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The Three “H”s of VoIP Productivity

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You may turn back the clocks this weekend, but that doesn’t mean you should turn back the clock on your approach to business communications. Technology in this industry is always changing, and falling behind could mean the difference between efficient productivity and lagging progress. VoIP and virtualized IP environments, for instance, have been adopted in recent years by the higher education, hospitality and healthcare fields. All three industries utilize IP communications to simplify once cumbersome processes.

Higher Education

Colleges and universities are full of bright minds, great ideas and data…a great deal of data. Rather than risk the loss of vital scholarship and student records, schools are widely transitioning to virtualized environments.

From Mitel: “A virtualized, IP communications environment enables educational institutions to run multiple operating systems via one physical machine—all of which can run on multiple servers. This way, if a blackout suddenly sweeps campus, the school’s IT administrator can access the central, physical machine via a remote server to ensure that all documents, projects and important files that were opened can be kept safe and restored.”

Hospitality

Last year we wrote about the success certain hotels have had with the implementation of VoIP technology. As the rise of mobile phones devalued hotel phone systems, hospitality managers transitioned to VoIP systems which allow users to make calls at a lower rate than the mobile provider’s. Read the full post here.

Healthcare

Efficiency and accuracy are important, especially when it comes to caring for people’s bodies and health.  This year, Cibola General Hospital in Cibola County, New Mexico,upgraded their Internet, data storage and phone services to a VoIP based system. Cibola General is one of many small hospitals that have grown to recognize the value of cutting edge communications technology. According to Rick Smith, the IT director at the hospital, “We’ve dramatically improved performance with built-in redundancy, which means there are two points to get to the same data backup system…If we put in a whiz-bang system but the nurses and doctors can’t use it, then it’s of no value.” (Cibola Beacon).

We agree with Mr. Smith that IT is nothing if it’s not user-friendly. That’s why BCS is proud to offer extremely intuitive Mitel IP Business Phone systems, innovative VMware virtualization solutions and more. Call or contact us today to learn more about how VoIP can add value to your enterprise.

Image: freedigitalphotos.net/stockimages

A Data Backup Strategy is Your Best Defense

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With the next destructive natural disaster seemingly always around the corner and “big data” getting bigger every day, small companies have to stay on top of protecting their business’ critical information with a solid backup strategy. Part of this task involves regularly, if not constantly, backing up important data.  Businesses that don’t back up their data consistently and reliably put themselves at risk for costly recovery downtime, not to mention the loss of customer trust that comes with any kind of data or security breach.

Some businesses approach the issue like a teenager behind the wheel and feel invincible, but no one is immune to the eventuality of data-loss events. Be prepared. How? If you don’t already have a backup strategy in place, follow these three steps to keep your business-critical information safe, secure, and enduring:

Pinpoint business-critical data

Especially if you are a very small business, it may not be necessary to have 2 or 3 copies of every single file, image, or video you have ever handled.  Larger companies with bulkier databases would do well to use less discretion. It’s all about using your best judgment. A good rule of thumb to use is to ask yourself, “Can I do business without this?” If not, you have your answer.

Choose an external backup system

Once you decide on the most important data, you must then decide on the ideal backup medium. What you choose depends largely on the size of your company and the volume of business-critical data that you handle.  Your options include (but are certainly not limited to) placing multiple copies of your information on CDs, storing them on a basic external hard drive or tape drive, or storing your backups offsite in a virtual environment.

BCS recommends combining onsite backup storage on a hard drive or tape drive with offsite virtual backup, as this will keep your data most secure in the event that a natural disaster destroys onsite copies. We work with the company VMware to provide our clients with dynamic virtualization solutions. Along with virtualization, we offer VMware’s top-of-the-line data protection that enables “fast and efficient backups to disk and, more importantly, fast and reliable recovery.” Technology like this allows a growing company to safely store their data in the cloud without worrying excessively over corruptible hardcopies. (Although it is wise to still keep those on hand.)

Backup regularly

Like we mentioned before, part of a solid backup strategy is consistency. If you only backup once a year, you are doing yourself a big disservice.  Perform a manual backup at least once a month, but if you prefer (and your backup medium can perform the function) it, you can schedule automated backups daily. The second option is the better one because not only does it make routine data backup one less thing to think about, it is also extremely thorough.

When you work with BCS to protect your data offsite, we make sure that nothing you need is ever lost and that it remains easily accessible to you and your team at a moment’s notice.  If you have any questions about your data backup strategy, call or contact BCS Voice and Data Solutions today. We are excited to help.