How to Build a Redundant Phone System for Your Business

In today’s business world, communication is everything. Your customers need to be able to reach you and you need to be able to reach your employees. If your phone system goes down, it can have a serious impact on your business. According to a 2016 report by the Ponemon Institute, downtime can cost a company as much as $9,000 a minute.

When your network and connectivity are disrupted due to an outage, natural disaster, or cyberattack, your business cannot function at its best. And that means your customers may not be able to get in touch with you – resulting in a drop in customer satisfaction. By setting up a redundant phone system, you can be confident that your business will stay connected, especially in the event of an emergency.

Language redundancy is an important part of your organization’s disaster preparedness plan and helps maintain business continuity.

Before we look at how to set up a redundant phone system, let’s look at how voice redundancy works.

What is language redundancy?

Voice redundancy (also known as geo-redundancy) is the process of designing a phone system to remain operational in the event of a disaster. A social plan usually includes:

• Cloud based technology
• Backup power sources and servers
• Teams and servers spread across multiple locations
• Backup Routing Strategies
• and various phone lines.

In telephone systems, redundancy is often achieved through the use of VoIP technology. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone systems use the Internet to make and receive calls. This cloud communications infrastructure and technology gives you much-needed freedom and flexibility as you are not tied to one location or device.

VoIP and redundancy go hand in hand, so if one server or location loses connection, you can easily switch to another without any service interruption. With VoIP, this means routing incoming calls to another active site or group of employees.

Advantages of language redundancy

Aside from keeping your business running at its best at all times, what else can you achieve with a redundant phone system? Here are the core benefits:

• High availability phone service with high uptime
• business continuity
• Access to failover options and features
• network reliability
• Increased customer trust and satisfaction

What should be considered when installing redundancy in your telephone system?

There are a few things to consider when planning a voice redundancy system:

• The size of your company
• Your company’s language requirements
• your budget and
• Available Solutions.

Let’s take a closer look at them:

1. Company size

The first thing to consider when building a redundant phone system is the size of your business. Voice redundancy for a small business is different than for a large business. Therefore, it is important to assess your company’s unique infrastructure. Do you have teams (local, global, remote) spread across multiple locations? And will they be included in your social plan? Which devices and offices need to be protected? Etc.

2. Business Voice Requirements

Then determine your company’s language needs. How many phone lines does your business need? What are your peak calling times? Which departments must be available and reachable at all times? Do these teams need backup teams? Need the ability to route calls to different locations or devices? What devices and calling capabilities do your teams need to maintain business continuity?

You want to ensure that your IT infrastructure can support these goals. You also need a VoIP provider that offers failover capabilities.

3. Available Solutions

Once you’ve determined what you want your phone system to do, you can start looking for the solution. There are a number of voice redundancy solutions on the market. The best solution for your business depends on your specific needs and requirements.

Consider everything from equipment to software. Specifically, look for cloud providers that can support your communication needs and work well with your phone system. In some cases, this means upgrading your current systems with new software and integrations. In other cases, you may need to replace your entire setup. Talk to different providers to find out what works best for your needs.

If you’re looking for a VoIP provider, find one that offers:

4. Household

Next, consider your budget. The cost of implementing a redundant phone system depends on your needs and resources. However, it is an important investment in the continuity of your business that is well worth it.

If you break it down, you’ll find that it’s not always complicated or labor intensive. For example, your company should already have backup equipment and servers. So you need a cloud phone service provider that supports redundancy. Most VoIP providers offer voice redundancy within their service. This is generally a cheaper option than building everything from scratch. Take a look around to find the right solution for your business.

5. Set up geo-redundancy

Finally, we come to setting up voice redundancy in your business phone system. The first step is to incorporate backup initiatives into your disaster recovery plan.

Start with your network and its elements. Work with your IT teams to set up backup power, servers, routers, switches, access points, etc.

If you use cloud communication tools like a CRM or VoIP service, check with your provider on how they maintain continuity. In most cases, cloud services have their own geo-redundancy. For example, if their main server goes down, they have backup servers that allow users to get back to work with little to no business downtime.

Additionally, they might even offer failover features and functionality that you can customize and set up. For example, you can use failover forwarding to automatically send calls to another line, location, or device if the primary recipient is unable to answer them. This allows you to route calls to a satellite team or your smartphone when your main office is unreachable.

Protect the business phone system by planning ahead

Redundancy is key to building a reliable and highly available phone system. By taking the time to understand your communications needs and budget, you can create a telephony solution that’s built specifically for your teams.

If you’re considering building a redundant phone system for your business, contact a telecom consultant to discuss your options!