Monthly Archives: October 2020

How VOIP Phones Can Secure Your Post-COVID Business

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Hand of man using ip phone with flying icon of voip services and people connection, voip and telecommunication concept

VOIP technology can ensure a seamless transition for your remote workforce.

Every business on the globe is adapting to the need for post-COVID protocols and business practices. A big part of that is emphasizing remote and online working instead of in-office and face-to-face work. If you have been relying on meetings and phone line calls, or if your business does not yet have an integral phone system, it’s time to rethink your infrastructure.

VOIP offers fully remote phone services tailored to the needs of a modern business. From customer service pools to official office phone numbers, a VOIP system can do anything a traditional business PBX system can do and more. But what do virtual phones have to offer in the post-COVID era? Being able to communicate remotely and set up your offices anywhere in the world with the same numbers will come in handy in the days of remote business. Let’s take a look at some of the key ways that VOIP phones can secure your business in a post-COVID economy.

Turn Office Phones into Home Office Phones

VOIP phone numbers are assigned and accssed based on employee login accounts, not physical phone lines. This means that your employees can take their office phones home with them for remote work.

Clients, customers, and business partners will still be able to find each in-office contact as if they were still in the office, at the same phone numbers and often during the same hours, even though your team has gone home to work remotely in COVID-safety. In fact, companies already equipped with VOIP experienced some of the least shake-up when transitioning to work-at-home policies.

Remain Available During Phone-Line-Cutting  Disasters

One of the overlooked consequences of COVID is lack of preparedness for local disasters. Floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, and wind storms are still happening this year, but services are slower due to the need for extra care when in public. This means that natural disasters that take out phone lines can be devastating for local businesses. Unless, of course, your business runs on internet phones instead.

Rather than being cut off from the rest of the world. your offices and employees at home can continue taking calls even when competition with landlines are out for repairs.

Install Phones in a New Location Without an Installation

Business doesn’t stop either just because there’s a pandemic on the loose. If it’s time to open a new location or relocate your current business, phones are a big part of that. Normally, you would need a team of phone technicians laying wire and installing handsets. Not so, with VOIP. Internet phones can be installed via software.

Simply have your VOIP handsets delivered to the office and you can set them up without the need for strangers to enter your workplace. This allows for no-contact installation and, of course, helping your team set up in home-offices without the need for any serious hardware or technician-led installation as well.

Make Your Company Remote-Friendly and Remote-Accessible

VOIP is the single most remote-friendly business communication software. You can transform a once-limiting phone system into a full-featured and API-ready network for communication. Every member of your team can have their own number, access to a pool, or multiple numbers that can all be accessed from any internet-connected device.

New team members can be easily onboarded. Clients and customers can always find you at the same phone numbers, with or without a landline in between. Allow your team to be remote, your customers to be remote, and even remote onboarding and installation with VOIP phones.

Relocate or Disperse Your Office With the Same Numbers

Finally, remember how easy it is to take one system of numbers and reorganize. You can send an employee to a new office location with the same number. You can put together teams of people with numbers that follow them or assign new numbers just for team use. You can send everyone home, still able to answer their office phones or move to a new location, keeping the phones, access, and numbers all exactly the same.

For remote communication at business class, VOIP is up to the challenge. Contact us today to consult on your business’ VOIP expansion.

Does Your Business or Organization Have A Backup Disaster Recovery (BDR) Plan?

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A backup disaster recovery plan can make all the difference if disaster strikes.

The coronavirus pandemic continues to remind business owners and IT managers that the greatest time to plan for natural disasters is before it actually happens and not during or after they happen. When you review your current plans and strategies, how prepared are you for another pandemic or natural disaster?

COVID-19 continues to be spread from person to person across various states, and states of emergency were already declared in multiple efforts to take on the terrible outbreak. As more decisions need to be made in regard to reopening’s and internal/external changes, now is a great time to pull out your plans and strategies and make the necessary changes to your Backup and Disaster Recovery (BDR) plan.

What is a Backup and Disaster Recovery Plan?

A Backup and Disaster Recovery Plan is a system of processes and procedures that everyone in your workplace will need to follow if a disaster or pandemic strikes. Your Backup and Disaster Recovery Plan should be one of the keys to helping your business survive during some of the toughest times that life may throw at it.

Do You Have A Plan?

Unfortunately, the majority of small businesses and many mid-size and large businesses do not have an effective Backup and Disaster Recovery Plan. Unfortunately, over 90 percent of those businesses will not survive if an outbreak, pandemic, or disaster as powerful as COVID-19 strikes. When a business or organization experiences significant downtime, a business or organization can lose thousands of dollars every minute the business is not operating.

Would your business or organization live to operate during the next year if you are forced to close your doors again for a significant period of time? It does not matter what your level of business is and what industry you are a part of, there is always a chance disaster could strike and impact your place of business.

Prevention Is Key

Before you make any decisions related to your Backup and Disaster Recovery plan, it is important to perform a full risk assessment. When you perform a risk assessment, your results will provide you with the tools you need to prepare you for any type of disaster. When you perform a risk assessment, you should take the following steps:

  • Create an inventory list of your equipment, networks, and security features that are a part of your business
  • Create a list of anything that may be a security risk
  • Gain an understanding of how your systems work and if they are working properly
  • Determine if there is anything in your business infrastructure you may be missing

It does not matter what type of problem or disaster may strike your business, it is important to make sure communication is open and accepted. One person should not be in charge of everything because no one person will be able to help a business or organization recover from any type of problem or disaster. As you prepare your Backup and Disaster Recovery Plan, it is important to remember the importance of communication.

Everyone should be aware of whom they can call during the event of an emergency. How many of your employees will take on a lead role? How many communication channels will be available during an emergency? Everyone should be aware of when the Backup and Disaster Recovery Plan should be initiated, and they should be aware of their role.

If you are preparing to create an improved Backup and Disaster Recovery Plan or if you are creating a BDR plan for the first time, please feel free to contact us today for more information.

Does Your IT Help Desk Suffer From Ongoing Problems?

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IT, information technology, help desk, IT services

An effective IT help desk will set your company up for success.

If your business or organization is suffering from multiple pain points due to IT help desk problems, it is time to thoroughly review your IT help desk practices, service levels, customer satisfaction, and more. These problems are more than pain points; these problems can seriously threaten the quality of service you offer to your customers. Within your business, no one can afford the risks that come with having a poor IT help desk support.

Users should always be given outstanding service provided by a top-notch IT help desk. Unfortunately, many businesses have their IT help desk department services spread so thin that the quality of service suffers. In your industry, your service is everything. It does not matter what type of products and services you are providing to your customers, you should always ensure your level of service is of the highest quality.

If your IT help desk is experiencing the symptoms of a poor IT help desk, it is time to make changes to your IT help desk system.

There Is A Long Resolution Time

If your help desk team is spending too much time resolving the issues that the callers have, it is not only costly, but it is taking precious time away from the resolution of other problems. Your help desk team should be able to handle a high number of requests in a day. However, if your help desk team is spending too much time on one call, other callers will not be able to receive the level of support they need.

Your IT Problems Are Not Disappearing

If you have IT problems that do not seem to ever go away, your quality of support will never reach the level it needs to be. This is not an uncommon situation. Unfortunately, not every business is able to capture the greater picture. There are many calls that come into the help desk that represent large and major issues. However, the major help desk problems you are having can lead to poorly handled calls.

Your Employees Are Not Happy With Your Systems

New technologies and systems will often result in complaints from those within the workplace. Sometimes there are difficulties with accessing a system or because there are problems with system issues that are ongoing. Your IT team should be prepared for an influx of help desk calls whenever new systems, technologies, equipment are implemented.

Callers Are Not Receiving Help

If your users are not getting the high-quality user experience they feel they deserve, they will instantly become dissatisfied with your help desk. Callers are often dissatisfied with a help desk because the call resolution is poor, and they have to wait too long to receive the service they need. When call resolution is poor and when callers have to wait too long for a help desk response, customers will become frustrated and disappointed with the level of service they are receiving.

We understand how difficult it can be to roll out a help desk system that is effective and efficient. An effective and efficient help desk system is one that will offer multiple options for users to submit tickets and receive assistance in an appropriate timeframe. Users should have the opportunity to choose the option that makes the most sense to them.

Outsourcing a help desk system has become a significant and cost-effective option for many businesses in a variety of industries. It does not matter if you are looking for someone to analyze your help desk and offer advice or if you are looking for help desk software that can improve your ongoing issues, please contact us today for information on our services.