SPECIAL
“I think it is safe to say no-one expected the true test to be the result of a global pandemic.”
Paul Gibbs, Sales Director - MyPhones
What about
Climate Change?
With all the talk of ‘that virus’ going on the benefits of
Remote Working on climate change are surly being
ignored? We put this question to the market
The Importance
of Stress Testing
As the workforce transitions to Remote Working
several businesses are stress testing to ensure their
services don’t fall over as employees connect to the
business from outside the network. Paul Gibbs, Sales
Director of MyPhones, explains the importance of
stress testing in this article
The unprecedented
situation we are in is
denitely testing the
technology and policies
business have put in place to
cater for unexpected events
such as re, ood and power
outages, however, I think it is
safe to say no-one expected the
true test to be the result of a
global pandemic.
What started as a well
thought out plan, for each of
our employees to do couple of
days at home to make sure the
VPN access, softphones and
UC Clients all worked and
just as importantly sta knew
how to plug their equipment
in, access les and contact
directories, soon escalated.
All was well for the rst
few days, then the virus really
took hold. Before we knew
it. we had a third of team
o, plugging in, testing and
working.
at third rapidly went to
operating a weekly rotation
of 50% oce based and 50%
remote. At this point it was
great to know that a lot of sta
were ready to go and we had
learnt on the way. e rest of
the 50% were quickly deployed
with the required equipment
and updated instructions
to guide them through the
process of connecting.
Just a couple of days later,
in line with Government
guidelines, all workforce asked
to work from home if possible.
Our capabilities had been
stress tested, lessons learnt and
within hours we had a fully
operational remote workforce.
Connections, Servers and
the telephone system were
working and sta, who had
never worked at home before,
received all the support they
need to set up and work in
their new environment.
As an advocate of cloud
based telephony and remote
working, having a whole team
working remotely of each other,
as opposed to a few members,
brings its own challenges.
Team meetings now take place
via web and audio conference,
contacts are easily connected
on the same numbers as they
always have been and IM keeps
communication owing.
Lee Fletcher, Channel Manager UK&I at snom
“The current climate is one of many key drivers increasing
demand for UC technologies. Conferencing systems mean teams
across the country and globe can hold a meeting via phone with
ease, rather than needing to meet in person – our C52 and C520
devices are popular for team conferencing and provide users
with crystal clear quality calls. The ongoing coronavirus situation
is also serving as a great opportunity to learn, experiment and
understand the true advantages and disadvantages of using
these technologies.”
Paul Clarke, UK Channel Manager at 3CX
“Although climate change is a concern for many of us at
an individual level, at present it’s not a key consideration
for customers/ prospects looking into our UC offer.
Recent events such as the covid-19 outbreak as well as
demographic influences such as the impact of millennials
and gen-z in the workplace are larger contributors.”
Alan Shen, CEO of Yeastar
“No. Climate change is a global concern and everyone
worries about it. But it’s more about personal lifestyle and
the industry development & waste disposal pattern. It has
less connection with collaboration and UC technologies,
not to say as the driving force.”
Mayur Pitamber, Solutions Product Marketing Manager
at 8x8
“It’s certainly becoming a bigger concern, especially for
UK businesses. The UK was the first country to pledge
to become carbon-neutral by 2050 and in a recent PWC
survey of CEOs, two-thirds thought that climate change
was a real threat to businesses, while 75% said a response
to climate change could be beneficial to business. So the
impetus is clearly there, and technology will be one of the
first areas businesses will be looking to invest in to fix the
problem. The benefits of UC tech from an environmental
standpoint are widely recognised so I expect we’ll see
some strong uptake in the coming months and years.”
46 | Comms Business Magazine | May 2020 www.commsbusiness.co.uk
/www.commsbusiness.co.uk