2020 has been a year of firsts, at least for most of us. A global pandemic has disrupted even the smallest details of our lives and we all witnessed an event we never expected: the complete shutdown of an entire economy. Unfortunately, these drastic measures only curbed the spread for the short term and it seems that a second shutdown is all but inevitable. With the average US positivity rate reaching 10% and states such as Iowa with rates as high as 50%, it seems inevitable that another shutdown will occur.
Use What We Learned From the First Shutdown
We never thought we would be saying to ourselves that we are thankful for the first shutdown. But the first one taught us many lessons that we can lean into as we approach the very real possibility of a second shutdown. Most of us threw some things together ad hoc and patchworking systems together, and many of them were cloud solutions such as UCaaS, DaaS, CPaaS. And while these got us through the first crisis, they may not have been the most efficient technology and solutions. But as we approach the very real possibility of a second shutdown, there is no better time than now to begin preparing again. And one key area that you should focus on that is crucial to your business is your communications solutions – and if they are prepared to handle the stay home orders.
4 Steps to Take to Prepare for a Second Shutdown
We know how to prepare for a disaster or event that causes a temporary shut down, either a weather event, communications cable cut. We know the basic data recovery and business continuity protocols and even have them planned in case we need them. Most of us could recite our disaster recovery protocol in our sleep. But the unique circumstances that surround a complete lockdown, disrupting even local travel, is something new and requires different preparation. Here are 4 key areas you need to pay attention to when it comes to your communications:
Don’t cut corners – cut costs. A lot of us managed the working from home communications and video conferencing solutions with free tools, like Zoom. But these free tools often have hidden costs. Lack of integration with your whole communication stack can create challenges and confusion and lack of adoption, meaning you may end up spending more to manage your employee’s different environments and leaving a disorganized image of your organization to your customers. Thanks to hindsight, we know what worked well, and what didn’t, during the last shut down, so you will want to take a good, hard look at your current communications solution and see how it can (and if it can) meet your needs in the event of a full shutdown again.
Enhance business continuity, with reliable, cost-effective communications. Short-term closures, such as a downed electrical grid, closure of your office doors due to flooding, `a blizzard, or any other event causing a temporary shutdown are a nuisance and one that can cause damage to your business. The majority of people understand that when a natural disaster hits, you may be out of pocket for a few hours. But it is almost impossible to survive without being able to communicate with your customers and your staff. On-premise systems do really well and are strong contenders – but in the event of a complete business shutdown, these location-based solutions have the challenge of enabling true remote management. This reason is why cloud communications, like Unified Communications, have a singular advantage in times like this. The ability of the system to pivot on a dime and enable you to simply redirect your entire system to remote endpoints such as cell phones or softphones keeps your lines of communications open from day 1. Depending on the size of your organization, it can take anywhere from minutes to hours and all from the comfort of your administrator’s home.
Simplify communication & collaboration for your team. If you’ve ever tried to push a square peg through a round hole, you know the frustration of trying to force something to work together that is not meant to. The same could be said of the attempt to build a reliable and efficient communications structure by using a collection of tools from several different vendors. Add to that the use of some of these free tools adds a lot of complexity as you attempt to implement new solutions at scale. Integrating with other collaboration tools can be challenging, hindering your employee’s ability to work seamlessly and costing you a significant amount of headache and lost efficiency. On the flip side, integrated tools that allow your employees to screen share, collaborate in virtual meeting rooms, as well as communicate by video, audio, and text communications, enable your employees and customers to interact easily. There are three main components we recommend to facilitate effective communications and collaborations for your employees in a remote environment:
- Mobile applications that enable interaction between employees and customers with full PBX features, such as internal transfer, conference calls, and the ability to display internal DID’s when calling from a mobile device, such as a cell phone.
- Video collaboration & web collaboration are tools that have been rapidly growing in popularity and enable seamless collaboration between teams who are in separate geographic locations as if they were together in the same room.
- Business SMS, or the ability to send a text message from a mobile phone and have it appear to have come from your employee’s desk phone. With 50% of consumers preferring to text with businesses, not having a solution in place outside of a global shutdown is quickly going to become an inhibitor to future business growth.
Manage communications effectively.
Adding new (or different tools) will always have an adjustment period, and to ensure they are adopted and used efficiently, you will need to invest in the time to train employees on how these new tools work and the features they have. You have spent a lot of time evaluating solutions to meet your business needs but to reap the full benefits, efficiencies, and enhancements, you need to make sure your employees know how to use the tools. By adopting a unified collaboration and communications solution now, and training your employees before we are forced into another business shut down, you will save countless hours and reduce the stress of managing a rapid change in business processes caused by a closure.
Move Forward with Confidence
“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” ~Benjamin Franklin
These wise words uttered centuries ago still resonate. We all do it, push the planning and preparation for a “might happen in the far off future event” back to focus on more pressing, immediate needs. The reality is that refusing to think ahead and prepare for any event, be it good or bad, is preparing us to fail if something should change. We urge you to heed Benjamin Franklin’s advice and start preparing today in case we end up having another global shutdown. Get started by implementing a cloud-based unified communications solution today. Give us a call to find out how.
Letter from the President/CEO
It’s a new year and it seems incomprehensible that we are still talking and thinking about COVID-19 and the effects it has had on our families, businesses, communities, and countries. But here we are, grappling with coming to terms with this new “normal,” knowing we can not go back to the old “normal” no matter how many times we click our ruby slippers and say “There’s no place like home.” Luckily, the pandemic has shown us just how adaptable we can be even in unprecedented change. I am so honored to be a part of your community and admire your tenacity in turning these mountains into molehills.
Here’s to 2021 and hopefully a much brighter, less stressful, year.
Michael Marquardt
ComNET Solutions
December 2020 Newsletter