, once guests found a suitable place and communicated with the host to finalize the reservation details, the hosts had a 32-hour window to accept or decline the booking request. Often, hosts were not near their computers and couldn't respond promptly, even if they wished to confirm the booking. This delay in response time was affecting the user experience negatively, as potential guests had to wait longer to hear back on a reservation.

Balboa Digital, a provider of high-quality contact center solutions, was facing a significant challenge with its existing telephony provider. The VoIP office phone system was inflexible and incompatible with third-party systems, preventing integration with Balboa's agent management system. This led to inefficiencies such as idle times between calls and difficulties in transferring calls. The system also lacked necessary recording and reporting capabilities, hindering Balboa's ability to monitor and coach its agents effectively. Furthermore, the reliability of the service was a major concern, with Balboa having to resort to a secondary provider for emergencies. Traditional telecom providers were found to be too expensive for customization and did not provide all the necessary services. On the other hand, open-source solutions lacked sophisticated customer support and a global telephony footprint. Balboa needed a solution that offered flexibility, comprehensive services, customizable solutions, and excellent customer service at a competitive cost.

Magna Mysteria, a theatre production company, was faced with the challenge of incorporating reliable SMS into a fast-paced, innovative, and interactive theatrical performance. The company wanted to explore the impact of technology on society and create a truly immersive theatre experience. The traditional theatre environment often discourages the use of mobile phones, but Magna Mysteria wanted to break this norm and integrate mobile usage into their performances. The company aimed to make the audience participants in the show through augmented reality and other pervasive technologies. However, they needed a solution that could seamlessly weave in the audience's personal details into the plot and direct them around venues using SMS and voice calls.

MongoDB, a leading NoSQL database provider, was faced with the challenge of integrating two-factor authentication into its Java-based web application. The company wanted to extend its database monitoring service to include backup and restore capabilities, which required a secure, two-factor authentication solution to authorize the handling of user data. The company needed a solution that was easy to implement, easy to integrate, and reliable for their Java-based application. The challenge was to ensure that only authorized users would be allowed to perform operations that could result in loss or exposure of mission-critical data.

CallTrackingMetrics, a company that helps businesses and advertising agencies track the sources most likely to convert, faced a significant challenge. They needed to determine the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, lead conversions, and ROI in real-time. The quality of service was a critical factor in their business, as phone sales remained highly relevant despite the increased focus on digital sales. However, setting up reliable call tracking was a complex and expensive task. Most existing solutions were part of larger marketing packages that not all clients needed. Furthermore, the company faced quality issues with their initial platform, including grainy phone conversations and unexplained outages. These issues were detrimental to their clients, as dropped or incomprehensible calls forced them to resort to other communication channels with significantly lower conversion rates.

Bandsintown, a concert discovery platform, primarily interacts with its users through email. The company needed a reliable and efficient way to send personalized, location and preference-based recommendations to its users. The challenge was to manage a massive email program that sends out more than a billion emails a year, especially with the rise of virtual concerts. The platform needed to aggregate livestream events and spread the word via email, allowing artists to announce their performances. The company also needed to send automated weekly digests, alerting fans when their favorite artists’ shows are happening near them. The challenge was to ensure these emails were delivered timely and efficiently without falling into spam traps or damaging the sender's reputation.

contactSPACE, a cloud-based contact centre software solution provider, faced a significant challenge when they acquired a customer based in New York. Their homegrown voice stack/API was not equipped to support this customer without investing in expensive additional infrastructure. The company, which was born inside AWS (Amazon Web Services) and is based in Australia, needed to provide the same high-quality service to their American customers as they did to their Australian ones. The challenge was to find a solution that could be deployed quickly and efficiently, without compromising on quality or requiring significant investment in infrastructure.

CPG Europe, a leading provider of construction materials, faced a significant challenge in maintaining customer relationships during the COVID-19 pandemic. With a sprawling international operation serving architects, project managers, construction site workers, and other building specialists, the company needed to be reachable over multiple channels at any time. Prior to the pandemic, CPG Europe was juggling several different telephony providers, leading to complexities in managing contracts, costs, and technical issues. The situation was further complicated by the fact that they had multiple providers in a single country, making maintenance difficult. The onset of the pandemic and the transition to remote work exacerbated these challenges, as the company needed to ensure business continuity and customer service without any slowdowns.

Lionbridge, a global company, was facing challenges in providing high-quality multilingual customer and workforce experiences. The company's over-the-phone interpretation (OPI) services cater to a wide range of clients, including companies, government agencies, and healthcare providers, interacting with callers in over 350 languages. However, their existing communication platform was inflexible and time-consuming when it came to making changes. This lack of flexibility was hindering Lionbridge's ability to provide the level of customization their customers expected. The company needed a solution that would allow them to easily scale with the OPI market and changing landscape, while also delivering a better customer experience for both their customers and interpreters.

The year 2020 brought unprecedented challenges for humanitarian organizations worldwide. The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), an independent humanitarian organization, was no exception. The NRC provides emergency and long-term assistance to millions of people annually in the Middle East, Central America, Asia, and Africa. However, the COVID-19 pandemic compounded the already tenuous situation for over 80 million people displaced due to violence and persecution. Global travel restrictions, shelter-in-place ordinances, and other safety measures such as social distancing prevented organizations from delivering aid in the traditional face-to-face format. These crises carried into 2021, necessitating a pivot to more digital services to continue providing healthcare, education, housing, legal assistance, counseling, food, and employment resources.

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.

SmartrMail, a company that provides tools for strategic email marketing campaigns, was initially developed in 2016 to boost sales of Bluethumb, an online art marketplace. The company found that existing email marketing tools were either too basic or lacked the necessary functionality and features, such as personalisation, to create compelling emails quickly. Today, SmartrMail is used by over nine thousand small-to-medium e-commerce businesses for automated customer outreach. However, with the increase in e-commerce sales due to the global pandemic, SmartrMail's email volumes have doubled since the beginning of 2021, from 50 million a month to 80 million today, with the expectation of hitting 100 million by the end of the year. This growth meant that SmartrMail needed more cost-efficient and robust email and SMS solutions to support customer expansions.

Supermoney, an online platform that simplifies the process of comparing and contracting utility and financial services, was facing a challenge due to rapid growth in its customer base. The company's existing telephony system was unable to keep up with the expanding customer base. Additionally, increased scrutiny and regulation from European regulatory authorities necessitated more control over customer data and the CRM infrastructure. Supermoney also recognized the need for an improved digital interface and a more efficient integration of the self-service and high-touch human component of its customer support experience. The company was also planning for international expansion, which required a scalable technology partner.