Big Brothers, Big Sisters

Big Brothers Big Sisters of North Texas is the oldest, largest, and most effective youth mentoring organization in Texas. Big Brothers Big Sisters of North Texas mentors children ages 6 through 18 in communities across North Texas. This mission is served through a professional staff that carefully works with both volunteers and children to ensure that the experience is safe, fulfilling, memorable, and fun for both the child and the volunteer.

“Keeping costs down is important to us, and with ShoreTel solutions, the long distance savings has allowed us to redirect those funds to supporting our program. We estimate the savings are several thousand dollars per year. This translates to money we can use for supporting at-risk children in our community.”
— Sean Ryan, Director of Information Services, Big Brothers Big Sisters of North Texas.

In 2004, Big Brothers Big Sisters of North Texas was faced with five regional offices that worked independently of one another, each with its own phone system from a different manufacturer. The organization’s new technology plan included the integration of all five agencies into one cohesive unit, and the phone system was one of the driving forces of this plan.

“We knew we’d be getting better value for our money with ShoreTel. It fit into our infrastructure plans nicely and offered all of the features that would allow us to join all our offices together so we’d present a unified front to the outside world and improve internal and external communications.”
— Sean Ryan, Director of Information Services, Big Brothers Big Sisters of North Texas.

With the help of its channel partner, Pyramid Communication Services, ShoreTel provided the organization with eight of its ShoreTel 40 Voice Switches, as well as over 200 ShoreTel IP Phones for all of its sites. The ShoreTel deployment has turned the seven separate locations into a cohesive organization with a centralized telephone system. The cost and call-management benefits of the ShoreTel IP Unified Communications system have contributed to the following improvements at Big Brothers Big Sisters of North Texas:

• Mentoring relationships have increased 35 percent: from 4,493 in 2004 to 6,054 in 2006.
• The average wait time for a match has decreased from 130 days down to 72.
• The agency was able to reduce its office space from 30,000 square feet to 14,000 square feet.
• The number of at-home workers has increased from 20 to 50 due to Call Manager’s Office Anywhere capabilities.
• The service cost per child has dropped from $1,298 to $1,190.
• Interviewers increased the average number of interviews they could conduct in a week from five to 20.

“ShoreTel offered the distributed architecture and call management features we needed to connect our offices, present a single face to the outside world, and let our staff, consultants, and volunteers work together far more effectively. Over the last few years, our agency has grown into the largest mentoring agency in the country, and ShoreTel, as part of our complete technology overhaul, played a key role in that growth.”
— Sean Ryan, Director of Information Services, Big Brothers Big Sisters of North Texas.