How Hosted VoIP Can Save the Day!

When a major storm slams into your business and knocks out power, who are you going to call for help? If your communication system is hosted on your in-house IT infrastructure, then you won't be able to call anybody because your phones will be down. This also means your customers won't be able to call you for help.

With your communications effectively cut, your normal business operations will be crippled. Sure, you can reach out to a few important clients with your cellphone, but that can turn into a logistics nightmare when it comes to making sure all your customers have your cell phone number so they can call you back, and this will require you to give away your personal cell number to people that may abuse this privilege.

You may be able to skimp by and make outgoing calls using cellphones, but you will still be sunk when it comes to incoming calls. There may be a few close customers that will know how to reach you on your cellphone, but take a prospect that's trying to reach out to your business for the first time, and if your lines are down, then you will have lost a sale.

Then there's the issue of how long will your phones be out of service. A power outage that causes only a few minutes of downtime might not be that big of a deal, but a few hours or even a few weeks of downtime can cause your business to quickly go from being in the black to swimming in red. When it comes to major power outages like this, nobody sees it coming, which makes it even more costly.

In 2012, Superstorm Sandy caught many small to medium-sized businesses off guard in the United States. The storm was too much for the nation's infrastructure and many businesses in the Northeast corridor, not just the ones next to the beach, were without power for two weeks. Insurance will cover the devastation from the storm and replace building material, but insurance will not cover the money lost from not generating sales during downtime. This is why it's crucial that you have a business continuity plan in place so you can be prepared for the worst case scenario.

Any solution that takes the services you depend on and migrates them over to the cloud, is great for business continuity. You can effectively do this for your phones with a hosted VoIP solution from Directive. Voice over Internet Protocol uses the Internet for all of your communication needs, including phone, video conferencing, instant messaging, and much more. If your physical office loses power and your IT infrastructure is down, then you will be able to find any Internet connection, access your VoIP solution, and virtualize your office so you won't miss a call.

If you're serious about a strong business continuity plan, then you will want to consider hosting other services to the cloud, including data backup, your mission critical software applications, and more. To come up with a strong business continuity plan that will weather your business through any storm, give Directive a call at 607.433.2200.