Business continuity has gone from being a management buzzword that nobody quite understood, to something that nearly all teams are striving to achieve. Business continuity is the process of ensuring that even in challenging circumstances your business can keep working effectively.
The lockdowns in response to the Coronavirus pandemic have shown how crucial it is for businesses to be able to maintain a smooth transition from office working to remote working. We know that downtime isn’t an option, so if it’s bad weather, a power cut, or any other challenge, it’s vital that you have a plan in place.
There are many steps that you can take to ensure that your team are ready for home working, but we think that cloud technology can make the switch as smooth as possible. In this blog we’ll explain how.
Reliably work at your best
Cloud technology is designed to be flexible, especially when it comes to communications. If your team are equipped with a cloud communications service, then you can be safe in the knowledge that it will work just about anywhere with an internet connection. This also means that even your less tech-savvy staff can get to work quickly from home.
This is best illustrated by some of the features contained within our cloud communications platform. The first is call routing. This feature allows you to set an automatic route that calls will go to if your office phone system is unavailable. Your staff can then pick a device of their choice with which to handle calls from home. This can be a mobile, laptop, or other device. Customers will not know the difference, and your staff will be able to distinguish work calls from personal ones.
There’s no added hardware required here. As long as you have an internet connection and a device to handle calls, then you’re good to go.
Make the most of varied communications
With the right cloud technology supporting you, your staff working from home won’t be limited in how they communicate. Our unified communications service is designed with remote working in mind and opens a variety of options.
For quick interactions with staff, we recommend using instant messaging. This feature allows you to get in touch with one or more colleagues in seconds. This is ideal for support or customer service, as it allows you to keep a clear record of who knows what. It also provides a secure platform for sharing files and images, so you’re always kept informed.
Similarly, sometimes you want to maintain that face-to-face connection with staff or colleagues while working from home. We know that a phone call isn’t always the answer, which is why our UC service includes video conferencing. This service allows you to quickly schedule video calls with customers, or you can escalate an ongoing voice call or chat to a video call in seconds. This ability adds an extra layer of professionalism to your customer interactions and makes collaboration simple from home.
Maintaining the convenience of the office
Aside from the water cooler chat, the main benefit of working in the office is that it allows you to keep everything in one place. You have access to a huge range of business technology at your fingertips. Being able to make use of this tech at home can be massively beneficial, and with cloud tech you can.
Our cloud communications platform comes equipped with a huge range of integrations with many services that you use every day. These include productivity and scheduling tools like Outlook, Office365 and calendar applications. We can also integrate alongside over 60 of the most widely used CRMs, including Salesforce and Zoho. This means you’ll always be able to access customer data on the go and can always provide a great service to your customers and colleagues. It also means that when customers dial in, you know exactly who they are and how to respond professionally.
If you work with a more specialist CRM, get in touch and find out how we can work alongside your team to develop a tailor-made solution.
Keep track of your business
One of the most difficult parts about creating a continuity plan from a management perspective is how you keep track of many staff working on even more devices. It’s crucial you get this right, as security risks could arise.
This is where we can help. Our cloud communications service includes a range of call statistics that can be sent to you in regular reports. This information allows you to help staff and make sure no customer’s call is missed, but it also allows you to spot potentially suspicious activity on your network. Signs of telecoms fraud are frequent calls being made outside of the normal office hours from work devices and unnecessary international calls. Our systems can spot both and alert you, potentially saving you thousands.
We can also include call recording onto your system. This allows you to make sure that standards are upheld, and it provides an excellent training resource. Similarly, it allows you to quickly resolve any disputes that may arise.
If you’d like to learn more about any of the business continuity features mentioned here, visit our website or get in touch at 03333 212 707.
