Communications Downtime and Backup

The Cost to Business of Telecommunications Outage

Any downtime in communications can not only be directly costly in terms of lost sales and business, but result in a diminishing in public perception and loss of reputation. The reasons for a cut in communications are varied and can extend from in-house system failure or staff error through to malicious damage such as vandalism or sabotage. It's sensible telecommunications DR planning to have an alternative in place when an outage occurs. The level of the solution put in place will of course be dependant on the size of business and expenditure assigned to DR.

Alerting Staff, Customers and the Public

Advising affected parties and even the wider public is an early requirement of of any telecom recovery and having the ability to SMS, email and even call people on their landlines, mobiles and VoIP phones is a very useful option. A hosted service such as that offered by 999Alert will perform this task immediately upon notification of any downtime sparing business the immense amount of time required to perform the task manually.

Telecommunications DR Services

To keep staff and customers informed a voice noticeboard is an ideal service allowing DR personnel to post messages with emergency information and updates on the recovery process. A service such as Voicebank offers an ideal solution as it is hosted thereby negating the need for any additional in-house hardware or systems, and can be integrated into a wider suite of DR options.

The Voicebank phone number can be advertised as a general information number for press releases and product announcements or retained as a dedicated 'in the event of an emergency' info line. If the number is included in all printed company documents and advertising it should be easily accessible when staff or customers find the usual lines of communication are down.

Phone System Backup

A more comprehensive option in the event of communications downtime and recovery is to replicate the entire in-house phone system. This can either be setup in a secondary location or a more cost effective possibility is to outsource the service and use a hosted solution. Such mirror systems can replicate every aspect of the existing in-house phone system including caller menus, ACD and routing, call recording and voicemail. The calls can be diverted to landlines not affected by the telecom outage such as home lines plus mobiles and softphones (VoIP).

Such hosted telecommunications backup systems can usually be brought online within a couple of minutes with customers unaware that any change has taken place as the usual business number continues to operate and callers are presented with the same menu options using the same speaking voice and with calls being routed to the relevant staff member or department.

Staff Conferencing during the Crisis

Along with a phone system 'mirror' hosted DR solutions can integrate the ability for staff to conduct conferences during the recovery with the supervisor in control of the conference and being supplied with online reports providing information on staff whereabouts and the progress on the recovery process.

With the ability to integrate the conference with Voicebank and SMS alerts teleconferencing becomes a useful adjunct to disaster recovery applications and planning. Conference recording can also provide a useful reference for future evaluation of the recovery plan improving the efficiency of both the DR plan and the activities of key personnel during the recovery.

Continuity of Communications

Protecting business communications is as important as ensuring critical data is retrievable, the effects of any downtime being both immediate and long term. Even if the phones go dead for a minute or two the consequences and effects on staff and customers are significant. To a large extent business ceases and remains dormant till phone systems are restored.

It's possible to provide caller options such that they are aware of the problems but where budget allows a full DR application will provide greatest peace of mind and will have paid for itself many times over in the event of any telecommunications outage.