You never know when an unexpected turn of events is going to keep you out of your office. You may not live in earthquake country, or a hurricane zone, or a tornado corridor, but that doesn't exempt you. Everything from fires to broken water mains to police actions can unexpectedly mean that you're suddenly not able to do business where you thought you would that day.
Acquirent, an outsourced sales execution firm based in Evanston, Illinois, knows this all too well. When its eleven employees were told to evacuate the premises unexpectedly one day, they had no choice but to pack up and go. But the disruption was surprisingly minimal.
Built-In Business Continuity
Because Acquirent offers outsourced sales services, founder and CEO Pete Kadens had a high level of confidence in choosing an outsourced phone system. He had deployed Geckotech's hosted IP phone system, which meant that his telecommunications capabilities weren't even inside the affected location.
"We all just packed up our files, laptops and Cisco phones and went home," says Pete Kadens. "Everyone plugged in their office phones at home to their DSL or cable and the office was back up and running with no disruption of our business. Even during the drive home incoming calls were automatically redirected to our cell phones. Without Geckotech VoIP, I don't know what we would've done."
Managed Services Bring More Flexibility
Managed telecom services provide a great deal of flexibility for companies who don't want to own their own phone system, both in terms of adding people and avoiding capital expenditures. And VoIP systems bring added benefits in terms of integrated electronic in-boxes and easier collaboration between colleagues.
But they also bring an added measure of protection in the event of a disaster. If you have a small or midsized business, take a moment to think about how you would continue to communicate among colleagues and clients if you were unable to work from your office, and consider the value of managed telecom services in that situation.
Perhaps you've already considered a managed network services solution to reduce your operational costs, or free-up your valuable time to reinvest in your core business. Now you can add one more benefit to the list – have a game plan for the unexpected interruption to your business communication capabilities.