Thoughts on Impact to Communications with Disasters like Hurricane Harvey

Hurricane Harvey has been on my mind lately. The devastation is simply unimaginable. Peoples lives have been thrown into chaos and its going to be a very long time to get some normalcy. One of the things that I dwell on is something near and dear to me... Communications.

I've been thinking about all the businesses that have been flooded. All the buildings that won't be fit to have people in them until they get cleaned up. Even once those buildings are cleaned up, all those PBXs and phones that have been rendered useless will make communications impossible. Even when the local telco restores service, there won't be anything that can communicate at the end of the wire.

There is a big problem that I don't think has been realized yet. Some of these phone systems can't be repaired. The manufacturer may not exist anymore or has been merged with another company and the products have been discontinued. Even if there is the ability to repair the equipment, it won't be available for a long time because of such high demand. What if the business decides to replace the equipment with a new PBX, same problem, it won't be available.

This is one of those instances where cloud communications can really save the day. No this isn't about giving lip service to the latest trend in computing. The cloud can really be beneficial in helping businesses get back on their feet.

One of cloud based communications hallmarks is that it isn't dependent on location like a traditional PBX is. How are businesses supposed to communicate when they can't get physical access to buildings? Many, quite possibly, might be condemned and have to be torn down. What happens when the business needs to physically move? How long will it take to re-establish in the new location and how long before communications can be restored. Cloud based communications can help during that time period where access to physical location is impossible, users can work from anywhere and at anytime. 

Let me tell you about some Kudos that Time2Market has been getting with people impacted by Hurricane Harvey. I'm excited about this because we have been hard at work building out a Cloud offering and now we are starting to see the fruits of our labor. 

I just read about where one of Time2Market's Cloud Complete customers in Houston sent in kudos for how one of our engineers went above and beyond in helping them change their call handling several times this week based on all the calls they were getting from clients in the Houston area. Not only did our cloud give them the flexibility to adjust to their business needs in a very short amount of time, we had the engineering talent that understood their needs and helped them achieve it. 

But wait, that's not all... Earlier this week I was also told a story from our VP of Sales about a customer with many offices Nationwide that was already using Time2Market Cloud Complete for their business communications when Hurricane Harvey hit. Short story is that their office in Houston had water in it, but all the employees simply started working from home and the business didn't skip a beat.

Just take a moment and let that sink in.

This is the promise of Unified Communications actually realized. The ability to work anytime and from anywhere. How powerful is that?

These are two examples of how Time2Market Cloud Complete is helping make a difference to businesses day in and day out through providing full Skype for Business functionality with Enterprise Voice and having the Engineers behind it to help make a difference in our customers communications when they need it most.

Time2Market Cloud Complete is prepared to help Hurricane Harvey victims with special pricing and methodology to help you best get your communications back up and running. If your business is in desperate need of help, please do not hesitate to reach out. We have a number of engineers in the Houston area ready to help.