Business continuity planning is crucial in terms of operational readiness, but it is also ideal for protecting brand reputation and sharpening the competitive edge of your company. In South Florida, a region often impacted by hurricanes, residents appreciate business owners who are able to quickly resume operations in the aftermath of a storm; for example, Chinese takeout restaurants equipped with gas stoves, generators and smartphones to provide comfort meals during a time of power outages, closed stores and long lines at gas stations.
You can imagine the reputational boost a High Desert business could derive from being able to serve customers after a major earthquake or some other natural disaster. On the other hand, customers would certainly be disappointed when they cannot contact you because of situations they may not know about; we are talking about fire, theft, flooding from broken water pipes, or network breaches.
Keeping Data Secure In Emergency Events
With a cloud-hosted Voice over Internet Protocol system, your business communications are inherently protected against disastrous situations, particularly if they are managed as Unified Communications. Keep in mind that UC integrates voice calls, email, faxes, voice mail, chat, and office documents; even if your desk phones and workstations are lost in a fire, you will still be able to access the UC platform from a web portal, thus allowing you to forward calls to smartphones, laptops or desktop computers that can connect to the internet.
With cloud-based UC solutions, the concerns of your business continuity planning should focus on system backups, redundancy, and internet access. As previously mentioned, equipment is a minor issue; you can designate mobile devices and position computers at alternate office locations, which may include the homes of senior managers and key staff members. It is more important to think in terms of duplicating the UC platform so that it can be enabled from a different data center in case the primary hosting platform goes down.
Since VoIP requires broadband connections, this is something else for you to consider. Some call center operators opt to sign contracts with two internet service providers, one as a primary connection and the other as backup. Small business owners can also look into wireless data contracts, but they may have to pay extra for the higher quality of service required for VoIP systems. For more details on VoIP, UC and disaster recovery planning, contact Sonic Systems of Victorville today.
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