One such company is London-based Cairn Financial Advisers. Says Director Liam Murray: ‘For the past couple of weeks, due to the weather, a number of our staff have been unable to reach the office, which could have been a major problem for us. Fortunately we had recently installed a Coms Internet Telephony System which has allowed us to continue to function as normal with the snowed-in staff able to work from home with all the telephone facilities they have available in the office. The Coms System has been absolutely invaluable.’
Listed on the London Stock Exchange, Coms provides a more sophisticated solution than simply forwarding an employee’s office number to a mobile phone. It allows employees access to all office functions such as transfer, call pick-up and conferencing wherever they are.
Executive Director, Richard Bennett, commented: ‘The current appalling weather conditions have made companies large and small aware that a Disaster Recovery and Contigency Plan is an essential part of their business strategy. ‘Employees have an Internet telephony handset on their desk and a softphone application on their computer. When they are operating from remote locations as part of their work, or from home in the event of a disaster, the softphone allows them to communicate cheaply and effectively with the rest of their team and key external customers.’
With the Coms system, the switchboard is on the internet so there is no expensive capital outlay in order to set up and each employee has a familiar looking handset that is linked to the internet using a standard RJ45 connection. In addition, each employee has access to all of the advanced features of the office switchboard over the internet. They have all the functionality on their desktop or they can install an additional handset at home or operate the functionality from a softphone on their computer.
Bennett continues: ‘Companies that use Coms won’t miss a beat in the event of a big freeze or other disaster, as they will always remain connected with each other and their principle customers. It is vital that all companies should be initiating or updating their Disaster Recovery plan this winter, as well as reviewing the cost of their telephony systems.’