During these unprecedented times and in an effort for us all to shift our business to handle the challenges of dealing with COVID-19, otherwise known as the Coronavirus, most companies have been forced to find a way for their non-essential team members to work from home. This has caused many companies to scramble to figure out how to make their workforce remote and extend their business functions to help people stay productive from their homes.
The data is the easy part as many companies already have the technology I place to allow their teams to have remote access to data using Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) and Cloud Storage services like Dropbox or OneNote. In many cases, employees could simply take their laptops or computers home and access important files.
One of the biggest hurdles most companies have faced is how to handle their business phone system. Most business phone systems are not designed to be mobile. Sure, employees can use their cell phones to handle calls but there are a lot of issues with that solution.
Business phone system hurdles:
- How do you handle incoming calls to the main phone number?
- What about auto attendants and ring groups? If you are forwarding calls to a cellphone those features won’t work any longer.
- Making outgoing calls from cellphones exposes employees’ private phone numbers via caller ID and looks less professional as the calls don’t appear to be coming from your company. Worse yet, the calls might not be answered at all because customers and clients don’t recognize the caller ID.
- With employees using cellphones for business calls they lose the ability to transfer or park calls and can no longer simply dial a coworker’s extension to connect.
- What about faxes coming into your fax machines on site? How will employees get those from home?
Smart companies have thought this through and upgraded to a hosted cloud-based VoIP Phone System. These systems, like the one we provide at The Garam Group, are flexible and allow employees to simply bring their company phones home, plug them into their internet modem, and make and receive calls just as though they did in the office.
Watch this short video to learn more about the power and flexibility of a hosted cloud-based VoIP Phone System.
What are the solutions?
Our team has been working seamlessly from home for the past 3 weeks and we have helped our clients to do the same. We’ve helped them either bring their desk phones home and get them set up or helped them download and configure the ReachUC smartphone app to use their cellphones as a true extension of their business phone system. We’ve also changed their auto attendants and on-hold messages to let their clients and customers quickly know about any changes to their business hours or structure. As always, we are there with them every step of the way to help them make any changes they need and navigate these changing times.
With a hosted cloud-based phone system your important business communications are as mobile as your data.
If you need help getting your business phones to ring to your employee’s home offices or seamlessly connect branch offices, give us a call at 315-473-9600. We can quickly build a customized phone system for you, forward your existing numbers, and have your employees making and receiving business phone calls from home in no time.
We hope you are well and staying safe!
