STARTTS turns to Optus to help survivors start again in Australia

STARTTS, NSW-based not-for-profit organisation, has been providing culturally-relevant psychological treatment and support for more than 34 years to help people heal the scars of torture and refugee trauma and integrate into the Australian community.  Optus is proud to be their partner for mobility services, with the most recent contract signed in late 2022.

Image credit: Adobe Stock

Customer Story Snapshot 

Customer: STARTTS (Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors) 

Industry: Not for profit 

A third of Australians today were born overseas, with a number having experienced persecution, war, violence or human rights violations in their home of origin. Building a new life in a new country, while also dealing with the negative physical and mental impacts of their past, takes extraordinary strength and resilience.  

This is exactly where STARTTS aims to help. A NSW-based not-for-profit organisation, has been providing culturally-relevant psychological treatment and support for more than 34 years to help people heal the scars of torture and refugee trauma and integrate into the Australian community.  

STARTTS also works actively to foster a positive recovery environment through policy and advocacy work, and training mainstream service providers in awareness of refugee issues and strategies to work with this client group.  

From clinical counselling and community services to programs for refugee children and young people, communication is at the heart of everything they do and Optus is proud to be their partner for mobility services, with the most recent contract signed in late 2022. 

STARTTS in action:

• 34 years experience
• 87,377 people helped 
• 174 countries of origin

Image credit: Adobe Stock

When clients are scattered across metropolitan and regional NSW and with phone calls often involving a three-way call with an interpreter, having the ability to connect consistently is vital. During the COVID-19 lockdowns, in particular, the last thing anyone needed was having a vital call derailed by technical issues. 

The company understood it was not the handset, as that had never been an issue before, and knew that Optus had the ability to handle the three-way calls. 

“Before we switched to Optus, the service and coverage was below standard, we were disappointed that we couldn’t provide staff with the tools they needed to do their work, we wanted to deliver more,” says Rodrigo Borquez, ICT Team Leader at STARTTS.  

The organisation recognises that it has a duty of care to its employees as well as its clients, so coverage is another critical consideration. This is something that impacted them with a previous provider when a staff member was unable to contact emergency services during an incident in country NSW.  

It’s also vital that coverage doesn’t cost the earth, says Borquez. “As a not-for-profit, we rely on majority funding coming from the government and the rest coming from donations and fundraisers such as our annual Refugee Ball, so cost and other ways a provider can help out, like the use of a tech fund, is very important to us.” 

As an organisation that encourages placements from students and others, they also needed to ensure that it is easy to swap numbers from one worker to the next, particularly when some staff were unfamiliar with the process of replacing a SIM. Being able to know how and where data was being used was also a key point in their decision-making.  

“As well as helping us communicate with our clients in the way we need, the Optus solution has helped us control costs and streamline how our mobile fleet is managed, with a seamless and speedy transition.”  – Jorge Aroche, STARTTS CEO and former President of the International Council for the Rehabilitation  
of Torture Victims

Image credit: Adobe Stock

With around 200 staff today, and continuing to grow to meet the needs of the community they serve, STARTTS was surprised and delighted to be offered an enterprise solution by Optus rather than a more usual SMB offering for an organisation of their size. 

The Optus solution in use today has done away with the need to assign names manually, makes it easier to track numbers when users change, and has also solved the headaches and time involved in manual billing.  

95% of services were migrated during the first three months, which STARTTS had never achieved before. “I put it down to the various people from Optus who wrapped around STARTTS to make it all happen, including our Optus Account Manager and the transition team.” 

“With access to the Optus Enterprise One portal, we can now do our own SIM burns, see how we are spending our data and easily extract reports for management, says Borquez. He admits to managing the tech fund like it is his personal money, being very aware that it needs to stretch out over the course of the three-year Optus contract.  

In particular, the proactive approach of their Optus Account Manager helped when he received an unexpected bill for handsets and she was able to swiftly sort it out with the operations team to ensure STARTTS could draw on their tech fund instead.  

Having a choice of devices also helps them control costs, with senior management provided with iPhones while fleet phones are entry-level Androids. A generous data pool ensures the organisation never has to worry about reaching or exceeding their limit.  

To find out more, speak to your Optus Account Manager today. 

• 1300 735 485
• optus.com.au/enterprise 
• @optusenterprise