SMB Disaster Recovery Plan Must Include Phone Systems
Announcement posted by M5 Networks Australia 16 Mar 2011
Phone systems, unlike email and data systems, are rarely considered for inclusion in a company’s disaster recovery plan. M5 Networks Australia’s customers have a disaster recovery plan put in place for a variety of situations. Customers’ phone systems are constantly being monitored so that when a customer ‘goes dark’, diversions are immediately activated so that no calls are missed. Plans vary from diverting calls from an office to another office interstate, to various mobile phones, or to voicemail.
Specialist claims management company Proclaim found that their staff were unable to head to their office in the CBD due to the floods.
“Our staff couldn’t access the CBD, so we enacted our disaster recovery plans for our phones through M5. We diverted our main line to our Melbourne office so that our receptionist there could handle the calls, and all our staff logged into their phones from home so that they could work remotely. Our customers were still able to reach us at our direct numbers. We operated from home for a week,” said Justin Harty, Operations Manager at Proclaim’s Brisbane office.
“Quite a number of businesses were caught out by the situation. There were organizations that were basically not operating for two weeks, which can really hit a company’s bottom line. Fortunately for us, we were able to access documents online and receive calls from home. The importance of having a disaster recovery or business continuity plan, no matter what size your business is, cannot be overstated,” he continued.
M5 Networks Australia provides all customers with a redundancy, or disaster recovery, plan. These pre-determined plans are put into action when there are issues at the customer’s premises or in the event of a natural disaster.
Customers are able to choose from a variety of options:
- Divert all direct in-dial lines to voicemail, which can be received via email as a wav file
- Divert all direct in-dial lines to mobile phones
- Divert main lines to another office
- Divert main lines to a manager’s mobile phone or direct line
- Log into handsets at home or at another remote location
All diversions are effected instantly when necessary, and are available at no extra cost.
“As a company servicing the SMB market, we’ve found that value-added services such as these can cost a significant amount, particularly in the fixed-line space. Disaster recover or business continuity plans are extremely important for SMBs, as we’ve learnt from the recent floods that have hit Queensland and Victoria, and SMBs need to be able to tap into these services without penalty,” said M5 Networks’ managing director Matthew Wilson.
“As an SMB ourselves, we know how important it is to be able to get in touch with your customers and for your customers to be able to contact you no matter what the situation. Your business’ reputation is on the line, and having a disaster recovery plan for your phone system helps to ensure that your reputation for customer service stays positive,” he added.
Click here for an additional case study on business continuity: Sydney power outages 2009
About M5 Networks Australia
Established in 2003, M5 Networks Australia has grown from a research and development team in Canberra to a hosted VoIP phone systems provider to small and medium businesses in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane. M5 Networks Australia are experts in whole-of-company business VoIP, focusing on improving business processes and providing solutions to issues with custom applications and excellent customer service. For more information, please visit www.m5networks.com.au.
About Proclaim
Proclaim provides specialist claim management services to insurers and to self insured companies in liability, property, motor and accident classes. For more information, please visit www.proclaim.com.au
For more information, please contact:
Janani Jayasundar
Marketing & PR Executive
03 9935 7570