Michigan Humane, the largest and oldest non-profit animal welfare organization in Michigan, needed to modernize its communication and collaboration tools to better serve multiple sites. Apex Digital Solutions provided a comprehensive solution that included Microsoft Teams Phone, Microsoft Teams Rooms, Microsoft Azure, and Microsoft 365, enabling Michigan Humane to establish reliable site-to-site communication, expand its community engagement programs, and improve advocacy efforts. As a result, Michigan Humane has been able to provide better services to animals and people in need, increase staff productivity, and achieve significant cost savings on communication expenses.
Founded in 1877, Michigan Humane operates out of four animal care centers and helps more than 100,000 animals each year through veterinary care, shelter, and adoption services. Emily O’Reilly, Director of Business Systems, Michigan Humane, explained the organization’s broader vision. “Our goal is to provide humane solutions, not just for animals but for people as well. We believe that everyone deserves compassion and respect. We aim to create an environment where pets and their humans can live happy, healthy lives together,” O’Reilly said.
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Prior to 2022, Michigan Humane relied on a third party for all its communication and collaboration services and constantly experienced challenges. Its sites were plagued with frequent outages affecting internet service and telecommunications. These external failures made communication across sites difficult and often put at risk the staff’s ability to provide a consistent and seamless experience for individuals trying to utilize services such as adoption, veterinary care, and pet food banks.
Since 2018, Apex Digital Solutions (Apex), a Microsoft Solutions Partner in Modern Work, has provided managed services to Michigan Humane. Apex had already partnered with Michigan Humane along its technology journey by delivering professional services development of a virtual workplace management system. At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Apex had already deployed Microsoft Teams and Microsoft OneDrive for Michigan Humane staff, enabling collaborative, remote work.
“Partnering with Apex on these solutions has been a game-changer for Michigan Humane. Apex has been instrumental in helping guide Michigan Humane’s technology and growth. When we were experiencing frequent outages with our ISP and difficulties with our telecom provider, Apex delivered a solution that modernized our communications,“ O’Reilly said.
The Microsoft technology provided by Apex has enabled us to modernize our communication and collaboration tools and streamline our processes. Our staff and volunteers are able to communicate and collaborate more easily and efficiently, which has increased their productivity and allowed them to focus more on our core mission of helping animals and people in need.
Apex delivered its Ignite solution for Microsoft Teams Calling, available via co-sell and through the Microsoft AppSource Marketplace. The engagement included migrating communication services from the third-party telecom provider, deploying a redundant ISP solution, deploying a hosted VPN solution, and giving Michigan Humane ownership and control over site-to-site communications.
“The Microsoft technology provided by Apex has enabled us to modernize our communication and collaboration tools and streamline our processes. Our staff and volunteers are able to communicate and collaborate more easily and efficiently, which has increased their productivity and allowed them to focus more on our core mission of helping animals and people in need,” O’Reilly said.
Michigan Humane now utilizes the complete Microsoft Teams communication and collaboration suite, enabling it to expand services through enhanced communication. Five Teams Rooms across sites ensure a consistent, high-quality experience no matter where meeting attendees are joining from. Additionally, Apex and Michigan Humane migrated departmental and group shared data from on-premises file storage to Teams. This migration allowed Michigan Humane to initiate the use of data loss prevention (DLP) policies, providing deeper insights into data and enhancing data security measures.
Through adoption of technology based on the entire Microsoft Modern Work & Security suite, Michigan Humane improved its collaboration capabilities, increased staff productivity, reduced communication expenses, and improved customer service and community engagement efforts.
Since expanding its adoption of Teams, Michigan Humane has seen a remarkable increase in communications thanks to the stability and quality of the new solution. Comparing similar periods in 2020-2021 with 2022-2023, the non-profit saw a 281 percent increase in channel messages and a 69 percent increase in one-to-one calls. This increase in collaboration highlights the impact of Teams on staff productivity and overall services provided to the community. By using Microsoft Teams Phone, Michigan Humane reduced communication expenses, allowing it to allocate more resources to its animal care programs.
Apex Digital Solutions has helped Michigan Humane further its goal of providing humane solutions to their community. “Apex has been an excellent partner for us,” O’Reilly said. “Their expertise and support have been invaluable, and we look forward to continuing our partnership in the future.”
Apex’s Hybrid Work solution offerings will empower your workforce to connect, collaborate, and communicate confidently and securely across boundaries. Apex Digital Solutions can assist with the evaluation, purchase, deployment, and success management of Microsoft Teams, Teams Phone, and Teams Rooms. Learn More >>
**This article was originally published on Microsoft’s Customer Stories website. View the original article.