by Frank Grillo

   This article was originally published in The Productivity Institute (PI) Newsletter

While the hyped-up impact of the misnamed Swine Flu pandemic turned out to be grossly exaggerated, the scenario provided a long-overdue reason for enterprises to ask, “What if it had been the real thing?” One need only look south to Mexico City to see in glaring reality the impact of a locked-down city and the effects on day-to-day communications and commerce. And though 2005 is a “distant past” at this point, if anyone finds Mexico City’s situation disturbing, it still pales in comparison to the tragedy of post-Katrina New Orleans.

Certainly those along the south Atlantic and Gulf Coasts of the U.S. have taken business continuity planning more seriously since the days of Katrina, and many large Northeast institutions have done likewise since the horrors of 9/11. But generally speaking, the majority of small-to-medium sized enterprises (SMEs) have let their business continuity planning languish, especially around their communications infrastructure. And it’s easy to understand why. If a business doesn’t face a potential catastrophe on a regular basis (like those in hurricane- and wildfire-prone regions), the likelihood of an enterprise-threatening event is fairly minimal, while the costs of preparing for one can be quite high.

But that’s one benefit that actually came from the pig flu scare: it’s brought to everyone’s attention just how costly a pandemic or other enterprise-disabling event would be. Given the span of places where the flu presented itself in relatively quick time span, it’s not too hard to imagine a lockdown in Anytown, USA.

Because SMEs typically have limited resources in time, personnel, and capital, they are the most vulnerable to experience losses due to lack of preparation, which is disturbing considering the following:
• What may be considered a nuisance for a larger company can spell disaster for a SME; business interruptions can be as large as a hurricane or as small as a power outage.
• If a business is inextricably tied to a brick-and-mortar building, any event that keeps employees from entering the building can spell disaster.
• The majority of SMEs who experience an interruption lasting 10 days or more never fully recover, and most close within two years.

While most small enterprises’ recovery plans include data backup, there is one important aspect of planning that is often overlooked: how employees and customers will continue communicating if a disruption occurs at the company’s premises. For most SMEs replicating a PBX at a second location and creating a failover procedure is just economically unfeasible. Nevertheless, ensuring communications in the event of a disruption is critical to the success of any company, and a robust hosted unified communications solution can offer unmatched continuity and disaster recovery capabilities.

Hosted communications can be implemented easily and with no capital expense on the part of the SME, no need to hire additional IT staff and no worries of technological obsolescence. And hosted unified communications offers a range of functionality that can replicate the conveniences of being in an office—allowing business to continue operating as usual—for any length of time.

Some CIOs look at hosted unified communications strictly as a business continuity solution, to provide recovery for specific parts of the enterprise that would be mission critical. Other CIOs are energized about hosted communications not only for the continuity it brings to the table, but also for the mobility and remote office support, the collaboration for their users and the savings in its no CapEx model.

With today’s hosted communications technology, every enterprise in the U.S. can operate “virtually” with employees scattered away from corporate offices, yet operating as if they were sitting side-by-side. To the outside world, the geographic distribution of the employees is transparent. Beyond the great flexibility this operational model provides, it enables SMEs to not just survive, but to continue thriving in the face of significant disaster, with little or no down time. Now that’s a very real competitive edge, and in today’s economic times, a necessity. Business executives owe it to themselves, their investors and their employees to take a close look at making their business truly survivable, no matter what happens at the physical location. 

Frank Grillo is a visionary communications executive known for his ability to identify growth opportunities and to produce extraordinary results that make a real contribution to an organization’s bottom line. Serving as executive vice president of marketing at Cypress Communications®, Frank Grillo is responsible for product management, pricing, marketing, advertising, and sales support of the company’s products, including Cypress’ award-winning hosted unified communications solution, C4 IP™. To learn more about hosted unified communications and Cypress’ C4 IP solution, go to www.cypresscom.net.

by Frank Grillo

   This article was originally published in The Productivity Institute (PI) Newsletter

Before the economic firestorm began raging, unified communications, or UC for short, was the buzz phrase du jour in boardrooms throughout the nation. Success stories from UC deployments were consistently flowing, and the majority of IT executives report that if they didn’t already have UC, it was in the plans. And it’s no wonder—unified communications can offer tremendous benefits for companies of all sizes.

True UC solutions deliver a comprehensive toolset that covers the spectrum of communications needs – from advanced VoIP functionality to multimedia collaboration tools such as chat, video and web conferencing, file sharing, unified messaging and integration with popular technologies such as Microsoft Outlook—essentially creating a paradigm shift in the way people communicate with each other and connect to the information they need.

Traditional implementations of UC are costly and complex, with tens of thousands of dollars needed in capital alone plus even more for maintenance over the life of the solution, and then there’s the six-figure salary for the certified engineer. Naturally, as the economic environment worsened, and IT budgets tightened, new initiatives such as UC deployments were put on hold—or worse—cut. While there were benefits to the UC solution, they weren’t enough to offset the huge expense—especially in a downturn.

While the “stop spending—cut costs” reaction is a natural one that might fill the gap in the short term, there’s  another option that can enable companies to move forward with their UC plans, get better technology and actually spend less. That option is hosted unified communications or hosted UC.

Hosted UC solutions can offer substantial savings while delivering the productivity-enhancing features companies need to survive and thrive in these challenging economic times. Much like the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, hosted UC solutions enable companies to pay for usage, not ownership. With no capital investment and no need to hire and train additional IT staff to manage the solution, hosted UC offers companies the technological advantage they need while actually helping them reduce their fixed costs.

Although getting better technology while saving money may seem counterintuitive—that’s been the reality for many enterprises across the nation who have implemented hosted UC. With an end-to-end hosted solution, companies get all the equipment they need with no capital investment. The provider is responsible for maintaining the infrastructure and managing the solution, so there’s no need for companies to hire and train additional IT staff, saving companies even more money.  And, comprehensive hosted UC solutions deliver the full range of communication and collaboration technologies for a single monthly cost.

In addition to the cost benefits, companies get the tools they need to increase productivity and innovate ahead of their competition without the capital burden and risk. And, especially beneficial in these tight economic times, hosted UC solutions also offer notable flexibility and scalability, so there’s no equipment to purchase when new offices are opened, and no equipment waste when offices are closed. It’s the perfect solution in a thriving economy—and an even better one in a down economy.

As a visionary communications executive, Frank is known for his ability to identify growth opportunities and to produce extraordinary results that make a real contribution to an organization’s bottom line. Serving as executive vice president of marketing at Cypress Communications®, Frank Grillo is responsible for product management, pricing, marketing, advertising, and sales support of the company’s products, including Cypress’ award-winning hosted unified communications solution, C4 IP™. To learn more about hosted unified communications and Cypress’ C4 IP solution, go to www.cypresscom.net.