On-premises environments, Security, Voice: Cloud PBX

Why you can’t forget about voice continuity planning

With winter storm season upon us and areas of the country already impacted by disruptions like wildfires, floods, and hurricanes, our very own Mark Sher, VP of Product Marketing for Cloud Voice, penned an article for No Jitter about the importance of voice continuity planning.

You can read the full article here. Mark discusses the importance of preparing a business continuity plan for all businesses, regardless of size. One key statistic that he brings up is this scary finding from FEMA:

“According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, 40% of small companies end up going out of business when faced with a natural disaster.”

That’s a pretty grim statistic…especially given some of the large-scale natural disasters we’ve experienced in the last several years. But even something as localized as a block-wide power outage could prove disastrous for those businesses that reside in that block. That favorite restaurant, the neighborhood nail salon with the best manicures, the two-person CPA firm, the local bank, the neighborhood pharmacy…these are the businesses that tend to be hardest hit by unexpected disruptions.

So it’s important to develop that business continuity plan, to figure out precisely how your business is going to prepare for and react to all the various disruptions that could come your way. But Mark’s big point is clear — when you make those plans, don’t forget about your voice system. Working phones are usually key to being able to communicate with your customers, partners, and suppliers. Even if your business isn’t fully operational during a disruptive event, if your phones are working, you can still stay in touch with folks and let them know what’s going on with your business.

For an added layer of reliability, Mark recommends to consider moving your voice service to the cloud. That way, when a disruption takes down the local phone service, you’ll still have working phones. Here’s how Mark explains it in the article:

“Adopting a cloud PBX phone system can be a relatively simple way to help prevent unexpected events like hardware failure, human error and natural disasters from taking your business’s phone system down for hours, days or even weeks….With cloud-based voice services, phones can be plugged into Internet connections at alternative work sites or calls can be rerouted to mobile devices (if desk phones need to be repaired/replaced).“

Make sure you check out the full No Jitter article to get all of Mark’s advice. And then come take a look at our in-depth report on business continuity planning and cloud voice services. Don’t forget to download your free copy of our business continuity planning guide!