Communications systems are often put to the test during times of crisis. In 2005, when Hurricane Wilma devastated most of South Florida, remote access solutions and the nascent wireless data infrastructure enabled employees to access corporate networks and work from home for several weeks. At the time, cloud computing and Voice over Internet Protocol technologies were not as widespread as they are today, so most of the telecommuting was based on the client/server model.

The Rise of Web Conferencing

In March 2020, the entire world started dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, and the stay-at-home orders enacted by public health officials prompted many companies to run their operations from the homes of their staff. To say that this was when VoIP and Unified Communications came of age would be an understatement; companies that already had these systems in place were able to seamlessly shift their operations and ensure business continuity as much as possible.

Scalability Issues with Certain Apps

Some video conferencing apps that enjoyed stellar reviews on marketplaces such as Google Play and the iOS App Store started seeing their ratings come down in March; this was the result of a massive influx of new users as well as previously casual users going full-time. In some cases, the problem was the platform and the service provider; in other cases, the lack of smooth integration with other office practices such as email, voice calling, instant messages, and document collaboration became unnerving.

The advantage of VoIP plus Unified Communications during a crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic is that these two technologies can be easily configured so that they adjust to any business needs. Instead of having to deal with various apps to handle different business processes, your staff members can log into a single UC portal to access all office communications and documents. The location does not matter; furthermore, the required bandwidth and cloud server capacity can be estimated beforehand and set to serve the needs of your company. Should you need to expand or scale your business, doing so will be simple.