Terror Threats and Hurricane Season Spur Businesses to Action

August 16, 2006; 03:24 AM
Businesses grappling with terror threats and devastating storms are putting together business continuity plans to minimize financial losses when unable to work from one or more physical corporate office.

“When millions of dollars per day are at stake, it’s irresponsible not to consider how to maintain your business if you can’t access your corporate office,” Robert Melillo, 35, New York explains. “As a manager of my company’s business continuity plan, the main focus for us is on communication stability,” Melillo continues.

Staff communication and access to clients are core concerns for many businesses around the world. As businesses establish plans for business continuity and disaster recovery, they are increasingly turning to call center service providers as a cost-effective means of communication redundancy.

“We understand the need for businesses to be able to seamlessly communicate with clients and staff in the event of an emergency,” Michael Crites, AnswerConnect.com, explains. “Over the last several years AnswerConnect has worked with a number of companies in an effort to develop different emergency mitigation strategies, specifically geared to businesses looking for communication alternatives for business continuity,” Crites states. “One of the most important aspects of business continuity planning is tailoring call management protocol such that the handoff is seamless. Service quality should not be compromised, even when your company is no longer answering the phones.”

The inability to communicate with clients and staff for one day can have a devastating impact on many businesses. Being unable to communicate with clients and staff for multiple days can have irreparable repercussions for most businesses. Communication has, therefore, become a focal point for large and small business alike in planning for business continuity in case of disaster.

“Many of our staff can work from home if we are unable to access our office,” Melillo explains. “But, we need to be able to handle incoming calls smoothly and route them properly. That is why call management and answering service providers are vital to business continuity,” Melillo concludes.

Companies around the globe have been drafting and perfecting disaster recovery and business continuity plans in light of increasing terror concerns and the frequency of devastating storms. With communication being a focus of these plans, businesses have been turning to the experts -- call centers and communication firms skilled in creating effective and cost-effective communication options.

AnswerConnect is a full-service contact center located in the Pacific Northwest serving nationwide clientele. By investing in state-of-the-art technology and developing proprietary call center software solutions, we are able to offer a unique, and fully tailored solutions for businesses who wish to outsource their call management. By aggregating the potential costs of staffing, capital expenditures, and program development across our customer base, we are able to provide our customers with premiere service for a fraction of the cost of similar internal services.