This support has a direct impact on our ability to deliver our listening service, and supports Samaritans’ vision that fewer people die by suicide.
Tyler McGee, Acting Head of Service Delivery (Listening Service)
Samaritans and BrightGen celebrate four years of successful partnership. Together, they continually improve the value the charity sees from its investment in Salesforce.
2020 was a difficult year for the world. Samaritans, the UK suicide prevention charity, continued to see high demand for their services. They needed to continue to manage this demand, while making it possible to deliver certain services remotely.
Samaritans coronavirus response
At the start of lockdown, Samaritans worked with NHS England to set up a helpline for NHS workers. Not only that, they needed to both set up the line, and manage it, remotely. The calls made to the charity are highly confidential. They rely on concrete processes to ensure the right actions are taken in response.
BrightGen helped Samaritans respond immediately to the new requirement. BrightGen partnered closely with Salesforce and the charity’s suppliers to manage the project, which would put the new helpline in place within just two weeks.
Four years of partnership
Samaritans began their journey with BrightGen in 2017, when they decided to switch their Salesforce Service Management provider. The system their 20,000 volunteers use to manage their calls is eLog, which integrates with Salesforce. It manages everything from the reason for someone’s call through to any safeguarding concerns. This is core to their listening service. BrightGen picked it up smoothly and fixed the problems they had.
BrightGen invested in understanding what it was Samaritans were trying to achieve. They bought into what we were doing.
Cathie Smith, Salesforce CRM Manager
Since starting the partnership with BrightGen, Samaritans has added safeguarding and prison support, as well as the NHS helpline to respond to the pandemic. They also made the move to transition from Salesforce Classic experience to Salesforce Lightning.
BrightGen worked with the Samaritans team closely to help them prioritise budget for migrating to Lightning. With only three members in Samaritans’ business systems team, BrightGen was crucial in making the Lightning transition happen – and supporting the business case for it. The team was able to migrate in a month and communicate to the users quickly. The biggest impacts were in bringing together their files and emails for case management. Additionally, their Salesforce users said that they like the new look and feel, which the charity expects will improve user adoption.
Ultimately Samaritans’ digital programme manager has a vision that using Salesforce should become as commonplace as using email. Their relationship with BrightGen will be key to enabling this vision. For that reason, BrightGen is proud to partner with Samaritans. It is a technically advanced charity that understands how, by optimising their digital infrastructure, they can have an even greater impact.
If you’re looking to replicate the speed with which BrightGen delivered Samaritans’ Lightning transition, read more about our packaged solution.