Comments on: Grandcentral Redux or a Requiem for CVM? http://www.nonprofittechblog.org/grandcentral-redux-or-a-requiem-for-cvm?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=grandcentral-redux-or-a-requiem-for-cvm Confessions of a Non-Profit Executive Director Sun, 05 Sep 2010 19:51:29 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc By: Google Voice: A New Tool For Nonprofits But Not So Great for Community Voicemail http://www.nonprofittechblog.org/grandcentral-redux-or-a-requiem-for-cvm/comment-page-1#comment-100340 Google Voice: A New Tool For Nonprofits But Not So Great for Community Voicemail Wed, 22 Apr 2009 00:35:31 +0000 http://www.nonprofittechblog.org/grandcentral-redux-or-a-requiem-for-cvm#comment-100340 [...] actually offered homeless people in San Francisco free voicemail just like CVM. In 2006, the writing was on the wall and I counseled the Coalition to shut down the New York CVM service and we did. I’m upset [...] [...] actually offered homeless people in San Francisco free voicemail just like CVM. In 2006, the writing was on the wall and I counseled the Coalition to shut down the New York CVM service and we did. I’m upset [...]

]]> By: Google Voice: A New Tool For Nonprofits But Not So Great for Community Voicemail | Non-Profit Tech Blog http://www.nonprofittechblog.org/grandcentral-redux-or-a-requiem-for-cvm/comment-page-1#comment-100253 Google Voice: A New Tool For Nonprofits But Not So Great for Community Voicemail | Non-Profit Tech Blog Thu, 12 Mar 2009 23:35:49 +0000 http://www.nonprofittechblog.org/grandcentral-redux-or-a-requiem-for-cvm#comment-100253 [...] actually offered homeless people in San Francisco free voicemail just like CVM. In 2006, the writing was on the wall and I counseled the Coalition to shut down the New York CVM service and we did. I’m upset [...] [...] actually offered homeless people in San Francisco free voicemail just like CVM. In 2006, the writing was on the wall and I counseled the Coalition to shut down the New York CVM service and we did. I’m upset [...]

]]> By: salbertson http://www.nonprofittechblog.org/grandcentral-redux-or-a-requiem-for-cvm/comment-page-1#comment-422 salbertson Wed, 25 Oct 2006 19:39:49 +0000 http://www.nonprofittechblog.org/grandcentral-redux-or-a-requiem-for-cvm#comment-422 Hi Allan. Steve Albertson here, from Community Voice Mail (www.cvm.org), the nonprofit providing voice mail to over 40,000 homeless and "phoneless" people in need in 39 U.S. cities. I saw your post about CVM and GrandCentral on your blog, and thought I'd chime in. We've been talking with GrandCentral for the past year about a number of issues, and are pretty familiar with their service (which launched in late-September). We’re talking with them about how CVM and GrandCentral might collaborate, particularly in cities that are currently without any formal distribution of free voicemail for low-income and homeless people. GrandCentral's product is terrific, and might be a good fit for a lot of people who need a voice mail box or want to use some of GrandCentral's advanced features. And, there are some features CVM voice mail has now that GrandCentral doesn't appear to have (broadcast messaging to specific agency clients and to all clients in a geography; usage reporting; tie-in to demographic/outcomes tracking systems; sign-up can be done over the phone, etc.). While we agree that ideally the market will bring free voicemail to everyone, including the traditional CVM user, we haven’t seen this happen yet. Perhaps GrandCentral will provide the tipping point for this realm that Hotmail and others provided for email. It’s very early in GrandCentral’s corporate life to determine that, and it’s also early for us to determine what sort of collaboration makes the most sense. We’ve seen numerous free voicemail services come and go over the years, and we need to evaluate how this one will be different. In the meanwhile, the existing CVM sites (including yours in NYC) provide more than just voicemail—they link it to other direct services, advocacy, and support mechanisms that exist in the community. They’ve stood the test of time and even in an age when everyone seems to have a cell phone, we continue to get more than 20 requests a month for help. I Again, these are interesting times, and there are more and more companies creating services that have broad consumer value in this area. As a nonprofit with the sole mission to help people without phone numbers get them to improve their lives, we try to take a look at all of them. When we accepted the significant offer of support from Cisco, we weighed the pros and cons of this heavily against the needs of the people and organizations we're serving. And we're doing this today with GrandCentral and other companies.... Thanks, Steve Albertson Community Voice Mail 206-441-7872 Hi Allan. Steve Albertson here, from Community Voice Mail (www.cvm.org), the nonprofit providing voice mail to over 40,000 homeless and “phoneless” people in need in 39 U.S. cities. I saw your post about CVM and GrandCentral on your blog, and thought I’d chime in.

We’ve been talking with GrandCentral for the past year about a number of issues, and are pretty familiar with their service (which launched in late-September). We’re talking with them about how CVM and GrandCentral might collaborate, particularly in cities that are currently without any formal distribution of free voicemail for low-income and homeless people.

GrandCentral’s product is terrific, and might be a good fit for a lot of people who need a voice mail box or want to use some of GrandCentral’s advanced features. And, there are some features CVM voice mail has now that GrandCentral doesn’t appear to have (broadcast messaging to specific agency clients and to all clients in a geography; usage reporting; tie-in to demographic/outcomes tracking systems; sign-up can be done over the phone, etc.).

While we agree that ideally the market will bring free voicemail to everyone, including the traditional CVM user, we haven’t seen this happen yet. Perhaps GrandCentral will provide the tipping point for this realm that Hotmail and others provided for email. It’s very early in GrandCentral’s corporate life to determine that, and it’s also early for us to determine what sort of collaboration makes the most sense. We’ve seen numerous free voicemail services come and go over the years, and we need to evaluate how this one will be different.

In the meanwhile, the existing CVM sites (including yours in NYC) provide more than just voicemail—they link it to other direct services, advocacy, and support mechanisms that exist in the community. They’ve stood the test of time and even in an age when everyone seems to have a cell phone, we continue to get more than 20 requests a month for help. I

Again, these are interesting times, and there are more and more companies creating services that have broad consumer value in this area. As a nonprofit with the sole mission to help people without phone numbers get them to improve their lives, we try to take a look at all of them. When we accepted the significant offer of support from Cisco, we weighed the pros and cons of this heavily against the needs of the people and organizations we’re serving. And we’re doing this today with GrandCentral and other companies….

Thanks,
Steve Albertson
Community Voice Mail
206-441-7872

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