Providing excellent customer service is a top priority for the iCarol team, and this year we enhanced the ways in which we serve our valued customers. Below are details about several new initiatives we have implemented this year.
Premier Support Package
iCarol offers a Premier Support Package. This includes all of the features of the Standard Support Package, as well as:
Case responses for Premier Support subscribers will be prioritized.
A member of the iCarol Support Team designated as the customer organization’s Technical Account Manager (TAM). This is an assigned member of the Support Team who will oversee all requests for ongoing training and support assistance.
This also includes at least one scheduled 60 minute team screen share/call per month between the TAM and the Designated Support Contacts to be scheduled by the TAM.
Additional iCarol team members may be brought in to best assist the client, but all interactions will be directed and managed by the TAM.
We have added weekend availability to our normal support hours. In addition to our previous hours of 8am to 8pm Eastern Monday through Friday, members of our Support Team are also available Saturdays and Sundays from 12pm to 5pm Eastern.
These are the hours during which our team is available to investigate and respond to support cases through the case management system, email, and live chat (Now available to all customers! See below for details!). In addition to these support hours, our technical and infrastructure teams will continue to monitor for system uptime and performance 24/7, and our Support Team has a process in place to routinely check the case queue for urgent issues at points beyond normal support hours, as has been our policy in the past.
Live Chat with Support
Our Support Team is available through Live Chat during normal support hours for all of our customers as a part of our Standard Support Package that is included with an iCarol system subscription. Designated support contacts can initiate a Live Chat session with members of the support team during normal support hours by taking the following steps:
Log in to your iCarol system
Click ‘Help’ in the left hand menu
Click ‘Cases – contact the iCarol Support Team’ at the top of the screen
Click the ‘Live Help Online’ button in the middle of the screen, OR the ‘Chat Now’ button at the bottom of the screen
If you are a customer and have any questions about the services outlined above, or if you would like to upgrade to Premier Support, please open a case with the Support Team. If you are a not an iCarol customer yet, please contact us. We would love to hear from you!
Many thanks to our current customers who have provided kind and valuable feedback since we implemented these new support options. Your input greatly assists us as we continue to look for ways to improve support delivery to you.
As I reflect back on 2018, there’s no question that this has been a significant year for iCarol. As many of you know, iCarol was acquired by Harris Computer Systems on March 12 of 2018. Harris is part of Constellation Software, Inc., Canada’s largest software company.
The Harris acquisition allowed our co-founders, Neil and Jackie McKechnie, to step away from iCarol knowing that it would be in good hands as part of a company which intended to retain it, invest in it and to help it grow further. While it was bittersweet to lose Neil and Jackie, we realized this move enabled them to pursue new goals in their lives, including spending more time with family and friends. We stay closely in touch with them and wish them the very best in their new endeavors.
This new chapter in iCarol’s history has brought a number of benefits, as the iCarol team has been able to rely on guidance from Harris’ accomplished compliance and legal teams, and to utilize ongoing assistance from corporate Finance and IT departments. This freed up team members to focus on other needs of the organization, which we could not do as easily before we had the resources of Harris behind us.
In addition, as part of Harris there is an ongoing opportunity to learn and grow from a team of thousands of software professionals in a variety of roles, allowing us to network with sister business units in sectors such as healthcare, emergency management, law enforcement, government, public schools, and more. There’s a lot to learn as we bring back ideas to improve iCarol, in how we serve and support our customers, and how we design our software to provide more value to its users.
We look forward to continued growth and investment in iCarol in 2019, as we focus on five primary initiatives throughout the year:
Increased Scalability
Improved Data Privacy and Security
More Powerful Resource Management
Greater Flexibility in Reporting
Collaborative Data Sharing
In the interests of keeping this blog brief, we’ll expand on improvements made to iCarol in 2018, and each of these initiatives in the early part of 2019, through blog articles and webinars. Stay tuned for more details on these!
While it’s been a momentous year for iCarol, change has also affected our customers, as we’ve seen trends in nonprofit funding and donations shift, and in some cases decline precipitously. A number of our customers provide some type of assistance during and after disasters, and there have been many heartbreaking examples this year. Throughout it all our customers have stood strong and assisted as many as they possibly could, which continues to inspire us here at iCarol. As a matter of fact, the Harris team has commented on the tremendous commitment displayed by the iCarol team, which comes directly from working with our customers, and witnessing their determination in the face of such difficult odds.
On the positive side, in 2018 we have seen some strides forward in government recognition of the importance of suicide prevention, which heartens us all. It gives us hope that 2019 will see improvements in the funding and support all our customers rely on to perform their mission.
In this holiday season we salute you, our customers, and the tremendous work that you do. We wish everyone a safe, secure and happy holiday season. We remain honored to serve you and look forward to another year of service and giving in 2019 and beyond.
We’re excited to announce that iCarol is now a part of Harris Computer Systems — a software company focused on providing long term software solutions to local government, utilities, school districts, healthcare and other public sector clients. iCarol will be run as its own entity within the CityView portfolio of solutions.
More than 14 years ago, iCarol began with a simple idea that by introducing technology that was designed specifically for the unique needs of a not-for-profit helpline, the managers could improve the service delivery, the quality of the people, and ultimately the lives of help seekers. Founders Neil and Jackie McKechnie combined their mutual experiences in two very different worlds – volunteering at a Distress Centre and careers in the high tech industry – and built a solution that would go on to be used by hundreds of organizations and over 76,000 users worldwide. We’re very proud of our origin story and honored every day to serve the caring and selfless people who work at those organizations.
Just as we aim to empower our clients, joining Harris Computer Systems empowers our team and the iCarol solution to reach new heights. We feel that the deep market knowledge and not-for-profit industry experience at the iCarol level, combined with the infrastructure, guidance and business expertise of Harris, is a winning combination.
The iCarol story only gets more exciting from here, and we’re looking forward to all the new possibilities ahead. Becoming a part of Harris Computer Systems is the latest positive step for the growth of iCarol, and for the benefit of our expanding client base.
We’re thrilled to announce the addition of Val Kozintsev to our team in the role of Development Team Manager. Val comes to us with 15 years of experience in the industry, having gained a wide breadth of experience and numerous technical skills during that time. He has extensive experience directing teams of engineers through development projects and managing software release cycles. Val previously co-founded and built a Software as a Service (Saas) product and company, the same software delivery model into which iCarol falls. In another of his former positions he dealt heavily with desktop, mobile, and cloud security. He most recently served as Team Lead for a large and well-established non-profit in the healthcare industry. We’re confident that Val’s combination of technical and management skills, along with his practical knowledge of the industry and clients we serve, will be an asset to iCarol and aid in the continued growth of our Technology Team. We’re so excited to have him on board, and hope you’ll join us in welcoming Val to the team!
As our user base has grown over the last few years, we’ve scaled by putting into place major enhancements with our infrastructure. This ensures a stable foundation for your iCarol system to support the important work that you do. Likewise, we’ve recently added additional depth and stability to our company with the addition of a new position in our organizational structure. This change allows us to ensure continued quality service for all iCarol clients.
We’re pleased to announce the promotion of Rachel Wentink to the position of General Manager of iCarol.
Rachel first joined our team in February 2015 and came to us with a broad and extensive background in technology, product and business development, professional services and marketing along with many years of experience in managing small and large teams and working with clients in local, regional, national and international environments. Her educational background includes advanced leadership training and a Masters of Business Administration.
In the two years since joining CharityLogic, Rachel has taken on multiple responsibilities and managed several key projects. Most recently she served as our Director of Product Management and Strategy and was instrumental in forecasting our clients’ needs and then planning and implementing a product roadmap that exemplifies iCarol’s reputation as an innovative technology leader.
As General Manager, Rachel will oversee iCarol’s daily operations and drive strategies that ensure iCarol’s continued growth and success. She will also continue her work directing the Product Management team and will see through her current projects in that department.
Please join us in welcoming Rachel to this new role and wishing her much success!
Expanded Support Hours
Live Chat with Support
Rachel Wentink
