Equip Your Business for the Second Wave of COVID-19

2020 has been one of the most challenging times for modern businesses. The time to act is now. In this blog, we have outlined some practical ways businesses equip their daily communications in these uncertain times to help you get prepared for the second lockdown.

Businesses are rethinking how they stay connected

Remote working solutions are not one-size-fits-all. Every business has its own unique needs. Here are 4 typical ways to connect your remote-based employees and customers.

#1 Let Employees Take Desk Phones Home

Taking desk phones home is a straightforward way to retain inter-office communication functionality. Because the VoIP phone system transmits voice data over the internet, rather than traditional landlines, it can be accessed from anywhere with an internet connection. Under this circumstance, businesses will require a VPN connection within their corporate network and have desk phones re-configured so that employees can plug and play their desk phones at home directly. VPN (Virtual Private Network) allows your staff to securely connect to your office through an encrypted tunnel from their desk phones.

Alternatively, instead of establishing a VPN connection, you can also configure NAT settings and port forwarding to register a desk phone as a remote extension to the PBX. NAT (Network Access Translation) is a technology used in routers that transform the private IP address to the public IP address, and vice versa, helping to connect the private and public network together, while port forwarding (also known as port mapping) allows your endpoints to connect to a private network. However, this way may raise more security risks compared to VPN.

#2 Adopt a Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) Policy

According to PC Matic’s research on COVID-19 Work from Home Trend, 61% of remote employees were using personal devices as their primary method to access company networks. Without bringing desk phones home, you can also take your own mobile phones and desktops to make and receive business calls with your office number by installing a softphone app. Besides that, all the features that you have on desk phones to manage calls effectively, such as transfer, hold, mute, and record, are now accessible in the form of an app. Some softphones also work more like unified communications platforms and come with collaboration features to improve productivity, making it more powerful than desk phones.

Leading VoIP phone system providers often natively provide softphones to ensure the best compatibility, extensive functionality, and a seamless user experience, while there are also third-party softphones available on the market. As with desk phones, it is also a necessity to consider how to connect to the corporate network when equipping your staff with softphones.

Linkus UC Softphone & Linkus Cloud Service

Linkus is a unified communications app for Windows desktops, Mac desktops, iPhones, and Android phones. Designed for Yeastar PBX System, it transforms user devices into fully-featured office extensions, provides a convenient call experience, and offers powerful UC features like presence, instant messaging, CRM integration, etc.

Better yet, for Yeastar on-premises PBX users,Linkus Cloud Service,an application-level tunneling service, eliminates the troublesome of port forwarding & insecure network settings when using Linkus outside of the company network and makes Linkus configuration a breeze.

#3 Businesses are Opting for Cloud Phone Systems

The cloud-based phone system has become one of the vital lifelines of business continuity. Cloud adoption was highlighted in a new survey by Centrify which revealed that 48% of enterprises accelerated cloud migration plans to support remote working.

While an on-premises phone system requires VPN or NAT configurations to let remote desk phones and softphones access the corporate network, cloud-based service work regardless of what network you are on. Especially helpful for times of emergency like the past months, many businesses opt for cloud phone systems because they can be up and running quickly.

Other benefits of cloud phone systems include:

• Reduced upfront investments and maintenance costs

• Little technical expertise and administrative requirements

• Quick installation and flexibility to adapt to changing needs instantly, and more

Either cloud-based or on-premises, a VoIP phone system is capable of supporting the remote workforce, whereas each may be a better option for specific communications requirements. Check the blog below to see what you need to factor in when it comes to the choice.

Related: On-premises or Cloud PBX? 5 Questions to Determine the Best Fit

#4 Collaborate Virtually and Stay Engaged

The adoption of collaboration tools, such as Microsoft Teams and Slack, has surged in response to the pandemic. In late October, Microsoft just announced that Teams had reached 115 milliondaily active users.

However, these collaboration tools all have an Achilles’ heel when it comes to telephony. Though they may offer telephony capabilities, they are not suitable for all organizations and fall short in different aspects. For example, Microsoft’s Calling Plans are provided to limited countries, with limited basic call features, and existing phone lines cannot be supported. Fortunately, these gaps can benefit from further VoIP integration.

Yeastar for Microsoft Teams Integration

Using direct routing technology, Yeastar PBX System can fully integrate with Microsoft Teams to enable Teams users to make and receive internal and external calls directly on the Teams App and enjoy a variety of advanced calling features. You can also bring your existing phone number and any SIP endpoints to MS Teams to keep business running uninterruptedly.

Wrap up

The shift to remote working is likely to become more permanent. COVID-19 has proved a catalyst to embrace a new approach to work and tomorrow is going to be very different. It is time to reimagine and future-proof your digital workplace now.

Learn more about Yeastar IP Solutions here: https://www.yeastar.com

Blog source: Yeastar