An unlikely pairing between a Miami based contact center software provider and a central Florida nonprofit are helping employ people with visual impairments.
Fenero, founded in 2013, provides complete cloud-based contact service software for contact centers of all sizes. Their services help streamline customer and business interactions. They offer free sign up and call/data storage and only charge their users per call/email/chat.
They have partnered with Lighthouse Works, a social enterprise nonprofit which helps employ those with vision loss through a wide range of businesses. They are a subsidiary of Lighthouse Central Florida which offers a comprehensive range of services to people living with vision impairment in that region.
The partnership will serve several purposes. First, it will help the people who, through Lighthouse, work in contact service centers to do their jobs more efficiently and reliably. It will also save Lighthouse money as they will be using Fenero’s cloud-based platform at a heavily discounted rate.
“By applying Fenero’s all-in-one contact center platform Lighthouse Works can now offer a better service for its own clients, increase its overall customer base, and provide more employment for the visually impaired in the Orlando area,” says Fenero CEO and Founder Marlon Williams, in a statement. “We are excited about the possibilities of this partnership and fully support the valuable employment that Lighthouse Works provides for the disabled community in our state.”
Aside from lowering the cost of overhead, this partnership also allows Lighthouse Works to eliminate systems maintenance and gives them more flexibility to scale their services.
“Lighthouse Works’ wide range of businesses provide job training, employment and career opportunities for the advancement of people who are blind and visually impaired; our business lines exist to forward and fund the mission of Lighthouse Central Florida, which is, ‘living, learning and earning with vision loss’,” said Lee Nasehi, President & CEO of Lighthouse Works and Lighthouse Central Florida in a statement “The cloud-based telephony solution that Fenero offers puts us in a competitive and advantageous position to fully realize these goals.”
It’s probably no surprise that unemployment rates for disabled people is higher than it is in the abled population. According to statistics, from the National Federation of the Blind, only 37.7% of US working age adults reporting significant vision loss were employed in 2012.
Partnerships such as this one can help nonprofits that help the disabled lower costs in other ways so that they can provide more of the services that are needed for their specific populations.
Image Credit: Cleveland Sight Center