Juma Ventures was created to provide low-income youth with asset management skills, advanced education, and professional training. Juma is a social enterprise: business revenue contributes to it's social mission -- so above all, Juma is a job.
Juma's young employees and job environment are unique. Most of the youth do not have computers, and using email to communicate is challenging. Staffing sporting events requires flexibility. Each game had different requirements: football games need lots of youth employees, and baseball games have frequent schedules on a daily basis.
Communicating with all these youth employees required numerous phone calls, messages, and voicemails, all handled manually. This process occupied Juma managers for several hours per week, taking away precious time that could be spent towards the youth themselves.
Then Juma adopted Twilio to enhance communications with local youth. Juma worked with Twilio to develop an integrated web/telephony platform that combines inbound and outbound call control with a web site for managing youth, initiating calls, and viewing real time attendance information.
Juma's youth employees began receiving custom automated reminder calls on their mobile phones. “Hi Jenny, you are scheduled to work this Saturday, the 9th, at one o'clock, at the Oakland Coliseum.” Youth hear what games they are scheduled to work, when to arrive, and directions to the game.
Youth then press a key on their phone to acknowledge the reminder and confirm or cancel the shift. This status information is transmitted to a web portal in real time, giving Juma managers an up-to-date view of youth availability.
By telling youth when and where they are scheduled to work, and by helping managers more efficiently coordinate team members, Twilio helps this innovative non-profit save time and money. Juma can focus on their social mission and worry less about operational details.
Enterprise Manager Jesse Zitrin staffed some 150 sporting events in 2008, coordinating over 2,000 shifts. “Twilio simplifies my workplace,” Jesse says. “It saves time, money, and brain cells. I recommend it to anyone who needs to coordinate lots of people and events.” “People ask me if I'm a sports fan, or if I like working with youth. I love both aspects. And now, I get to focus on the things I like most!”