A long time ago – before the days of videoconferencing, intranets, and email – teams generally needed to be in the same physical location in order to work effectively. But those days are long gone.
Now, many of us work regularly with colleagues based in different buildings, cities, countries, and even continents. Team members may be in different time zones, speak different languages, and be part of different cultures.
One team may include any variety of circumstances. Some members may work in groups of two, three, or more in the same office, while others may work individually in separate offices or at home. You may see some team members every day, but you may rarely see others – or perhaps you've never even met them!
Regardless of how people are organized, managing a team that's spread out in many locations can present huge challenges, even for the most experienced managers. How do you ensure that everyone feels they're treated fairly, if you see some team members much more than others? How can you prevent remote team from facing disruptions? And how do you get all members to buy into the team's objectives and stay on track with better communications?
Failing to plan is planning to fail!
Your company probably already has a disaster recovery plan in place for your IT services. You make sure your data is backed up daily and you have written procedures in place to restore a failed piece of hardware should you ever need to. But what happens when your voice services are disrupted?
Any number of events can make your phone service unusable. If your staff are unable to attend calls then the business grinds to a halt. Having a proper voice DRP in place ensures that you can keep doing your customers what keeps you from opening your office.
Phone system that is disruption-proof
A little bit of planning can go a long way in working to control telephone interruptions, which many people experience all day long. In situations where you have deadlines to look at, disruptions in phone lines can mean losing out on a lot revenue for your business. VoIP ensures that there is no disruption in your phone lines even in the most adverse of events.
If you are on a deadline or your focus needs to be intense (and not interrupted), use your voicemail to screen calls, or have an assistant deal with messages for you. This way, you can deal with calls by priority, and at times that suit you. In fact, this telephone time can be planned into your schedule, and so become a normal part of your working day and also ensure that you do not lose revenue.
Do you have the ability to make real time changes to your call plans remotely? Implementing a
solution that is cloud based can ensure you remain in control whether in you are in or outside your office.
Many cloud based phone systems have CRM integration, this can be an easy way to ensure your teams can access the right contact details for customers and suppliers when working remotely. No matter where you are working from, either in the comfort of your home or any other office location of your company, you will be able to manage your communications better and ensure that you can communicate disruption-free.
For more details about creating a steady disaster recovery plan for business, download our FREE eGuide that will ensure no disruption in your company's business communication.