Experts are predicting another bad hurricane season this year, with an above average number of severe storms and hurricanes. During storm season, disruption of business is almost inevitable, including the loss of phone service. When phones go down, business stops.
“Few businesses make the necessary preparations for the complete and total loss of telephone service,†says Jonathan Spira, chief analyst at Basex, a New York-based research and consulting firm and author of “Managing the Knowledge Workforce.†“In today’s global economy, where customers come from all over the world, the ability to maintain business communications even in hurricane-ravaged areas is essential. Having a telecommunications backup solution in place is the most important step a company can take for business continuity.â€
In the case of one Florida business, the company narrowly escaped disaster in October 2005 when Hurricane Wilma made landfall.
“Our phone system is the lifeblood of our business,†said Cheryl Arscott, president of Reservation Services International (RSI), based in Fort Lauderdale. The company provides booking services for scuba diving companies throughout the Caribbean. “Our emergency plan included implementing a hurricane-proof phone system. When Wilma hit and we lost power, our primary phone system failed. Luckily, we had completed installation of a remote backup phone system just one day before the hurricane struck.â€
Although RSI’s power was out for ten days, the company continued to communicate with its customers thanks to a low-cost remote backup phone service provided by Virtual PBX, Inc. of San Jose, Calif. Virtual PBX offers a “hosted†phone service, meaning that the telephone equipment is housed remotely, outside the area of the natural disaster.
When telephone calls came in for RSI, the Virtual PBX Service automatically routed the calls to alternate phone lines for RSI employees, such as to cell phones, home phones and temporary offices. Employees could even take calls from shelters or the homes of relatives where they waited for things to get back to normal.
Paul Hammond, CEO of Virtual PBX, has seen his fair share of businesses harmed by hurricanes, tornados and other natural disasters. Hammond offers the following advice to businesses looking to protect their phone systems against natural disaster:
Telecommunications Disaster Preparedness Tips for Business Owners:
1. Determine if your phone system is disaster-proof. If your phone system relies on electricity or the availability of local phone service, it is not disaster-proof.
2. Build redundancy into your phone system. After a natural disaster, telephone lines may be destroyed and cell phone coverage may be spotty. Your phone system should be able to integrate both landline telephones and cell phones for added redundancy and availability
3. Develop a contingency plan to take your office “virtual.†Develop a written contingency plan and share it with your employees so that if office phones are unavailable, your employees can take calls from home or from phones outside the area of the disaster. Make sure your phone system can automatically route calls to the proper employees in the proper location.
4. Establish an emergency “hot-line.†A remotely hosted emergency hot-line can be set up outside your normal phone system that will allow employees to communicate even if your office is closed or destroyed. You can coordinate business resumption and help workers and their families know what is happening through posted messages or live calls.
5. Implement a backup phone system. New backup phone services are available, such as the PBX Parachute service from Virtual PBX, which provides real-time backup to as many as 100,000 phone extensions.
6. Test your disaster preparedness. Once you have a backup system in place, test it. If you are using a hosted PBX system as your backup, turn off the power to your primary phone system and make sure that the hosted PBX system properly activates.
7. Consider using a hosted phone system as your primary phone system. Hosted phone systems are largely immune to natural disasters, because they don’t require on-the-premises phone equipment, they don’t require local electricity, and they don’t rely exclusively upon the availability of your local phone service.
The most important thing of all is to be prepared before the disaster hits. As Cheryl Ascott’s near brush with disaster illustrates, being ready just one day in advance can make all the difference. To learn more about disaster-resilient phone systems and backup phone systems for businesses of all sizes, contact Virtual PBX at (888)825-0800 or on the web at www.virtualpbx.com.
Courtesy of ARA Content
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another alternative for business phone service is voxlinesystems www.voxlinesystems.com hosted pbx for business voip,
Yeah, hosted phone service is a great thing for disaster recovery and keeping your business running. Up in New York, we use a company called BroadTone.net, they seem to have all the essential business features we needed combined with personalized customer service. the might be an alternative to the one mentioned in the article. check them out ww.BroadTone.net
Lanesborough Town Meeting to Vote Budget, Bylaws & Vehicle Purchases
By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — Tuesday's annual town meeting includes a $14 million operating budget, new short-term rentals, accessory dwelling units and sign bylaws, and free cash article appropriations.
Voters will gather at Lanesborough Elementary School on June 9 at 6 p.m. to decide on 20 warrant articles.
The fiscal 2027 budget is up a little over 10 percent. Some of the main increases are the Mount Greylock Regional School District and McCann Technical School: the McCann assessment is up more than 30 percent based on factors including enrollment and the school renovation project, and Mount Greylock's is up 11 percent.
Article 11 is for the town to vote to approve from free cash the sum of $16,298.48 for the McCann Technical School roof and window replacement project so as not to impact the budget. Article 3 is appropriate $7,586,284 for Mount Greylock Regional School assessment.
Another notable increase was in life and health insurance, showing an increase of about 26 percent.
Ambulance Director Jen Weber is planning 24-hour coverage, which means more staff and a hike in her budget. One of the articles asks the town to appropriate $234,100 to operate the Ambulance Enterprise Fund for salaries and expenses.
Many town departments are looking for new vehicles. The Fire Department is looking to replace its outdated 1996 fire engine. There are two articles related to the truck at a total of $813,366. Article 12 would transfer $225,000 from free cash into the Fire Truck Stabilization Fund; Article 13 would transfer $605,000 from the fund and authorize the borrowing of $208,366.08.
The total includes a $100,000 contingency cost to cover any additional costs if a 2026 model-year chassis cannot be secured before new emissions standards go into effect in 2027.
The board at its last meeting moved the $225,000 transfer to come before the borrowing article, changing the stabilization number. If the $225,000 is not voted on, then they will amend the next article's number on the floor, subtracting the $225,000. This shows the borrowing number significantly lower.
Article 17 asks for the transfer of $80,000 from free cash to replace a police cruiser.
Police Chief Rob Derksen's aim is to replace one vehicle every other year, meaning the oldest vehicle gets replaced about every 10 years.
He stressed that if delayed this year, the town may have to double up in a future year to get back on schedule, and that paying later usually costs more. The article will ask for $80,000 from free cash, the vehicles used to be funded by the BHRD.
Lastly, the Highway Department is looking to replace a 2014 International dump truck that will be a total of $330,000 and will take two to three years to receive.
Money will be used from last year's approval of $250,000 from free cash for the replacement of a 2012 highway front-end loader that was underspent $49,261. Town meeting is being asked to approve a transfer of $53,274.85 from free cash and the use of $227,464 from funds from the Sale of Town Real Estate to fund the balance.
Other free cash proposals include $1,200 to purchase software to support tracking and ongoing maintenance schedules of town-owned vehicles; $42,000 for the replacement of the Highway Department's storage shed roof, $200,000 to reduce the tax levy.
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