Cloud technology supports Radio 4 Christmas Appeal

The pop-up contact centre means that the charity appeal can accept thousands more donations than would otherwise be possible

The 5th of December is International Volunteers' Day, and the third day of the annual BBC Radio 4 Christmas Appeal with St-Martin-in-the-Fields - which is again using cloud contact centre technology from Sesui to support the volume of incoming calls.

The BBC Radio 4 Christmas Appeal raises money for homeless people across the UK: not just those living on the street, but also the ‘hidden' homeless who live in cars, on sofas or in vulnerable housing.

Now in its 92nd year, the Appeal takes thousands of calls every December, and has relied on cloud technology for the last nine years.

"We're a small team, and on top of our many online and postal donations, we'll handle thousands of calls in just a number of days," said Tim Bissett, director of the charity St-Martin-in-the-Fields - which is also also Incisive Media's main charity partner. "The number of donations we receive in the first week of the campaign would take other charities a year to raise. The only possible way to manage all of this goodwill is through the cloud."

Over the course of the campaign, volunteers take over a space that is not set up as a traditional contact centre, to receive calls and accept donations from Radio 4 listeners. The cloud contact centre points those calls to Sesui's cloud and then delivers them to a volunteer.

"This year, we're taking the idea even further, and we're throwing open our doors on the Oxford Science Park so that volunteers can take over our office and answer even more calls," said Sesui CTO Manveer Mangat. "Our team will be right by their side, answering calls and hopefully helping change some lives. We know a lost call is a lost donation, so at the same time as running the pop-up contact centres, we're also sending calls to remote agents in other parts of England and Ireland."

Donations received are split between The Connection at St Martin-in-the-Fields, the day and emergency night centre in London's Trafalgar Square and the Vicar's Relief Fund (VRF).