Countdown to Enterprise Connect 2018: How Calabrio Helps Orion Industries Drive Social Change

Enterprise Connect is one of Calabrio’s biggest events of the year. That’s why we’re so pleased to host in our Enterprise Connect 2018 booth in Florida next week a very special guest—Bill Holder, director of strategic partnerships at Orion Industries.

Orion holds a special place in my heart because it’s a social enterprise whose sole purpose is to “change the lives of people with barriers to employment by building esteem and creating opportunities through training, education and successful business platforms.”

Pretty cool, right? We at Calabrio are honored to be a part of this important endeavour, so—in this first of two blogs counting down to next week’s Enterprise Connect conference—we talk with Bill about what it’s like to work at such a purpose-filled company, and how he and his team use Calabrio to further their vital work.

Bill, thanks so much for speaking with us today and joining us in our Enterprise Connect booth next week. To start, in your own words, what exactly does Orion do?

Thanks, Rebecca! I appreciate the opportunity.

Orion is a non-profit social venture enterprise that helps people overcome barriers to employment, such as disabilities, low income or homelessness, alcoholism, and mental health issues. We successfully created an innovative service and technology model in our contact centre division that helps solve two difficult problems: employing persons with disabilities or those who have other barriers to employment, and communicating with diverse populations while providing world class solutions to our customers.

Orion uses operations in our aerospace manufacturing division and award-winning contact centre services division as platforms to teach people job skills through a combination of classroom instruction and on-the-job-training, including mentoring and internship programmes. We also offer training in office skills and customer service programmes, and support individuals in achieving their goals through mentorship, job placement and job retention services.

Orion also makes help desk and technical support accessible to people with disabilities. Our agents specialise in providing support to people using cutting-edge, assistive technologies to overcome visual, communication and mobility barriers. This includes services provided to those in the deaf community via live video by agents whose native language is American Sign Language, and services for those with significant visual impairments via the “Be My Eyes” app.

That’s awesome. I think I know the answer, but why did you join Orion, and how is working there different from other jobs you’ve had?

I joined Orion because of its focus on helping people and also because our employees—who are so extremely gifted—deliver such a high-quality service.

Orion is different from other jobs I’ve had in that it’s very entrepreneurial and mission oriented. It’s always changing and growing. And everyone who works here is committed to helping others. We also have very low turnover because employees know this isn’t just a job—they’re serving a higher purpose.

What Orion does is so unique. How did contact centres become a focus for Orion?

We’ve operated our aerospace manufacturing division for more than 50 years. Then, about seven years ago, we opened a contact centre services division that uses outsourced contact centres to prepare programme participants for careers in the customer service industry. Our goal was to create a contact centre that employs people with disabilities and operates using recognised industry best practises. And that’s exactly what we did.

Today, our contact centre services include multi-channel customer service, technical support, healthcare patient and provider services, and outbound programmes. For example, Orion trains contact centre agents to handle inbound calls for leading health care organisations. Because the training these individuals receive specialises in the complex healthcare and technical support industries where jobs are abundant, they become highly skilled and sought after.

That’s great! Can you tell us about another Orion success story?

Sure. We also work with the U.S. Army, staffing their training help desk with a team where more than 70 percent of the members identify with a particular disability or barrier to employment. This very gifted team helps everyone—across all ranks, from a private to a general—who needs assistance when progressing through their training processes.

Now, Calabrio technology obviously focuses on contact centres. But what else about Calabrio makes us a good partner for Orion?

Orion shares many synergies and collabouration opportunities with Calabrio because of our complementary services and products that help both of our customer bases. Our leadership and management teams have similar visions for growth. And both Calabrio and its parent company KKR & Co. are highly supportive of Orion’s mission.

 Calabrio’s cloud-based solution also is a great fit for us. We have many contact centre customers who need a solution that easily can support multiple locations—in fact, many turn to us specifically because of our geographic support. Calabrio’s contact centre as a service (CCaaS) solution fits the bill.

Lastly—knowing how busy you are and what important jobs you and everyone at Orion have—why did you offer to be our booth guest at next week’s Enterprise Connect 2018 event?

The event is a great opportunity to get the word out about Orion’s unique contact centre services. On a more selfish note, it’s also a great time for me to have more face-to-face conversations with the Calabrio team, so we can build an even tighter partnership for the future. I’m looking forward to it!

Want to learn more about Orion or Calabrio ONE? Meet live with Bill and experts from Calabrio at booth #1001 at Enterprise Connect 2018—pre-schedule a live demo or private meeting today. And get a sneak peek of this new video about Orion Industries!

Watch for our next blog in this “Countdown to Enterprise Connect” two-blog series, where we look at what’s happened in the Contact Centre as a Service (CCaaS) market since Amazon joined it a year ago.

Rebecca Martin

As Chief Marketing Officer at Calabrio, Rebecca is responsible for lead generation and pipeline marketing, content strategy, customer marketing, and corporate communications. An unflappable veteran of Minnesota’s emerging technology industry with nearly 20 years of experience, Rebecca has been entrusted with millions in venture capital and the formidable task of building lead funnels, and differentiating and positioning entrepreneurial brands. Most recently, Rebecca was Director of Integrated Marketing for Code42—a data protection and security company—where she fueled a content-driven lead-gen strategy, customer engagement/advocacy and communications initiatives. Prior, Rebecca held marketing leadership roles at Trissential, Stellent, and Oracle. Rebecca holds a B.A. degree from the University of Wisconsin.