In Cumbria a vital bridge on the verge of collapsing (Calva bridge) transports telecoms cables from one side of Workington to the other, providing telephone lines to both residential and commercial properties. With more rain on the way the floods could beat the engineers who are desparately trying to lay new telecoms cables to avert disaster.
Implementing an emergency telecoms recovery solution could save businesses hours of lost productivity let alone money that could be lost in potential sales.
Prevention better than cure
The key to preventing the potentially devastating effects of our country’s unpredictable weather is to plan effectively in advance, not just for our homes but for our businesses as well, and we should be considering the additional consequences of these disruptive scenarios such as:
- Transport links being broken, including roads, bus services and trains
- Limited or no access to shops for food
- Buildings having to be evacuated due to damage, lack of ultilities or flooding
- Or as happened in Gloucestershire a couple of years ago, lack of clean drinking water or electricity as sub stations can be flooded in heavy rain
As a business any one of these scenarios would mean that your employees may not be able to get into their normal place of work.
What would this mean for your business and your customers?
- Fewer people to answer the phones means that your customer service experience is de-valued and you could have some very unhappy customers
- You could lose new business opportunities because the right people were not available to take the call
How would it affect your supply chain or crucial contracts?
- You could see major delays in stock being delivered, meaning that you cannot fulfill orders in the timescales you have promised, leading to customer dissatisfaction
What happens if your competitors are better prepared than you?
- Your competitors could take advantage and steal your market share/ customers while you spend all your effort on restoring your operations to normal
If we consider yesterday’s flooding in Sctoland and Wales, it poses the perfect example of what could happen elsewhere int he UK. In Aberdeenshire a care home was evacuated because of flooding. Now unless they had the foresight to leave a recorded message, anyone wanting to call the home to find out where their relatives or friends had been moved to may be left in the dark if no-one was able to answer the phone.
Lack of preparation affects the bottom line
As road and rail links were closed, in some areas people could not physically get to where they needed to be. Any number of those people could have a job which relies on being able to answer a desk phone, or being present in an office or building. Unless they have an alternative building that they can get to with alternative access to their work information and tools, those people can do nothing to contribute to the continous fulfillment of their job responsibilities, thereby costing their business time and money.
We are in an era where our businesses do not have to be brought to a stand still because of severe weather. We have the ability to plan ways around it and no-one should really be caught short. If we can’t leave our homes then we should have the ability (job role permitting) to be able to work from home, or other local location.
Tags: emergency telecoms, emergency telecoms recovery, telecoms
