Case Studies

Covenant House



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A TECHNICAL LIFELINE FOR AT-RISK YOUNG PEOPLE

Background
While most people grapple with competing claims on our time, Covenant House’s team of specially trained staff and volunteers wait patiently for the phones to ring. Some calls are from homeless kids desperate for a safe place to sleep. Other callers shake the best-trained listeners with threats of suicide or self-injury. NINELINE is a lifeline for young people and their families, whether they’re facing a crisis or dealing with ongoing difficulties in life,” explained Gil Ortiz, Director of Covenant House’s NINELINE. “Many of our callers have nowhere else to turn for help. We have to be ready to take that next call, no matter when it comes in.”

The NINELINE Challenge
NINELINE is the 24/7 national hotline for Covenant House International, the largest privately funded agency in the US serving homeless, runaway and “throwaway” young people. Each year, NINELINE volunteers answer up to 400,000 calls. Callers are served directly or linked to one of 30,000 public, private and law enforcement agencies offering specialized services.

In 2008, NINELINE moved from the 17th Street location it shared with Covenant House to a separate facility in New York City, opening opportunities to upgrade its aging communications infrastructure. The move also presented challenges. “Even though some technologies were dedicated to NINELINE at the old location, we were connected to the Covenant House system in key ways,” explained Ortiz. “We had some dedicated equipment and shared the same call management system, IT specialists and data network, for example. Those shared resources stayed at 17th Street.” NINELINE needed to accomplish two technical objectives: fill in the gaps left after separating the shared resources and upgrade the legacy system. “The old phone system was a dinosaur,” admitted Ortiz. “We didn’t need bells and whistles, but we definitely needed reliability, functionality and cost-efficiency.”

Consultedge’s Solution
Consultedge took a measured approach in developing its solution. Scott Ryan, Project Manager for Consultedge, explained, “We worked with Gil to precisely identify the functionalities he needed, any operational or financing constraints, and any critical features such as redundancy or scalability. Then, we analyzed the technologies NINELINE already had to determine which could be used or upgraded, which needed to be replaced, and which were inoperable with new technologies.”

The resulting design reflects an integration of reused, upgraded and new technologies capable to achieving NINELINE’s mission-critical operational needs and its long-term goals.

Applications and Services

• Communication 5.0: High reliability and scalability
• 8500 Media Server with G-650 Gateway: Upgraded speed and capacity
• Call Center Elite for Vectors and Skills (25 counselors): Improved flexibility in answering, transferring and recording calls
• EC500: Supports mobility and future IP telephony applications
• Intuity LX: Multi-media messaging for voicemail, email and fax integration
• Upgraded Basic Call Monitoring System: Call monitoring, management and recordkeeping
• UPS: Assures uptime for servers, control network switch and Intuity LX
• Software support for Communication Manager, EC500 and Call Center Elite under 3-year contract with Consultedge
• Maintenance services provided to three additional Covenant House locations throughout the New York area.