Small Businesses Get Big-Business Protection Using Hosted VoIP
CHICAGO – Small businesses now have a new option for their phone system that not only gives them big-company features but also provides big-company protection in the form of built-in disaster recovery and business continuity benefits.
What happens if you get to your office on Monday morning to find out the building has been closed by the city for a code violation? What if there is a water main leak or a major power outage?
What happens if your server crashes or your phone system gets fried by a power surge and your customers get busy signals? You go home and get no work done. Your office closes and you lose productivity.
Maybe the problem lasts long enough that you lose a big deal or your customers get tired of waiting and go to the competition. Large businesses have invested in backup systems and procedures for all critical aspects of the business: employees, equipment, services and systems.
If you own a taxi company, you probably have more than one taxi and multiple drivers. If you provide Web hosting services, you most likely have a backup server at a backup location and more than one technician on call to address problems.
If you are a solo taxi driver or a one-person Web hosting company, you most likely can’t afford a second car or Web server and you hope nothing happens. Most people don’t think about what they would do in an emergency situation until it’s too late.
I’d venture to say that at least 50 percent of those reading this article have lost data at some point in their lives. Either a laptop died or you accidentally overwrote a document with an older (or blank) version.
Those without backup systems probably went out and bought a USB drive the next day.
Small businesses now have a new option for their phone system that not only gives them big-company features but also provides big-company protection in the form of built-in disaster recovery and business continuity benefits.
By using a hosted VoIP system from a service provider, you move the “brains” of your phone system off site to the service provider’s secure hosting facility. As the service provider likely has two of everything in case of any failure, you don’t have to double your investment.
All you have is phones on site and a T-1 connecting you to their data center.
What happens when the power goes out or you can’t physically get to your office? You go home or to a coffee shop and fire up your laptop, log onto a secure Web site and listen to voicemail through your PC.
You pull out a USB headset and place high-quality calls from your office line. Best of all, your customers don’t know the difference since their calls to your office automatically route to your cell phone or voicemail.
Large companies invest millions of dollars setting up disaster recovery sites for their employees to remain productive or backup hosting centers for critical data. Small companies buy the minimum insurance and hope they don’t lose customers when or if the office has to close.
By leveraging hosted VoIP, small companies get big-company benefits without a significant investment. The start-up cost for equipment when choosing a hosted VoIP phone system is generally 25 percent of that normally spent on purchasing a new phone system.
With a traditional system, you’re tied to the physical location at which it’s installed.
While all companies should do their best to plan for the worst, it can be costly. Utilizing new technology for mission-critical applications – such as the phone system – is a great way to get more bang for your buck.
VoIP is secure, reliable and flexible. It also provides peace of mind for the small business owner.
About Geckotech
Geckotech provides small to midsized businesses with the highest level of friendly and reliable customer service based in the U.S. on the most secure, business-grade VoIP platform. Geckotech’s uptime and reliability is consistently the highest in the industry and their customers continue to benefit from enhanced productivity, flexibility, scalability and reliability. Geckotech is part of an elite worldwide group of successful service providers that have been awarded the Cisco Powered Network designation. Cisco Systems is the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet. Geckotech is a privately held company with corporate headquarters in Chicago, IL. For more information on Geckotech’s hosted VoIP services visit www.geckotechllc.com, call 312.948.2995 or email sales@geckotechllc.com.