Co-authored with Heather Keleher
Over the past week, our #PublicSectorNow series featured some amazing stories from keeping students, faculty, and staff prepared and healthy as they head back to school to maintaining the level of care and scaling critical telehealth programs. Today, join us as we highlight the city of good neighbors and their impressive resiliency in response to the needs of their community during the pandemic.
With the stay at home order issue by Mayor Brown in mid-March, the City of Buffalo needed an answer to a critically important question: How would the city ensure that its citizens could call their government during an uncertain time when people needed easy access to vital information?
Traditionally, Buffalo’s 311 call and resolution center receives a minimum of six hundred calls each day. The government knew that limiting or shutting down access to the call center was not an option.
Cue the University at Buffalo, which had already securely scaled Cisco infrastructure for more than four thousand of its own employees to work remotely. With the forward-looking investment in technology, the university had the capacity and capability in place to help the city.
In just two days, a remote 311 center was up and running, ready to respond to residents’ needs.
During the pandemic, Buffalo’s 311 service has received as many as two thousand calls a day.
This critical continuity of government enabled the city to meet its mission and provide access to services and important information with the highest possible level of care for the citizens of Buffalo.
When the City of Good Neighbors needed help, they knew they could rely on Cisco, to provide a solution to their problem. See more about how Cisco Webex Contact Center was the right fit to meet the city’s needs.
“Every time someone calls, it’s an opportunity for us to bind that social contract with residents in the community. If we’re not taking those calls, who will?“
Oswaldo Mestre, Chief Service Officer and Citizen Services Director for City of Buffalo
In the end, this partnership and the willingness to lend a helping hand is the kind of inspiring display of leadership and innovation that we all need right now.
Cisco’s experience with improving the human impact of technology spans decades across the globe. And for us, there’s no limit to possible.
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