Theresa Kiefer, IT Coordinator, New Democratic Party Caucus
House of Commons
Suite 1000-155 Queen Street
Ottawa ON K1A 0A6
The New Democratic Party of Canada contracted Direct Leap Technologies in 2004 to provide a new, fully-automated voice message broadcasting system for the federal election. This service allowed NDP national campaign team to design and start delivering automated telephone calls in less than ten minutes using a private self-service Web-based interface.
Direct Leap was able to complete the project for the election campaign under an extremely tight timeline, with less than four months from contract award to full service for our national election campaign in 2004.
The Federal NDP has used the service on an ongoing basis since that time, including nationally during the 2006 Federal election campaign and for numerous by-elections and provincial election campaigns.
We have found Direct Leap to be eager to accommodate our requests for customized development and improvement of this product over the life of the project to date. Direct Leap's product has proven reliable, and we have found the system increasingly easy to use.
Before switching to Direct Leap four years ago, we were using services where we had to phone or email each request to a supplier's account manager, who then set up each callout for us. Switching to Direct Leap's automated system has given us in-house control over our voice broadcasts, and we make significantly greater use of voice broadcasting now. Specifically, the ability to control the entire process has given us much more flexibility in situations where tight timelines are the norm and beyond the 9-5 business hours of many suppliers.
We have found voice messaging to be highly effective at generating large crowds at events, and we have used the system extensively to increase voter turnout and attendance at nomination meetings and other events.
If you have any questions about our experience with Direct Leap, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Sincerely,
Theresa Kiefer |
