SafeData Launches Telecom Recovery Service

Published: December 4, 2007

by Alex Woodie

For two-and-a-half years, SafeData has provided a service to help customers get their System i applications back online during and after disasters. Last week, the Rhode Island company launched a new hosted service that aims to keep the calls coming in, even when their primary phone system goes down.

While much emphasis has been placed on building resiliency into servers through disaster recovery (DR) and high availability (HA) solutions, never overlook the importance of the phone system to conducting business. After all, if customer service representatives can't field phone calls from customers, a percentage of transactions will be lost.

SafeData is addressing this need with a new offering called Voice Recovery Service. The basic version of this Web-based service works by rerouting a customer's incoming phone calls (at the phone company's switch) to other phone numbers that are working. While your organization must find working phones to take customer calls during an emergency, the rapid spread of mobile phone networks should make that an easier task than it would have been 10 years ago.

According to SafeData, Voice Recovery Services can automatically reroute thousands of phone numbers in a matter of seconds. It requires no additional hardware or software to work (besides a computer with an Internet connection to configure the call routing settings), and is compatible with local and long distance phone carriers.

There is also an advanced package that includes features like voice mail and voice-to-e-mail, which automatically forwards new voice mail messages to the customer's e-mail account; fax mail and fax-to-e-mail, which allows users to receive inbound faxes via e-mail; and the find me and follow me call-forwarding functions.

The advanced service also supports the creation of conference calls involving multiple parties, and the VoiceCast emergency notification system, a sort of "reverse 911" system for broadcasting recorded messages to groups of people. Finally, SafeData also offers Live Answer, which automatically routes calls to an answering service during an emergency.

Peter Briggs, president of SafeData, says the new offering is complementary to its data recovery services for System i and Windows servers. "With few disaster recovery or business continuity alternatives for voice services available in the market, our Voice Recovery Service enables our clients to rapidly restore complete control of their inbound telecommunications functions at a very affordable price," he says.

The service is available now. Pricing starts at about $200 per month for the basic configuration, while the advanced setup will cost the average midsize company about $500 per month. For more information, visit www.safedata.net.

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