When Disaster Strikes

Your business is underwater—literally. The storm that seemed far away yesterday has left your office inaccessible. The safety and well-being of your people comes first. After that is assured, what’s next? According to FEMA, 40% of businesses in your situation never reopen their doors. While you can’t control nature, you can prepare. At the heart of disaster preparedness is protecting your people first. With the right disaster recovery strategy, you can support your team and keep your communications and operations running smoothly.

The difference between companies that recover from natural disasters and those that don’t often comes down to one critical factor: preparation.

While restoring systems may not be the first priority, having them in place ahead of time makes it easier to find and support your employees when it matters most.

The Risk of Legacy Systems

Traditional on-premises phone systems and legacy PBX hardware are fragile, centralized systems and are particularly vulnerable during natural disasters. Physical damage to your office can mean a total communications blackout. When customers can’t reach you, and your team can’t coordinate, your ability to respond effectively is compromised.

The Benefits of Cloud Solutions

Cloud-based unified communications systems solve many of these challenges by decentralizing your communications infrastructure. Even if your office is inaccessible, your team can still make and receive calls from any device, anywhere—whether they’re at home, in a temporary office, or on the move.

These systems also make it easier to prioritize what matters most: staying in touch with your team and providing the support they need to remain safe and informed.

Disaster-Proof and Resilient Infrastructure

Modern unified communications systems are designed for resilience. Through SD-WAN technology and network redundancy, these systems automatically switch to backup internet connections if your primary connection fails. Here’s what you can store securely in the cloud for quick recovery:

• Your complete UCaaS system setup
  Admin account details, links to management tools, and system configurations.
• Emergency call routing plans
  Pre-configured routes for redirecting calls to employees’ mobile devices.
• Team contact and emergency information
  Lists of employee contact details and designated emergency contacts.
• Disaster recovery procedures
  Step-by-step plans for reestablishing communications and supporting team safety.

With these tools, you can minimize disruptions and focus on helping your team recover.

Create an Immediate Action Plan

When warnings of an impending natural disaster appear, businesses with cloud-based unified communications systems are already prepared. Your focus can be on simple verification steps rather than scrambling to protect physical infrastructure:

1. Configure your emergency call routing - ensure calls can reach your team wherever they evacuate to
2. Test your UCaaS platform so every team member can make and receive calls from their mobile devices or laptops
3. Verify your backup internet connections and failover systems

These steps ensure continuity without taking your focus away from protecting people.

Hope for the Best, Prepare for the Worst

At Fusion Connect, we hope you’ll never need to use a disaster recovery plan. But in the event you do, we’re here to help you prepare. Our cloud-based communications systems and SD-WAN solutions are designed to provide the flexibility and reliability you need to stay connected through any crisis.

Contact us today to learn how we can help support your business’s continuity plans with care and genuine concern for your team’s safety.