Business

Taming the ‘Threat from the Net’

The ‘Beast from the East’ proved that companies need to be prepared for all eventualities. Picture by Mal McCann
The ‘Beast from the East’ proved that companies need to be prepared for all eventualities. Picture by Mal McCann The ‘Beast from the East’ proved that companies need to be prepared for all eventualities. Picture by Mal McCann

AS heads (and eyes) roll when the world essentially grinds to a halt when there is half an inch of snow on the ground, the ‘Beast from the East’ proved that companies need to be prepared for all eventualities.

In fairness, the snows and wind that blew in created merry hell for communities, commuters and companies right across the UK and Ireland with the economy being adversely affected to the tune of close to £1 billion, estimates suggest.

Whether it is a case of employees not being able to leave their homes, never mind reach the office, generators giving out or a government decree to stay indoors, thousands of companies had to close.

Should there be a loss of power, loss of access to your systems and servers or the public transport system has ground to a halt, there are ways and means to maintain the workings of the business remotely as there is very little an insurance broker can do to restore years of data or recoup potentially thousands of pounds worth of lost time, team accessibility and customer freak outs.

Recent figures show 39 per cent of companies have reported losing their telephony system in the last 12 months with the average outage lasting eight hours at a cost of £24,000 per hour! This of course cannot be sustained. With Winter seemingly intent on maintaining its icy grasp, how can businesses across Northern Ireland effectively “batten down the hatches” without retreating to their bunkers?

IP voice services like Hosted Voice and SIP Trunks can help you prepare for the unforeseen. They are designed with inbuilt disaster recovery which means your calls will be redirected automatically should the unexpected happen, making sure your customers and clients can always get in touch.

If you are a business with more than one office location, and one loses power or is cut off, the option is now available for calls to be rerouted to another site. If, for whatever reason – weather, transport, a sick child – a team member can’t make the office, calls to the switchboard can be transferred to their mobiles.

For those industries that experience peaks and troughs of busy periods throughout the year, most noticeably the tourism and retail sectors, IP Voice systems allow capacity to increase exponentially in a matter of days rather than weeks. Allowing for more efficient cost management for the books, they can also create a more streamlined and reactive service provision to clients and customers.

These systems are easy to install and cost effective with disaster recovery and flexibility included as standard. Of course, many companies are reliant on back up servers and ‘The Cloud’ for the safe retention of files, data and documents, which are invaluable should the unthinkable happen.

For the reassurance of your clients and the ability to maintain a working office ‘façade’, even if it is taking place in your kitchen, companies of all sizes already rely on IP Voice to keep them connected no matter what.

:: Eric Carson is director of Rainbow Communications and can be contacted via www.rainbowcomms. com. Rainbow Communications can also be followed on Twitter –

@Rainbow_Comms.