Ecojustice trusted in Corvum to connect their offices and improve phone call quality.
Industry
Environmental Law, Non-profit organization
Head Office Location
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Client Since
2013
User
75-100

Overview
Ecojustice is an environmental law non-profit organization whose mission is to defend nature, combat climate change, and fight for a healthy environment for all. Since 1990, Ecojustice has expanded to five offices across Canada and has won several precedent setting cases on behalf of First Nations, landowners, grassroots community coalitions, municipalities, and environmental organizations of all sizes. Ecojustice’s integrity begins with one of their first cases going to the Supreme Court of Canada, successfully making the federal government critically consider the harm done by large industrial projects to the environment. Being 100% funded through donations, Ecojustice relies heavily on their phone service for member interaction and fundraising.
Problem
With five offices in four time zones, communication between multiple locations is a must for streamlined production. While Ecojustice was capable of handling their many cases, their phone system was outdated: office phones connected to local in-office PBX systems. These PBX systems required ample resources to constantly manage, troubleshoot, and administer. Since their phone system was locked to conventional offices, this prohibited their staff from working remotely. If an employee needed to connect to another office, they had to go through a front desk operator to be redirected to the correct coworker. If the PBX system failed, none of the phones would be operable, significantly harming business continuity.
Employed IT technicians had to spend the majority of their time tending to the local PBX systems, preventing other important issues from being addressed. Sometimes, external IT technicians were contracted to assist. Additionally, different offices had different phone providers, meaning multiple phone bills at different rates, requiring constant price negotiations for contract renewals. These complex circumstances led to inefficient management of services and high financial costs.

Solution
After assessing several other phone service providers, Ecojustice chose Corvum to refresh their phone system. By switching to a cloud-based platform, Ecojustice was immediately able say farewell to the onsite phone servers (no more server management). Higher-quality desk phones were deployed, and softphones were installed for all staff members, enabling remote work.
Corvum helped design smarter call routing, so that calls to offices in eastern time zones could be handled by staff in the west well into the evening. An extension system was rolled out across the organization, allowing for direct 3-digit calling between any staff in any office.
Result
Ecojustice has remained a Corvum client since coming aboard in 2013. Ecojustice staff immediately noticed an increase in sound quality. No longer having to manage onsite PBX systems, Ecojustice’s IT staff is better able to focus on supporting Ecojustice’s legal team, reducing the need for external IT support. The IT team is able to rely on Corvum to handle configuration updates, and all requests are sent to the same provider: Corvum.
The need to route internal calls through the main numbers was removed, freeing staff to focus on calls from the public. The savings of time, energy and costs have been significant. By changing to Corvum’s cloud based service, Ecojustice was able to free staff resources and focus on their mission and purpose instead of being distracted by a previously complicated and inefficient phone system.
Because Ecojustice placed their trust in the Corvum team, they were also able to easily transition to remote work in the face of COVID-19. When the pandemic hit, the shift was easy as the technology and culture was already in place. At this time, Ecojustice also opted into Corvum’s e-faxing service, so that faxes could be sent and received from anywhere. Corvum is honoured to work with such an inspiring organization, whose values we feel close alignment with.
As of December 2020, Corvum supported and managed:
134,000+ call minutes per year.
95% of the time answered in less than 30 minutes.
17,000+ calls per year.
105 change request tickets per year.
You can rely on Corvum for crystal clear audio quality.
We deal with legal professionals everyday, so we understand what you need.