Directive Blogs

Telephone systems are a crucial part of any business. Voice over IP, or VoIP, takes telephone systems one step further by making the service more accessible, flexible, and affordable for SMBs. Today, we want to highlight some of the benefits you can expect from using a VoIP system.

Sorry for the loaded title. There’s a lot to talk about, even for those of you who don’t use or even know what Telegram is.

We’ll try to sum this up, because we think there is a lot to say about security and the nature of technology in this, and like all things these days, there’s some odd rabble-rousing about this whole series of events. Who’s up for a wild ride?

Streamlining communications for small businesses can significantly boost efficiency and elevate overall performance. However, achieving this isn’t as simple as just deciding to implement it. This month, we’ll explore some key advantages that a unified communications platform can offer.

Collaboration is at the heart of any effective business. Most organizations today are trying to make the most of their limited resources, and one of the ways to do this is with a solid collaboration strategy. Here’s how you can do the same to avoid siloing tasks and squandering your workforce’s potential.

Email is a hugely effective tool that you can use to boost your business’ marketing efforts, provided you use them correctly. If misused, however, email marketing can be less beneficial (or worse, actively harmful) to your business’ self-promotion.

Communication is a big part of business. It builds the collaborative space needed to efficiently get work done and provides the platform in which to handle any and all customer concerns. In today’s blog we are going to go through all the things that makes Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) one of the most valuable pieces of technology any organization can implement.

In the realm of business communication, a seismic shift is underway. Traditional phone systems, once the backbone of business communication, are being phased out. In their place, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) systems are taking center stage.

But why is this change happening?

Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, is a technology that enables phone calls over the Internet. It offers a modern alternative to traditional phone lines with various advantages, like cost savings and advanced features. VoIP is revolutionizing business communication and is an essential tool for today's organizations, particularly with the rise of remote work. Here's why it's so popular among modern businesses.

When it comes to running a successful business, customer confidence is everything. It can make or break your business’ reputation. If you’re too reckless with your customers, why would anyone else be willing to sign on with you? Thankfully, there are plenty of ways you can build customer confidence, and technology plays a pivotal role in many of them. Today, we want to explore how you can build customer confidence through the use of business technology solutions.

Effective teamwork is indispensable for business success. Collaboration stands out as an extremely important consideration, yet devising a strategy that expedites project completion and enhances service delivery poses challenges. This week, we get into modern collaboration practices and how technology can help you improve collaboration.

Collaboration is a key component of any business, and in today’s remote and hybrid work environment, it’s even more important than ever. Technology can facilitate collaboration in amazing ways, particularly for growing businesses that are quickly outgrowing their current accommodations.

We’ve seen the conference rooms of a lot of businesses, from the modified break-room with stale coffee to immaculate lecture rooms with plush, comfy seats, and everything in between.

A good conference room can do a lot to impress potential clients and customers, encourage collaboration within your team, and leave a great impression on potential employees too. While we’re not going to pretend to be interior decorators, there are definitely some important steps that we can assist with to make sure your conference room is up to the task.

Many businesses in Oneonta and around the surrounding area are still using phone systems that are outdated and therefore hinder their capabilities and growth potential. Cloud-hosted VoIP—Voice over Internet Protocol—is a much better option for businesses to utilize, with many benefits to make the switch a no-brainer for our fellow organizations.

Effective communication often operates behind the scenes, yet it serves as a vital cog in the smooth operational ability of business, lending support to a multitude of functions. Consequently, making judicious investments in the right tools can markedly elevate your business. In the contemporary landscape, one such indispensable tool is Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).

It’s easy to look at your business phone system and think to yourself, “Well, the old girl is doing the best that she can,” as if it’s a beloved senior work horse with arthritis. We’ve mentioned this in a previous blog about how Otsego county businesses have been left in the dust with these older phone systems, so most business owners have no idea that they have been missing out on a ton of really great innovations.

In this post, we’re going to talk about some of the more advanced integrations that a cloud-based phone system can bring.

As computer techs, we try not to judge older technology. After all, if it still works for you, and it still works properly after all these years, it can sometimes simply be impressive. And to be completely honest, as amazing as modern devices and technology are today, sometimes even the geekiest of us look back with fondness of the simpler times, when you needed a little plastic stylus to tap away at your tiny phone screen.

With that said, usually technology doesn’t age gracefully, and while you might not realize it, your business could be leaving money on the table by sticking with the more vintage stuff.

How does your business handle communication? Does it struggle to properly use its technology and collaboration tools? If so, we have some tips that can help you avoid the most common collaboration mistakes, particularly those related to data security. Read on to learn how you can ensure you’re not putting your data at risk needlessly with inappropriate collaboration security mistakes.

This is a comprehensive guide for businesses in Otsego County on picking a reliable, capable phone system. The truth is, businesses throughout Oneonta and the surrounding area have been at a bit of a disadvantage over the years, as local telecom providers haven’t been keeping up with modern technology, and the alternative options are geared towards residential use.

Let’s explore the latest trends, features, cost savings, and benefits of modern phone systems, to ensure that your business gets a solution that helps you stay ahead of the competition.

Collaboration tools can be remarkably helpful for businesses, if not downright essential to their success. With the right tools that are, of course, configured the right way, you can see exponential returns on your investment as your staff enjoy the many benefits they provide. Today, we want to discuss four common pitfalls with your collaboration tool security that must be addressed.

It’s important that you are able to communicate with the people you work for, with, and over; and a big part of this is ensuring that your points are heard. Let’s go over a few strategies and techniques that can help you ensure that those around you are apt to listen to what you have to say.

With collaboration remaining an important component of any successful business, it’s important to foster productivity and innovation through strategic implementation of technology solutions designed for this express purpose. Today, we want to discuss some of the aspects of collaboration you need to know to do it more effectively, as well as technology that facilitates this process.

Innovation is important to businesses because there are advancements in technologies and strategies that are made all the time that help to improve these businesses’ processes. Although there are several niche business communication strategies to consider—which may apply to your business—we’ve listed the top five universal strategies that all businesses should regard as critical:

Considering how essential telephone services are for just about any organization, it’s surprising how limited—and expensive— telephone service providers here in Otsego County are. Between the lack of support and, again, the costs that are involved, they’ve dropped the ball…and yet, they still expect businesses to play.

Not only do businesses here in Otsego County deserve better, better options are available.

Technology is only effective in the hands of the right—or, at least, well-trained—employees. To work toward this goal, you’ll have to ramp up your hiring processes to ensure you garner the interest of the right candidates for the jobs. Nowhere is this more true than for your IT department. Let’s go over how you can make your business an attractive employment option for skilled and innovative technicians.

Email remains a cornerstone in business communications, often containing sensitive information and other data that really needs to be protected. Fortunately, modern email platforms often enable you to add a little bit of protection, so long as you know what the process looks like. 

Let’s go over how you can make your emails just that much more secure.

Communication is a key part of doing business. Today, there are a variety of solutions devoted to improving your business’ communications strategy in some way, shape, or form. Here, we’ll go over the communications tools that businesses use today, and discuss why today’s business should be invested in most or all of them.

Today, there is a greater focus on mental health and wellbeing than ever before, especially in the shadow of the pandemic. Do you want to improve your employees’ relationships with their colleagues, family, and other important people in their lives? The key to doing so might be remote work, according to a new survey.

Let’s face it… when you think of business communications, the telephone is still one of the first things to pop into your head, right? Telephony has been intrinsically linked to business since it was first created, and as technology has advanced, so has our capability to use the phone to our advantage.

For a business, communications take several forms. You have the telephone, instant messaging, email, and other collaboration mediums. On top of that, most businesses have some way to communicate with customers outside of the main options. That’s a lot of communication tools to manage and keep working effectively. This month we thought we would talk a little bit about the benefits of unifying your communications platforms for added benefit.

By now, you’ve probably heard of VoIP—Voice over Internet Protocol—telephony. Chances are pretty good, in fact, that your business is currently using VoIP as a part of its communication. While we’re big proponents of VoIP, it is important that we acknowledge that (like anything else) some VoIP services are better than others.

Costs are rising and companies need to do more with less. Not only that, they depend on several departments of their business to work together to meet customer demands and complete projects. Let’s take a look at some collaboration tips and the tools that can help build a better, more collaborative and productive business. 

Video conferencing has become a popular way for businesses and their team members to communicate, with many platforms rising up to meet this demand. This growth begs the question, however, of how one goes about picking the best one for their organization’s needs. We’ve put together a few features that should be present in any option you consider for you to keep in mind.

Digital signage platforms are on the rise, and they are giving businesses more opportunities to help their office visitors feel more connected and comfortable. You might be surprised by how affordable and accessible digital signage solutions can be, hence why they are growing in popularity with businesses.

The telephone has been a part of business processes since it was invented, with businesses quickly taking advantage of the new features that telephony has introduced as it has improved over the years. VoIP—Voice over Internet Protocol—is the latest improvement, and as such, offers businesses a lot of great benefits to embrace.

When was the last time you used a QR code? For two decades of struggling to gain traction and considered a niche technology, QR codes have gained a new lease on life. In response to COVID-19, social distancing, and contactless and cash-free interactions, many businesses are taking a second look at QR codes.

While remote work has been a relatively new option for many businesses currently using it in their operations, it has already shown considerable benefits. Having said that, it would be incongruous of us if we didn’t also acknowledge one glaring issue that remote work has helped to foster: a sense of disconnect in many of those making use of it.

Wherever a business’ team happens to be working, maintaining communications is a huge priority. This is not only for the sake of operations, but also for the sake of your company culture. Let’s explore how this can be accomplished through a strategy known as unified communications.

With so many companies having successfully made use of remote work for so long, there has been some worry that this extended means of operation will have a detrimental impact on company culture. Let’s discuss why this is something to avoid, as well as how to avoid this withering of your team’s collective working relationship.

The pandemic changed how businesses interact with their customers, particularly regarding communication. As customers have grown used to and have come to expect to find solutions to their problems online, the question is, does your website help or hinder your customers? Here are some steps you can take to ensure your customers have a great user experience.

We’ve all seen the fields in our email, CC and BCC, and most of us have probably used them before. Let’s consider where we get those terms, and how each of them is properly used.

While it isn’t officially a business solution, per se, the collaboration platform known as Discord has seen some popularity as a means of facilitating a business’ internal communications. Let’s go over some handy tips to improve your use of the platform, in case you are part of an organization that does so. Who knows… this might inspire you to give it a chance for yourself.

There aren’t many technological assets as important for a business as its communications solutions. Today, there are plenty of different solutions that businesses can use to interact with other people in the company, but for communications with customers and vendors, the telephone is still the best and most utilized. Today, we will look at business telephone systems and why choosing Voice over Internet Protocol simply makes sense for your business. 

What kinds of communication tools does your business utilize on a daily basis? Chances are that your communication infrastructure can benefit from some of the latest and greatest solutions on the market. Communication is one aspect of your business that you definitely do not want to skimp on, as failing to implement the proper tools can bleed into other aspects of your organization, including operations and, in return, your bottom line.

Broadband Internet access is a critical consideration for today’s world, considering how much of daily life and business is now conducted online. Having said that, Internet access is still far from a given. In the United States, the Federal Communications Commission wants to work to fix this—but to do so, they need data. To help collect this data, the FCC wants you to install a speed test application on your smartphone.

For all its benefits, remote conferencing isn’t the easiest means of doing work for many people, as many have found out through experience. With businesses quite literally forced into this approach for some time now, employees are starting to feel the toll. Let’s discuss some of the impacts that long-term remote conferencing has had, and what can be done to minimize them.

With all the communication tools that businesses use today, there still is no more important option than the telephone system. Unfortunately for small businesses, the telephone system can be expensive and hard to manage. However, there is a way for you to get a fully featured telephone service with some of the most important tools your business needs, at a fraction of the price you currently pay for your enterprise telephone system.

With so much time being spent in email, and Gmail holding a 33.7 percent market share, it should come as no surprise that many businesses wouldn’t mind it if a little less time were spent in Gmail if possible. As it happens, one of the most frustrating expenditures of your time—rewriting similar emails repeatedly—can be eliminated by creating Gmail templates.

Social media has established itself as a main communication tool for personal use and businesses alike, yet many local businesses aren’t using it to its full potential. If you’re a business struggling with your social media presence, learn how the Ultimate Social Media Rig can get you up and running.

Boosting collaboration is a central theme to many companies' operational strategies. The more that people can do as a team, the less costly operations have to be. That is a sound business strategy. Today, many businesses are looking to software to build a successful collaborative situation. Let’s take a look at three such apps that, if used properly, will help any business boost their team’s ability to work together. 

Communication is key to any good relationship, and this is even more true when that relationship is based in a business setting. This is the case whether you’re referring to the correspondence between an organization and its clientele, or the collaboration between employees as they complete their tasks. Let’s consider four things small businesses can and should do to create a communications strategy that encourages their success.

2020 was a contentious—and for the wireless industry, momentous—year. Marking the official start of 5G networks, 2020’s events amongst mobile providers helped to reinvigorate an industry, while making some considerable shifts in the balance. Let’s consider some of these changes, and how the industry will continue to change for some time moving forward as 5G continues to grow.

VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) telephony is a common technology amongst modern businesses for their communication needs. Let’s go over how VoIP functions and how it can benefit your company.

With how business is conducted today, the capability of your workforce to stay connected while mobile is important. However, it can be equally important that this connectivity doesn’t come at the cost of their manners. Let’s go over a few ways to be more polite as you work remotely using a mobile device.

If your business is like most, you and your team likely rely on a schedule to keep your processes moving along efficiently… while also ensuring that everyone has something to work on at any time. However, this is often easier said than done, which is why there are now cloud-based software options that make your scheduling efforts a little smarter.

The improvement in technology directly contributes to the amount of productivity business sees. One place this is evident is in the way in which businesses use collaboration tools to move business forward. Let’s take a brief look at what exactly we mean by collaboration tools and how they benefit the businesses that use them. 

Things are still very up in the air when it comes to the pandemic and New York state’s reopening. At the time of writing this, most of Upstate NY is entering Phase 4. That said, social distancing and contact-free interactions will most likely be with us for some time. Is your business ready to conduct business in a post-coronavirus world?

As businesses slowly open up, they’re finding that their customers and staff have begun to expect certain levels of interactions in response to the coronavirus. When it comes to keeping your business competitive, you need to embrace the clear delineation between how businesses operated pre- and post-coronavirus. What was once temporary has become the new normal. The question is, are you still running your business using the old business model?

Businesses of all types rely on their telephone systems. Today, there is an option that can revolutionize any business’ communications platform, and do so for a fraction of the cost of a traditional telephone system. Today, we’ll take a look at VoiP and why it’s such a good option for your business.

Conferencing has been an important tool for businesses as stay-at-home orders have moved their operations out of the office and into worker’s homes. While there are dozens of video conferencing solutions on the market, businesses should consider security just as much as they consider functionality. Today, we’ll take a look at security for your company’s conferencing solutions.

Businesses around the world now find themselves in a situation unlike what most have ever seen. With so many trying to keep their distance from one another, many workplaces have deemed it necessary to close down for the time being or to operate remotely in order to reduce the risk they present to their clients and customers… but it isn’t as though these clients and customers are going to expect radio silence from these businesses.

Social distancing has more or less confined many to their homes, and so many people have begun to adopt remote working to stay busy and to keep their workplaces operational. One way to assist these activities, VoIP (or Voice over Internet Protocol) is a massively helpful tool that many businesses use. Here, we’re going over why this is.

We’ll begin by reviewing the current situation.

How often do you find a message in your SMS inbox that has clearly come from a business, but you almost have to wonder, simply because the incoming number seems to be randomized? Google has taken notice of this challenge, and so has rolled out a means for businesses to confirm that they are in fact the ones sending a particular message. 

While there are definitely gimmicks when it comes to technology in the small business (for instance, USB-powered staplers) there are many devices and technologies that have far more utility, although they may not seem to be applicable to all industries. One example would be the digital signage solutions that have grown in popularity. While they may seem to have limited uses outside of retail, there are plenty of ways to use them to your advantage.

VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) solutions famously offer businesses some significant cost savings. While this may be the extent of many people’s understanding of its value, VoIP actually has a lot more to offer. That’s why we wanted to go over just a few of its benefits - to provide a bit of insight into what makes VoIP such a great choice for today’s organizations.

Businesses have a variety of communications to manage, including their internal ones. For many, this may be put on the back burner, as they prioritize their operational and sales-encouraging communications. However, internal communications are just as crucial, which is why we’re going over some of your options here - and how you need to use them.

Email remains an incredibly useful tool in the business setting, assisting with a wide variety of communication needs. However, in order to make the most of your emails, you need to have an email client that permits you to do so. Here, we’re pitting two major email clients against each other to see which one offers the features that best suit your business and its needs.

It isn’t exactly a secret that small and medium-sized businesses appreciate any opportunity to reduce the amount of money they have to spend to successfully operate. One means that businesses of all sizes have used to do so has been VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) telephony. Here, we’ll explore just how VoIP solutions are friendlier to a business’ budget.

With all the communication options available today, it can still be hard to beat the convenience and simplicity of the telephone. However, the phone is far from a perfect solution - it can be expensive, for one. However, what if there was a way for you to get a fully-featured telephone service with a variety of tools, without having to pay an arm and a leg?

Business communications, which is the succinct way to say the sharing of information between people both internal and external to a company, is a key player in that company’s success. Here, we’ll analyze the different types of communication that a business could leverage, and the solutions that best enable them.

For the small business looking to transform both their communications system and their IT budget, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a great solution. VoIP can deliver clear and reliable calling services that some landline services simply don’t offer. We take a look at VoIP’s more interesting features in this week’s blog.

As technology advances, gadgets are invented which can be beneficial to not only our social lives but in our business practices. Radio-frequency identification (RFID) is a relatively new technology which businesses have been progressively utilizing.

When it comes to addressing bullying in our schools, whether it is ‘traditional’ or cyber, communication is critical to not only support victims of bullying, but also to prevent it. We’ve been following debates held by the Cooperstown PTA to discuss how to handle bullying and wanted to share our thoughts. Although bullying and cyberbullying are very tricky subjects, we feel that we can learn a lot about how schools handle these sensitive issues and share these insights with other businesses.

Blockchain is one of the most popular emerging technologies, and it’s easy to see why. While the technology behind blockchain was once looked at as having no practical application in the workplace, it is now taking a seat front and center as a security tool for a modern business environment. Let’s take a look at what’s going on in the world of blockchain.

Email is one of modern society’s best ways of staying in contact on both a business and personal level, but only if you’re effectively utilizing it. We’ll help you implement best practices and other methods to get the maximum benefit of your chosen email solution.

Modern businesses have a lot more room for flexibility than in the past, particularly in regard to meetings. With the inception of conferencing solutions, organizations have access to more dynamic tools to make the most of their meetings. Determining the best one for you, though, is not easy. We’ll help you make that choice in the simplest terms possible.

Your relationships with your customers and clients are reliant on one thing more than any other: communication. In order to optimize this communication, many businesses are leveraging technology solutions, and are enjoying a variety of operational benefits as a result. Is your business one of them?

Messaging applications have carved out a foothold in businesses, clearly proving their operational benefits. However, it simply isn’t responsible to leverage a solution without making sure that the solution is secure. There are a few criteria that you should consider to determine how secure your chosen application really is.

For many businesses, communication is a major contributing factor to their success. Technology--when it’s properly implemented, anyway--can play a big part in keeping communication productive, but with certain solutions, it can be difficult to determine context. Here are some ways that you can help your employees be as clear and concise as possible with specific communication methods.

These days, our society is infamously connected, especially in the business sense. This can make it jarring to not receive a reply back from an email. While we all need a break every now and then, we also need to get back to our contacts efficiently - this is where the ‘out of office’ message in Gmail comes in.

For any business to be successful, its inner workings need to be able to work together seamlessly, each with a defined role and purpose. While we usually stick to talking about how to make your IT more collaborative, we’re devoting this week’s tip to ensuring that your employees are also capable of effective collaboration while using these solutions.

Email is a solution that needs to be protected, lest you expose important information to any onlookers while messages are in transit. Encryption is one of the key ways you can make sure that your messages are safe, but email hasn’t always used this method to secure messages. In fact, it wasn’t until relatively recently that encryption became a staple of the major email providers.

Instant messaging is commonplace in today’s society. It used to be primarily for social interaction, but its success was so overwhelming that business professionals have implemented it into their daily communications. Although, despite the advantages that instant messaging can provide, you still have to jump through some hoops in order to bypass what it’s become; an immense annoyance.

There are some facets to IT that are universally accepted as important, such as security. However, there are also others that create some conflicting opinions between management and IT personnel. When surveyed, business leaders and IT management held vastly different opinions as to the importance of various IT tasks. Is there a way to unify these priorities?

If you’re trying to run your business without considering communication, you’re crippling your business unnecessarily. One of the ways that you can improve communications is by capitalizing on a modern phone system that uses the cloud. You might be surprised by how great a cloud-hosted VoIP solution works for your business--especially if you haven’t thrown out the traditional telephone handset yet.

Communication solutions for business are changing rapidly, and most of the new solutions go a long way toward using existing technologies that allow these organizations to save money and get more for the services they already pay for.

You serve as a vendor to your clients, providing them with a necessary good or service. Likewise, you have vendors that provide you with the goods and services that enable you to do so. However, how well are your vendors managed?

Are your employees putting your organization’s security at risk due to poor email practices? This is a question that all business owners need to consider--especially if you deal in sensitive information. We recommend that all businesses utilize a two-pronged approach to email security, including both technology measures to secure communications on the technical side and training to secure on the human side.

As technology keeps leading us into the future, it can be easy to lose sight of traditional leadership methods. Since the newest gadgets are so appealing, it's tempting to have technology automate our decision making as a crutch. Can technology really replace the old school business leadership practices?

Is there anything more important to your business’ success than communication? If you’re not ready to communicate, it becomes difficult to collaborate and make strides on major projects. Thankfully, like many topics in business, technology allows for more effective communication and collaboration than ever before. Let’s take a moment to review some of the best technologies to streamline communication in the office.

Grammar is quite complex, and it can be a problem for some people who don’t write or compose documents on a daily basis. One way that you can correct your writing, as well as learn why your writing needs correction, is by using a free Google Chrome extension called Grammarly.

Have you ever wondered how the Internet is capable of connecting countries on the other side of the world? You may already be aware of this, but the Internet’s cables run deep underneath the ocean’s surface, all around the world. In fact, you might wonder how we could even keep these cables safe when they’re submerged underneath such an immense amount of water.

One major technology pain point businesses have revolves around communication. If your clients and prospects can’t effectively reach your staff, customer support and productivity is weakened. Customers need more out of your phone system, and VoIP solutions offer more features with less expenses.

When your website has content or makes changes to its existing content, it can be of great benefit to your business’s marketing endeavors. In fact, it’s so important that innovators and programmers have built software that’s designed to perform the act of content writing. In other words, there are robots that compose web content. How does the writing of a robot hold up to that which is written by a human?

Email is such a staple of the modern office that it might seem like even the mention of a world without it is ludicrous. Others, however, feel like their inbox is keeping them from pushing toward bigger and better things. Email might hold a special spot in our hearts, but realistically, does it stand a chance in the future?

Communications solutions are vital to the functionality of your business. Amongst several other necessities, your telephony solution stands head and shoulders above the rest as one of the most important. Are you still using a legacy phone system? If so, you should consider switching to a VoIP system.

When you send a subordinate an email, you likely expect that they will read it and comply with the message. Unfortunately, this doesn’t always happen and messages, especially in organizations where email is used as the main form of communication between departments, slip through the cracks. To remedy lost correspondence, consider setting up an email archive.

Modern businesses prioritize in improving communications because they understand it will lead to more coherent operations and greater profits. Therefore, your business needs a communication solution that’s customizable to meet your unique needs. The one-size-fits-all approach just doesn’t work for business-to-business telecommunications, and your company should not be subjected to this outdated approach.

At this point, running your business is easy as pie; however, you might still be having issues dealing with your team. The problem might lie in how you’re communicating with them. Even something as simple as changing the way you make small talk in the office could drastically improve your reputation in the eyes of coworkers, and increase employee morale.

How bad would it have been if we instead entitled this article, “Don’t Let Poor Grammar Effect Your Business?” Even though it would’ve been a clever way to make a point about the perils of using poor grammar in business, there would still be a lot of folks who would spot the mistake and write off our company as incompetent. Herein lies the power of using proper grammar.

People dial 911 when they’re in some sort of trouble or in the event of an emergency. If not for the hotline, who knows how many lives could be lost daily. Sometimes, however, help doesn’t come, even when dispatchers have received the call and responded. This generally isn’t the fault of the dispatchers, but rather the criminals who have undermined the rescue efforts thanks to some unorthodox hacking.