{"id":47252,"date":"2021-04-01T15:08:28","date_gmt":"2021-04-01T22:08:28","guid":{"rendered":"\/us\/en\/blog\/?p=47252"},"modified":"2024-06-19T03:25:29","modified_gmt":"2024-06-19T10:25:29","slug":"how-new-england-biolabs-continued-contributing-to-covid-research-even-with-its-staff-in-lockdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/us\/en\/blog\/how-new-england-biolabs-continued-contributing-to-covid-research-even-with-its-staff-in-lockdown\/","title":{"rendered":"How New England Biolabs\u00ae continued contributing to COVID research\u2026 even with its staff in lockdown"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the medical community\u2019s fight against COVID-19, the media spotlight has focused on the large pharmaceutical companies working on vaccines. However, these high-profile drug makers don\u2019t work in a vacuum. To develop successful vaccines, these companies need cutting-edge research tools\u2014and one of their preferred sources for these tools is New England Biolabs<\/a> (NEB<\/span>\u00ae<\/span>).<\/span><\/p>\n

The scientists at NEB have been developing innovative products to aid in genetic research and analysis for over four decades. The company has become one of the most sought-after suppliers of biological research products in the world. And with the outbreak of COVID-19, the pharmaceutical and scientific communities once again turned to New England Biolabs.<\/span><\/p>\n

The company\u2019s products have played a key role in the global effort to battle the new virus. NEB\u2019s tools are helping researchers develop better testing mechanisms and vaccines for COVID-19. Healthcare organizations are also leveraging the company\u2019s tools for the virus in lab settings and point-of-care environments.<\/span><\/p>\n

NEB\u2019s important work supporting COVID-19 research could have been slowed when the lockdowns forced the company\u2019s employees to vacate their offices. But because NEB had made a forward-looking IT decision just months earlier, none of their customers experienced a disruption in service even as NEB\u2019s entire corporate team transitioned to remote work.<\/span><\/p>\n

A call center solution worthy of a world-class support operation<\/b><\/h3>\n

As New England Biolabs continued to expand, the IT team took a long, objective look at their 15-year-old on-prem phone system. They decided that rather than try to upgrade nearly-end-of-life system, it made more sense to find a modern cloud solution that could work anywhere with no hardware to manage.<\/span><\/p>\n

Larry Primatello, Manager of Infrastructure Operations for NEB, explains his team\u2019s thinking: \u201cWe could\u2019ve tried to squeeze a couple more years out of the old phone system by paying for more capacity or investing in a platform upgrade and managing it in our data center. Or we could just migrate to new communications infrastructure in the cloud and not have to manage and maintain any back-office equipment. We chose cloud.\u201d As it turns out, they chose more wisely than they realized.<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the immediate benefits of rolling out RingCentral Contact Center was that NEB\u2019s unique call center<\/a> operation\u2014with rotating teams of product-development scientists taking customers\u2019 technical calls\u2014became even more efficient and professional.<\/span><\/p>\n

For example, because RingCentral integrates with NEB\u2019s CRM platform, Larry explains that \u201cour scientists and customer service agents can address the person by name, mention the product they\u2019ve bought, and ask how they can help with it. The support experience is so much more personal now than before.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But what Larry\u2019s team couldn\u2019t have known when they signed up for RingCentral was the degree to which the cloud solution was going to spare them from trouble and confusion during the lockdowns a few months later.<\/span><\/p>\n

There when the scientific community needed them most<\/b><\/h3>\n

When the 2020 quarantine orders went into effect, most of NEB\u2019s corporate staff\u2014including many of the company\u2019s research scientists and customer service agents\u2014had to grab what they could from the office and head home. That sudden shakeup could have severely undermined the effectiveness of NEB\u2019s technical call centers and overall business operations.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>But with RingCentral Contact Center, the company\u2019s scientists and other support agents were able to log in to their call queues from apps on their laptops or cell phones\u2014so they could take customer calls at home just as easily as if they were in the office.\u00a0<\/span> \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur customers had no idea we\u2019d locked down,\u201d says Larry. \u201cEveryone went home, got their RingCentral desktop and mobile apps up and running, and were able to connect with each other and take our customers\u2019 calls without missing a beat. It was amazing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Considering the significance of some of those calls\u2014pharmaceutical scientists doing COVID-19 research, for example\u2014NEB\u2019s ability to be there for its customers during the lockdowns might have had a profoundly positive effect not only on their own operations but also in the scientific community\u2019s effort to combat a deadly new virus.<\/span><\/p>\n