Help! My phone lines are broken! A small businesses guide to telecoms disaster recovery

Transcription

1 Help! My phone lines are broken! A small businesses guide to telecoms disaster recovery

2 Packet Media Enterprise House, Block F4, Trentham Business Quarter, Bellringer Road, Trentham Lakes South, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, ST4 8GB

3 Contents Contents What does disaster recovery mean? How this guide can help What do you mean Disaster??! How might a Telephone Disaster affect my business? What are the risks? What you can do to manage telephony disaster What you can do to prevent telephony disaster What else?

4 What does disaster recovery mean? What does disaster recovery mean? In its broadest terms, disaster recovery (DR) refers to the means by which a business or organisation resumes normal working practice following a failure of equipment. The reason for the failure could be anything, from a natural disaster (e.g. a flood or earthquake), to an accident (e.g. a fire) or due to an equipment fault (e.g. a telephone line going down or a server breaking.) 4

5 How this guide can help. How this guide can help. A Business Community Research Report carried out on behalf of Freeform Dynamics showed that understanding of Disaster Recovery within SMBs in Europe was significantly lower than within large enterprises. They said: The majority of SMBs recognise that their ability to recover from disaster or to retrieve information when required is nowhere near as comprehensive as it should be, yet investment is not being prioritised to address existing solution and process weaknesses. In this e-book we re focusing on the telephony-based aspects of DR (well, we are telecommunications experts!) but towards the end we also summarise the other key areas an SMB should consider in order to formulate a robust DR plan which protects their whole business. 5

6 What do you mean Disaster??! What do you mean Disaster??! So, what kinds of situations might facilitate the need for a telephonyrelated disaster recovery plan? We ve outlined a few examples: PBX breaks. If the PBX (phone system) stops working, you re in the hands of your IT department until they can figure out what went wrong. If it s not a software problem, you may be waiting on replacement PBX parts which, depending on what you re using and whether you re using a managed service or not could take anything between an hour or two, to a few days. Broadband connection to your building goes down. Without broadband, you can t access the internet, nor use internet-based telephone service providers (SIP). A broadband failure is relatively unusual, especially if you re using fibre optic, but there s no escaping that if it happened, most businesses would suffer considerable disruption. 6

7 What do you mean Disaster??! BT connection to your building goes down. Maybe building contractors accidentally cut through the wrong cable in the street. Maybe there was a storm. Maybe someone dug up and stole the line (they re made of copper, and it s happening more and more often). Either way, because they re usually in public spaces, and are getting fixed on public money, major faults like this tend not to be fixed in a couple of hours. In addition if the PSTN (public switched telephone network) in your area suffers a failure, depending on the SLA you have agreed with your telecoms provider, you may have very little control over how quickly it will be rectified. 7

8 How might a Telephone Disaster affect my business? How might a Telephone Disaster affect my business? The implications of a situation like this for an SMB can be acutely serious. Firstly, you re not available to talk to your customers, which will frustrate and inconvenience them. And you won t be able to reach the people you need to call to make your business happen suppliers, contractors, field staff etc. Depending on your industry, some of the basic functions of your business may cease (a call centre, for example). Then there s the cost, the wait, and the frustrations that come with ensuring the fault is rectified as quickly as possible. 8

9 What are the risks? What are the risks? Aside from the initial impact, there s the potential long-term damage to consider. The loss of sales, combined with the cost of paying staff whilst your business isn t fully operational, will make a sizeable dent in your pocket. The reputation of your business as a reliable and professional organization will be challenged (often, businesses won t sign a contract with one another without being satisfied that they re going to be able to provide a reliable service). And, depending on what happened, and whether equipment was damaged, you might also lose valuable data. 9

10 What you can do to manage telephony disaster. What you can do to manage telephony disaster. 1. Assess the risks and the impact. Firstly, identify where you are vulnerable this means going through what equipment you ve got, how it might be compromised, and what would happen if it were. 2. Prioritise. Using this information, identify what is absolutely business-critical, in priority order. 3. Find the fix. Thirdly, identify ways to recover the technology needed to preserve those business-critical functions quickly. 10

11 What you can do to manage telephony disaster. 4. Write it down. To build your Recovery Strategy. Include the names and contact details of those responsible for implementing it, as well as parties that will need to be informed that something s happened. 5. Test the strategy. There are bound to be a few potholes to navigate, and it s good to get the necessary staff comfortable with any new procedures in advance. 6. Regularly review the plan. As your business grows and adapts, you ll naturally take on new processes and therefore new technologies to support those processes. Keep your plan current. Have practice runs. If you invest in a new system or resource, make sure it is accounted for in the DR plan. And, if your business finds itself facing a disaster, capturing the experiences and lessons learned as soon as possible is really valuable going through what happened can make your DR plan stronger for next time. 11

12 What you can do to prevent telephony disaster. What you can do to prevent telephony disaster. By no means exhaustive, but definitely covering the basics, we ve compiled a summary list of the main ways SMBs can protect their business from telephony disaster. Emergency Remote Telephone Service There are businesses who offer a hosted phone system service for use in an emergency, keeping your business connected to your customers regardless of any infrastructure or resource problems you might be experiencing. To initiate the service, an authorised staff member calls the service provider to alert them to the fault, and calls are immediately diverted to your company mobiles. IP phone systems Because IP phone systems can run easily on both traditional lines and via the internet, if you lose one of those services, you ll be able to use your phones as usual on the other. Additionally, because they connect calls via the internet, IP phone systems can also represent a significant cost saving. 12

13 What you can do to prevent telephony disaster. Virtual/cloud hosted PBX Dependent on the size of the business, some businesses opt to host their phone system in the cloud permanently, which means that they don t have to worry about maintaining a server or on-site PBX. GSM Gateways Gateways can be used to route all calls in the event of a main phone line failure. When they detect a problem, they automatically a warning alert to a specified address, giving system administrators a chance to investigate, and begin to route calls through the SIM cards within the gateway. Some businesses opt to use SIM cards from more than one network provider this offers an extra layer of protection. Because they re filled with mobile phone SIM cards, gateways also allow you to make landline to mobile calls from your office phone at a really cheap rate. With the right tariffs and plans, they can shave hundreds, or even thousands of pounds from a business phone bill. Some companies actually have gateways purely for this purpose, and see disaster recovery as an added benefit. Call answering service There are also companies who will simply begin to answer your phones for you, and pass messages back to your staff for actioning. 13

14 What else? What else? We re telecoms experts, so, naturally, we ve written a guide about disaster recovery of telecoms services. However, in some scenarios it won t just be your phone system that s affected, and your disaster recovery plan should seek to cover off all vulnerable areas of your business. Here are some suggestions for other typical business vulnerabilities that you might want to consider. Power power cut, power shortage, major plant failure Consider: a back-up generator & fuel supply either on-site or an agreement to provide at short notice. Also, UPS units for short-term security should be installed. Programmes/systems/facilities Ensuring computer programmes, security software, bank account access etc are also accessible from somewhere other than your office. Consider: making essential office programmes and systems available online via secure remote log-in, keeping a reserve server in another location, and copies of essential data (contacts, bank details etc) instantly accessible to key staff. Data server failure, cyber attack Consider: cybersecurity arrangements, regular backup, hosted backup solution, cloud hosting. 14

15 What else? Building and physical resources Consider: regional branches & satellite offices, hotels, home working, or a hotsite agreement (partner with another business or supplier to provide server/support/office space during a disaster). Mobile phone network goes down Consider: connecting your business mobiles to your IP phone system, allowing you to use business softphone applications from smartphones when connected to Wifi networks. Alternatively, emergency SIM cards. Water/Drainage Flooding, leaks, drought, water disconnection Consider: waterproofing methods (e.g. sandbags, seals), alternative water sources, temporary hygiene facilities. Staff Bad weather, strikes/pickets, medical disasters. Consider: Home working, company inoculation programmes, emergency travel arrangements. Logistics Bad weather, postal strike, fuel shortage, shipping delays, supply shortage. Consider: emergency/reserve supplies, alternative suppliers, access to agency/casual staff. 15

16 Questions about our Products and Services? Feel free to give us a call on , or send us an to interested@packetmedia.co.uk