Is Your Business Expecting the Unexpected?
While email and chat are increasingly becoming preferred communication channels, many of today’s customers insist on being able to pick up the phone and get in touch with a business — whether it’s to ask questions about a potential product or service, get support for a prior purchase, or for any other reason.
But what happens in the event of a power outage caused by a disaster, or even a shorter — but certainly noticeable — brownout resulting from the country’s aging and over-burdened utility infrastructure?
Well, if you have a conventional phone system that uses an on-site IP PBX, then instead of hearing “thank you for your call, how may I help you?”, your customers will hear “sorry, the number you have reached is out of service, please try your call again later.” Unfortunately, many customers won’t “try their call again later.” Instead, they’ll head to a competitor whose phone lines are working normally — and they’ll never look back.
To avoid that unacceptable scenario, here are the key ways that our hosted cloud solution keeps your business up and running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year:
Geographically-Dispersed Cloud Infrastructure
All communication that takes place via our hosted cloud phone system — including file sharing, video conferencing, instant messaging, and so on — is supported by a geographically-dispersed cloud infrastructure. As such, during a local power outage, your business doesn’t have to worry about disappearing from the radar screen. Everyone on your team will be able to continue sending and receiving calls, and accessing all system features — even as other businesses nearby using conventional phone systems cannot even get a dial tone!
Automatic Failover
Our hosted cloud phone systems utilize a broadband internet connection to transfer both audio and video (for web and video conferencing). If your ISP suffers a power outage or your internet connection goes offline for any reason, an automatic failover response takes over and switches to a secondary connection. Then, when the primary connection comes back online, it automatically switches back. Your IT team doesn’t have to make any configuration changes or modify the system in any way.
Carrier-Grade Network Security
Our hosted cloud phone system is NOT run on the public internet. Rather, it is managed on a private and highly secure data network, which is protected by end-to-end encryption mechanisms including Transport Layer Security/TLS and Secure RTP for transmitting media, and robust password protection for managed routers and secure web-based dashboard access. In addition, our expert team installs and configures all security patches and updates to thwart zero-day threats.
Granular Security Controls
Your business will be empowered with granular security controls to ensure compliance and prevent unauthorized usage. For example, specific access and permissions can be granted to different users/groups, and restrictions can be imposed (e.g. maximum time per call, geographic calling restrictions, etc.).
24/7 Monitoring
Speaking of our expert team: we continuously monitor and test the system to ensure security and integrity. If there is any actual or potential threat or vulnerability, alarms are automatically triggered, and the issue is thoroughly investigated to resolution. We have also recently strengthened our enhanced and comprehensive telecommunications fraud management program, which covers the following:
- Monitoring all outbound traffic to detect anomalies at the automatic number identification (ANI) level.
- Automatically blocking suspicious calling that may be the result of subscription fraud, IP PBX hacking, abuse of service terms and conditions, internal fraud, employee theft, phishing, pharming, and payment fraud.
- Implementing customized system rules using conditional criteria, which are based on known fraud trends and tactics.
- Flagging calls to/from numbers linked to confirmed fraud cases noted in industry-wide “hot lists.”
- Creating and scoring profiles based on key risk indicators, such as volume, dialed destination, etc.
- Analyzing robocalls by researching and analyzing each telephone number, and accessing carrier and consumer reports.
- Automatically notifying you if fraudulent activity is suspected or detected.
The Bottom Line
It goes without saying that your business can’t afford to go off the grid for even a few minutes — let alone hours, or in the case of a severe event like a hurricane, tornado, ice storm, flood, or fire, for several days. That’s where Carolina Digital Phone’s business continuity infrastructure enters the picture, closes the gap, and ensures that your business is prepared to expect the unexpected!