Thank you all for being here today. Um My name is De Liu and I am a product manager at Tech Matters. Uh Tech Matters is a Silicon Valley based nonprofit dedicated to building shared technology platforms for the social sector.Um I'm super excited to speak to you all today um And to support fellow women pursuing careers in the technology space. Um Go ladies. So um today I'm gonna be talking to you about a EO which is our project focused on building contact center technology for our child helplines around the world. Um We'll discuss the challenges developing a software as a service platform in the nonprofit space. Um and the different approaches that we are taking to develop our solution. Um Keeping in mind the importance of user collaboration, privacy and security um and scale. So what is a EO and how did our project get started? Drew Belia, who is the founder of Child helpline International, which is a global collective of about uh 100 70 plus different child helplines. Um She approached our CEO OK. No months and spending time interviewing different child helplines. It was very clear that technology solutions across the network were very fragmented. While there were some existing tools, many helplines had rolled their own solutions. So the technology was custom built expensive and generally hard to maintain.

Contact center technology solutions do exist but typically are built for more commercial enterprise use cases. For example, thank customer support. Um For other helplines, data was being recorded entirely by hand and maintained across Excel spreadsheets and very um which you can imagine is not very cumbersome for day to day operations um but also makes aggregate reporting to donors and any data reporting incredibly tedious.

Um Another point to mention is that the majority of child helplines um primarily or only really support voice calls. Um And as we all know, kids are continuing to move to more text based communication in their day to day lives. So there's a widening gap in how the helplines can even be reached. On top of that, for helplines that maybe have adopted social media counseling, um Counseling conversations are typically handled across silent systems. For example, some helplines will handle their social media counseling all through a mobile phone in the office. And the last point I want to mention is the COVID-19 pandemic. So not only are helplines, a direct resource for kids who are dealing with anxiety and mental health concerns as a result of the added stress of the pandemic, but stay at home orders mean that counselors in some countries need to work from help and with data technology solutions and in office phone systems, counselors aren't always able to serve with kids remotely.

Oh, sorry. Uh So there is a clear need here for modern technology um that can unify the work of child helplines across the world, giving counselors the tools to efficiently and effectively engage with Children in need. Additionally, a shared platform across helplines makes data aggregation across the network much, much simpler which the power of data to advocate and influence policy change around child protection and that's where a sale comes in. So before we dive into the actual product and what we are building and to quickly go over some of our core values that are foundational in our software development. Um First partnership. So partnership, not only with the child helplines that we are serving, but also with the rest of the NGO community. Um From the beginning, we have been dedicated to building open source software with the intention of sharing knowledge and tools, not just to support Children in need but for the entire crisis response movement. Second privacy, security and reliability, we are supporting organizations that deal with emergency response on a daily basis and handle extremely sensitive and private information about kids. We recognize the importance and need for strict and regulated data access alongside local regulations and lastly data ownership.

As a software provider, we are very clear that the helplines own their own data and they are the decision makers and how their data is being used. Our goal is to strengthen and service the child helplines by making their data systems more robust and easy to transform for. But we have no intention of actually dictating how they are using their data. So with those key values in mind, what did we actually build? So we built a modern cloud based solution that can be accessed just with an internet connection which enables counselors to be able to work from home. CEO is an omni channel platform. We support voice calls, Facebook messenger, whatsapp messages, web chat and Zoom Twitter direct messages all in one unified interface. With the goal to expand to many more channels as the communication landscape continues to change, we're building efficiency tools within the interface.

So counselors can save time while collecting data, which gives them more time to focus on the actual counseling and servicing of Children. Our solution has built in reporting capabilities not only giving helpline management insights into their operations such as wait times, but also synthesizing programmatic data.

So helplines can identify the main issues affecting kids in their communities. And lastly, our solution is customizable, meaning each helpline has their own unique instance of the. So that captures their specific data requirements in their preferred language over the last two years that we have been developing this product. Um We've had to think about many challenges that really any software as a service product team has to consider. Um with the additional considerations of being in the nonprofit space with limited funding and varied sensitive data. Um to start uh these helplines, they all have a common goal of helping Children in need, but how they achieve that goal can vary uh immensely. So for example, there is the variety of functionality needs helplines in the US and Europe with stricter data privacy regulations, um tend to be anonymous helplines where calls are considered one and done say whereas helplines in Africa and Asia tend to do more hands on case management and follow up on more serious calls to the helpline.

As mentioned before, each helpline has a suite of different existing systems that sometimes not only service their contact center operations but also are integrated with other operational aspects of the helpline such as scheduling or payroll or integrations with government systems.

Each of these systems can be dictated by different operating budgets which is especially important to consider in the nonprofit world with donor based project budgets. Technical fluency can vary not just for helpline administrators but for individual counselors who are actually using the platform every day, each region can have different channel priorities. Whatsapp is huge in some countries and very minimal in others. And perhaps most daunting of all each country has different legal and regulatory requirements around the data privacy of Children. So I can go on and on about the different operating requirements of helplines. But now let's say we managed to figure out all these nuances for one or two helplines. But then the question becomes, how do we scale to handle five or 10 or 50 helplines? How do we build the technology in a way such that each specialized instance doesn't require duplicated or what development or implementation efforts? And lastly, um an obvious challenge but worth mentioning, uh the COVID-19 pandemic and remote work generally uh launching a new software product that is being used as part of an organization's core function is a very involved process that requires switch over planning, training, data audits, et cetera.

Um Now add on 6 to 9 hour time difference, unreliable internet that makes zoom calls difficult cultural communication differences and the inability to actually meet with software users in person. It's not ideal. So how did we tackle some of these challenges? I want to cover some of our top practices that guide not only our early product development but also our continued growth as we scale up. So first our beta program um at the beginning of our development, we put out an open call to the child helpline network and selected 10 child helplines that we hoped would represent the diversity of the network. Um The helplines were from all the different regions, have different levels of existing tech solutions and different requirements. Um Approximately every six weeks, we would release a new set of features to the beta helplines with detailed documentation and training guides to walk them through new product functionality.

With each release, we sent surveys to assess and prompt user feedback around ease of use for the features, usefulness of the helplines and to further explore generally each helpline specific use cases. Um Well, we did have a product road map of features that we knew. We wanted to build those feedback. Surveys really gave us tons of insight into each helpline's operations and also gave us new ideas for features. We hadn't necessarily prioritized or considered this approach to developing um a minimum viable product for a soft launch ensured that we had a consistent and informative feedback cycle with actual helpline users. Next. Um In terms of actual software development, uh we took uh early on an approach called uh infrastructure as code, which is an emerging trend in the software as a service space. Um The simplified idea behind infrastructure as code is that the core code configuration of the interface is just a framework. Um Each unique instance of the platform can use the same generalized framework while the actual customization of the platform and what the helpline users and counselors actually see can be defined in simple JSON files that get plugged into the generic framework. What does that mean in practice?

Uh Well, uh the approach allows for much more scalable deployments. So the more we build features and functionality into the base customization framework, the fewer number of hours are spent doing one off adjustments or shared. Um or development uh on top of shared components of the platform for every single instance that needs to get spot. Um This means that configuration and customization can be done by and defined by non software engineers. So our non technical team members myself included um who are more on glen success um gather and define those customization requirements, but actually configure the changes directly in the code. Um As a basic example, um each helpline has different requirements around what data they need to collect about the caller to the helpline. These data collection requirements can be easily defined and adjusted in a helpline specific JSON file. Um If we need to make a new field required at a drop down option or change the wording of a drop down option, those changes can all be done by our product team say or um hopefully eventually helpline administrators um without the need to spend any additional engineering resources on those helpline specific adjustments um in the spirit of partnership but also efficiency.

Um Also we want to take advantage of and understand existing tools that we can. So our platform is built on top of Tulio flex technology and we have close partnerships with the team at Tulio to understand how we can use their very sophisticated contact center tools. Um and tailor them to the helpline movement. We use Octa an industry leader for access security software for single sign on and authentication using existing industry tools, especially in places where we may not be experts. Um not only helps us stay in line with best practices um but also pushes us to continue to find partnership opportunities. Um not just with other NGO S but also with major tech players um who have built the best solutions in their respective industries. Um And lastly, uh one of the most important aspects of user centric development is the dedication to relationship building with our users. So, um we had a set plan to launch a EO with two National Child helplines, uh the National Child helpline of Zambia and National Child helpline in South Africa. Um We had that plan shortly before the pandemic hit, then the pandemic hit and with the international travel bans in the US, we quickly had to fit it and you say, and we decided to hire a full time team member in South Africa whose primary role would be focusing on success of our first deployments.

So not only did hiring in South Africa solve some of our time zone meeting issues, but it also gave us the room to focus more on the relationship building aspect of being a true software partner. Um So our South African team member, her name is Humera. Um she was able to travel to the childline Zambia offices last month. Um Some photos of the visit I'm showing um on this screen right here. Um Humera is the one in the in the Black t-shirt in the, the top left corner. Um But so she was actually able to spend time with each of the counselors and, and get to understand the helpline environment a little bit better. Um She answered questions about the platform. She was able to get feedback on some new features. We were considering do usability studies to validate some of our assumptions on how the software was being used. Um And probably most importantly, of all, her visit really laid a foundation of trust and improved communication across both of our teams. Um And we are very excited and very hopeful about continuing to build both in person and remote relationships with our helpline partners moving forward. Um I will end by sharing what's coming up for our team at A EO and where we're hoping to grow. So we currently have two helplines launched and have done demos with many, many prospective helplines from all over the world.

Um and are hoping to launch 10 to 15 helplines hopefully in the next year, if not more um with these deployments will obviously come the continued importance of scalability and reliability practices as we build more advanced features into the platform. Um We will continue to make our software open source with the hope that a sailor will grow, not only as a robust platform for the child helpline movement, but as a solution for any crisis response organization that runs a contact center. Um And lastly as a nonprofit we know our partners are working on limited budgets and we are thinking through sustainable pricing models to ensure that the technology is affordable for helplines with smaller budgets, with the same set of core. We have made a decade long commitment, if not longer uh to being a technology partner for the help my movement. And we are excited to say that this is just the beginning. So thank you so much for listening. Um And we'll take any questions for the next five minutes. Um If we have any questions and yes, Kelsey agreed feedback from people who are actually using the tool is, is super, super helpful. It really um our, our, when our team member visited the team in Zambia, um being able to just even watch them figure out like where they're clicking buttons and how to find things and kind of their thought process around how they complete actions in the platform is really, it was really, really so informative.

Cool. All right. Um Well, if uh you have any questions, um contact info is here um And just wanted to say thank you so much uh for this time. And I hope you enjoyed learning about the sale and the work we're doing at tech matters. And um thank you to all the women who are here um supporting each other and uh building a community of women in tech, really love it. And I think it's so, so inspirational. So, thank you. Guys so much. Um feel free to email me if you have any questions.