Dollar Energy Fund Selects Mitel Solutions to Manage Rapid Growth

Contact center and mobility solutions provide greater flexibility and agent support

OTTAWA, Ontario — Mitel® today announced that Dollar Energy Fund, the fourth largest fuel fund in the United States, has selected Mitel Contact Center Solutions to help manage its continuously growing and increasingly dispersed agents.

Dollar Energy Fund is a non-profit organization that assists those who need help with their utility bills. Based in Pittsburgh with operations in Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Ohio, and West Virginia, Dollar Energy plans to expand southward and westward, doubling its number of agents in the next year. With growing demand, Dollar Energy needed a solution to support this growth while improving services to members, reducing costs, and driving productivity for all of its agents.

Together with Mitel and Mitel Exclusive Business Partner Prime Communications, Dollar Energy deployed the combined software solution of the Mitel Contact Center Solutions and Mitel Teleworker Solution, with the Mitel Communications Director on the Mitel 3300 IP Communications Platform (ICP).

“We wanted the ability to support agents in our growing and increasingly dispersed workforce with a centralized contact center communications system that could grow with us,” said Sean Smiles, director of information technology at Dollar Energy. “With our older model, we couldn’t provide the same level of support that we can with the new Mitel solution.”

Using Mitel’s Contact Center Solutions reporting system, Dollar Energy can now drive employee performance and productivity. Replacing Dollar Energy’s old reporting system with a Mitel system allows Dollar Energy to monitor contact center activities in real time and provide agents with a view of the performance of the contact center. With this information, the company can make immediate adjustments to call flow depending on traffic and is also able to do capacity forecasting and planning.

“Dealing with call volume was a real challenge for us. We didn’t want our customers to have long hold times,” said Smiles. “With Mitel’s Contact Center Solutions, we have a queued call-back system to notify an agent to return the customer’s call when they become available. The cost savings will be significant as we no longer have to pay for people to be on hold.”

In addition to the Contact Center Management reporting system, Dollar Energy also selected the Mitel Teleworker Solution to accommodate its increasingly widespread workforce. “With the Mitel Teleworker Solution, we can manage all of our employees’ from a central system, regardless of their location. This is of utmost importance as we prepare for our expansion, which will see many of our agents working from home or embedded at utilities,” explained Smiles.

“The Mitel Contact Center and Teleworker Solutions provide Dollar Energy with the means to recruit the best contact center agents available, regardless of where they are located,” said Stephen Beamish, vice-president of marketing and business development at Mitel. “By selecting Mitel solutions, Dollar Energy has ensured the flexibility and scalability it needs as it continues to grow and expand. It also allows the company to save on real estate costs while still providing dispersed geographic presence.”

About Dollar Energy Fund, Inc.
Dollar Energy Fund was founded in 1983 and has grown to become the fourth largest hardship fund in the United States. Dollar Energy Fund is a 501 (c) 3 organization operating in Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Ohio and West Virginia. Throughout its history, the organization has provided over $60 million in utility assistance grants to over 250,000 low-income families and individuals.

Dollar Energy Fund has helped people from all walks of life: some who needed temporary relief from a bad situation, others who needed help lifting themselves out of poverty and along the path to self-sufficiency. For more information, visit www.dollarenergyfund.org.

About Prime Communications
Prime Communications, Inc. is a Pittsburgh-based communications integrator with over 25 years experience providing converged voice, data, video, and internet applications to western Pennsylvania enterprises. Prime presently serves well over 10,000 users with a client base that includes major national accounts, high profile locally based corporations, and communications-critical institutional and government users. For more information, visit www.primecomm.com.

About Mitel
Mitel delivers flexibility and simplicity in smart unified communications solutions and applications for organizations of all sizes. Combined with a full range of managed services that include voice and data network design and traffic provisioning, custom application development, and attractive financing options, Mitel is reinventing how successful organizations gain competitive advantage by easily collaborating and communicating over distance and time with customers, colleagues and partners. Mitel’s (www.mitel.com/) US headquarters are in Phoenix, Arizona. Global headquarters are in Ottawa, Canada, with offices, partners, and resellers worldwide.