How UCaaS Improves Disaster Preparedness and Business Continuity

How UCaaS Improves Disaster Preparedness and Business Continuity

Hurricane season has arrived, and it promises to be active. The Colorado State University Tropical Weather and Climate Research Team has predicted 23 named storms, including 11 hurricanes and five major hurricanes. The researchers use historical data as well as weather models to make these predictions. However, they said “this year stands on its own” due to the transition to La Niña and extremely warm ocean temperatures.

Organizations should review their disaster recovery plans to ensure they are current and complete. Remote and hybrid work models complicate disaster preparedness. Organizations must ensure that all employees are safe and company-owned assets are protected.

Reliable communication has always been a key component of any DR plan, and this environment makes it more important than ever. Organizations need the ability to communicate with staff, customers and business partners to ensure safety and minimize the impact of business disruption. That’s another reason why Unified Communications-as-a-Service (UCaaS) has become a business essential.

The Value of UCaaS

UCaaS provides reliable business continuity by moving communications and collaboration tools to the cloud. Employees can access the organization’s UC system from any device with an Internet connection. The service provider is responsible for ensuring availability by hosting equipment in a resilient data center with failover capabilities to prevent downtime.

Most organizations adopt UCaaS for reasons other than business continuity. Like most cloud services, UCaaS eliminates the expense of purchasing, deploying and maintaining on-premises equipment. UCaaS can also be quickly deployed and centrally managed through an online interface.

However, the disaster-related benefits of UCaaS should not be underestimated. Extended phone system downtime could have a significant impact in terms of lost revenue, customer churn and reputational damage. UCaaS enables uninterrupted communication, which can mean the difference between weathering a disaster and closing your doors.

Ensuring Effective Communication

With UCaaS, employees continue using the same communications applications and services during a disaster that they use every day, without compromising quality or performance. Employees can remotely access UC tools from home, a satellite office or a temporary office on any Internet-connected desktop or mobile device. It may take some time for physical structures to recover from a disaster, but the ability to communicate and conduct business is never lost.

Best-in-class UCaaS systems also enable mass communication before, during and after a disaster. Organizations can send out warnings before a hurricane to encourage people to prepare their homes and evacuate if needed. Alerts during an emergency can help people avoid dangerous situations and provide assurances that relieve some of the stress. After the threat has passed, organizations can use mass communication to organize volunteers and provide updates on recovery efforts.

Because UCaaS integrates multiple communication and collaboration tools, mass messages can be sent across multiple channels, including desk phones, softphones, mobile devices, text messaging and email. Geofencing enables organizations to target users in specific areas to avoid confusion.

How Verteks Can Help

Verteks has a proven track record of success delivering UCaaS solutions. Our offerings combine best-in-class voice and video, intuitive collaboration tools, and carrier-grade reliability, security and interoperability. UC services will be integrated across all devices, giving each user one number for instant collaboration. Scalable, pay-as-you-grow licensing models ensure predictable monthly costs and make it easy to measure ROI. Plus, each solution is backed by our world-class management and support.

Hurricane season is here. Let us help you leverage UCaaS to improve disaster preparedness and ensure seamless business continuity.


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