The joint offering combines COLT’s highly resilient and cost-effective network with GemaTech’s innovative and fully-managed Business Continuity Manager (BCMLITE) solution. The pioneering BCM product enables businesses of all sizes and call centre operators to instantaneously and seamlessly re-route all incoming calls on an individual DDI basis to any alternative location of their choice within minutes of their telecommunications infrastructure failing for any reason – fire, flood, gas leak, road works, access denial, or as the result of a terrorist attack. The solution can be pre-programmed and point calls at specified locations that can vary depending on the nature of the event. These locations can include recovery sites, branch offices, overseas offices, homes and mobiles. Additionally, all re-routed calls retain each and every individual DDI number.
Terry McKeever, director of Retail Enterprises UK at COLT explains, “The recent terrorist attacks on the City of London have proven that few companies were able to take practical actions on their security plans and were not prepared for a disruption to their business activities. Our strategic alliance with GemaTech enables us to offer a reliable business continuity solution that will not only benefit large businesses but also SMEs who can’t afford the economic fall-out of an attack. This service also further underlines COLT’s commitment to providing the SME market with cost-effective and value-added propositions that help them develop and grow.”
The joint offering complements COLT’s existing portfolio of services enabling business continuity solutions – from high-availability networking services to active-to-active managed data centre architectures. It also enables GemaTech to provide its customers with access to COLT’s extremely resilient and flexible network. As a result, customers have access to a cost-effective business continuity solution for their mission critical incoming calls.
In addition, as a managed service, which offers an “everything included” solution for an initial set-up fee and monthly payment over an initial three year contract, it brings business continuity into the “affordable to all” bracket – equivalent in concept with the adoption of much needed conventional buildings insurance.
Graham Chick, chief executive of GemaTech comments, “I am very excited to announce our strategic alliance with COLT. We have been working with COLT for over a year now to develop this concept and also carry out test marketing to gauge businesses’ response to the new service – which has been extremely encouraging. Perceptions have been that other business continuity solutions have historically been far too expensive – but no longer. The combined GemaTech / COLT pricing structure has proven to be extremely affordable to most businesses. Along with COLT we are able to offer businesses a solution that enables them to protect their telecoms from failure should a disaster strike.”