The arrival of November tornadoes to the Midwest was anything but welcome. Parts of Missouri and Illinois were hit so hard, homes were completely destroyed, lives were lost and thousands were left without power. Unexpected storms can hit at any time, forcing us to make changes to everyday plans. It’s one thing if you have to drive to work in the rain; quite another if a storm causes so much damage to your property that business has to stop.
If phone communications can continue regardless of what’s happening with Mother Nature, it can change the complete outcome of any unexpected event. Anything that prevents a business from operating in its usual location or manner can threaten its survival. Keeping the phone lines alive could be the lifeline needed to stay in business. Deploying hosted PBX could provide just that lifeline.
With hosted PBX (News - Alert), you can keep communications intact no matter what disaster may be heading your way. It doesn’t require labor intensive or costly configurations on the front end. Plus, you don’t have to panic when something happens – you already have a backup plan in place. Calls will route to a predetermined destination and your employees can logon from home. As long as you can access power and a high speed Internet connection, you can stay connected with your customers.
If you have advanced warning that a natural disaster may be on its way, employees can take their phones home, plug them into their home broadband or Internet connection and continue working without skipping a beat. You may have also set up a remote location for disaster recovery, allowing for seamless communications with hosted PBX that way. Whatever your plan entails, the phone system will often work this way exactly as it does in the office.
With hosted PBX, the auto attendant and voicemail system will continue to answer all calls and take messages as needed, regardless of what is happening on your end. Your provider will maintain a switch located in a data center that is well-equipped with backup power systems, fire suppression systems, diverse Internet connections and redundancy and failover protections to ensure your calls are never offline.
No matter what happens on your end, calls are always answered. If a disaster happens on the provider’s end, the failover system comes online and you never skip a beat. Any changes that need to be made on your end are easily accomplished with the user interface via the browser.
The point with hosted PBX is that the worry is taken out of the equation, ensuring you can stay connected no matter what happens. You do have to put a business continuity plan in place, but if you ever have to execute on it, you don’t have to miss even a single call.
Edited by Alisen Downey