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The Canadian Cancer Society (CCSSK), based in Saskatchewan, has launched an omni-channel engagement centre utilising cloud telephony from NewVoiceMedia and Salesforce, and found charitable donations had increased by 40%.

At the society’s Relay for Life event, participation went up 30% and pledge numbers increased by 70%. The company looked to the cloud primarily to provide a greater customer experience. Utilising Salesforce data, employees were able to create more personalised calls with their customers leading to greater relationships.

“Better retention is a virtuous cycle,” explains Andrew Caswell, associate executive director at CCSSK. “As it increases, you lay a strong foundation for future years.”

As the solution utilises the cloud, it also means greater scale and flexibility. Through NewVoiceMedia’s cloud telephony, all inbound calls go through the system and get routed to a free phone in one of the firm’s offices around Saskatchewan, meaning some calls which were unanswered can now be taken. The level of scale is such that an entire Western Canada centre is being mooted; CCSSK has been making calls for the Alberta province.

It’s not just about customers either. The cloud telephony system enables incoming calls to be routed to the right parties, which frees up time for CCSSK’s Customer Care Reps to address individual contributors, volunteers, or cancer survivors. The solution also utilises real-time reporting, meaning CCSSK can identify areas of improvement for customer service.

“We wanted to emphasise the quality of relationships with participants, volunteers, donors and cancer survivors to reach more people with our support programmes and increase our fundraising,” said Catherine Moore, senior director of strategic engagement and platform development at CCSSK.

Describing NewVoiceMedia as “a game changer”, she added: “Now we are better able to engage with people to increase the impact of our support, prevention and advocacy programmes.”

NewVoiceMedia isn’t the only cloud service provider aiming to make a difference to cancer. Microsoft launched a recent campaign highlighting the work being done by scientists and engineers at Virginia Tech, analysing DNA sequencing information. Canada itself is investing $6.7m (£4.28m) in cloud-based biotech infrastructure designed to analyse genetic data.

You can read the full case study here.