Collaboration and the Coronavirus Outbreak

Collaboration and the Coronavirus Outbreak

The rapid spread of the novel Coronavirus is a valuable reminder of the need for disaster recovery and business continuity planning. In the face of any crisis, how do you keep the lines of communication open with employees, customers, and business partners? How do you sell and collaborate with customers, if face to face contact is impossible? How can your staff work and communicate, if quarantines or lock downs are issued and telecommuting is the only option?

While it is yet uncertain how rapid or severe the spread of the virus will be in the United States, now is a good time for leaders to take stock of how well your business and operations can keep up during virus outbreaks, inclement weather events, cyber security incidents, and other business interruptions.

To stay abreast of the Coronavirus situation, readers are encouraged to closely monitor the updates and briefings from official government and public health agencies, such as the U.S. CDC.

What is collaboration technology?

Collaboration technology is an important pillar in a 21st century business operation. When we say “collaboration,” we mean the ability to leverage voice, video, and chat communications across a range of different devices. These devices can include PCs, mobile, tablets, and VoIP handsets across a range of different networks, including in-office networks, home offices, on the road over 4G/5G or Wi-Fi networks, or in temporary office locations. The state of the art for collaboration technologies today is a cloud-centric deployment model, meaning most of the brains and core technology of the system runs in the cloud and not in legacy, on-premises communications infrastructure.

Consider GoToConnect

To keep its clients communicating and collaborating, Protek recommends GoToConnect from LogMeIn. GoToConnect combines the power and reliability of Jive’s cloud VoIP phone systems with GoToMeeting’s web, audio and video conferencing into one simple, reliable and flexible solution. GoToConnect enables robust VoIP communication via traditional telephone handsets, rich voice, video, and web communications from PCs, tablets, or mobile devices, and powerful collaboration functions such as screen sharing, personal meeting rooms, virtual training and virtual white-boarding.

Five Benefits of Collaboration Technology

If businesses are faced with any kind of business interruption, Protek can help clients leverage collaboration technologies in the following use cases:

1. 1. Get up and go telecommuting: a cloud-centric VoIP phone system makes moving employee telephones a snap. If employees need to work from home offices for extended periods or move to temporary office facilities, such as at a WeWork or Regus office location, GoToConnect VoIP endpoints can be quickly plugged into the network at the new location and will start working immediately. This gives employees the full power and quality of a robust phone system, no matter where their temporary office takes them.
   2. Work from anywhere: GoToConnect also supports robust softphone capabilities, turning any Mac or PC into a unified communications interface. In any sort of crisis, staff can leverage the full power of the corporate phone system from the convenience of their laptop computer.
   3. Keep it mobile: Vital tools such as GoToMeeting work seamlessly across Mac and PCs, along with iOS and Android mobile devices and tablets. GoToMeeting also comes standard with local and toll-free dial in numbers, permitting staff to dial in with a traditional phone number when bandwidth is scarce or speedy Wi-Fi networks are unavailable.
   4. Video conferencing, when face to face won’t work: If fears of virus outbreaks call for social isolation, face to face meetings, sales calls, or customer visits may be severely curtailed. GoToMeeting’s video collaboration and screen sharing tools keep communications personal and enable users to collaborate in virtual face-to-face meetings when in person meetings just won’t work.
   5. Sell and service across long distances: We live in a global commercial ecosystem, with suppliers, business partners, and customers spread throughout the globe. Robust collaboration technology helps you engage and work with your customers whether they are across town or across the globe, especially when a public health crisis is looming or travel restrictions are in place.
2. Reach out to Michelle Lawson at Protek Support to get your own collaboration consultation. Book a time with Michelle today.