SMB Disaster Recovery Plans for Phone Systems: Point Project Management

In January 2011, the company’s Brisbane-based staff found themselves unable to head into their office in the CBD due to the risk of flooding.

Point Project Management provides project management services to the construction and property industry. The company has five offices across Australia, including headquarters in Canberra.

In January 2011, the company’s Brisbane-based staff found themselves unable to head into their office in the CBD due to the risk of flooding. Before forecasted peak water levels were to be reached, Brisbane Principal Ben Perry and Principal Justin Parker undertook an assessment of precautions and plans that had been made for such an event.

M5 Networks Australia’s hosted VoIP phone system allowed eight staff members to send all calls to voicemails. Messages in the form of wav files were then sent to staff via email to their smartphones. They were also able to make and receive calls from their laptops. The office’s main line was also diverted to the company’s Sydney office, which was able to take calls and messages as required.

With email and data accessible remotely, unaffected staff were able to maintain normal operations from home. The office in Brisbane was also sandbagged, but thankfully the floods did not affect the premises.

“Most companies just ensure that email and data are available remotely, but it’s not often that people are able to divert phone lines or send all calls to voicemail immediately. The company’s phone line is one of the most important avenues of communication because of its immediacy, so especially in situations like the floods in Brisbane, your customers need to be able to reach you rather than get an engaged tone,” commented Perry.

“There were a lot of larger companies who were basically down for two weeks, but we were not only fortunate in that our premises was unaffected, but that we had the foresight to have plans in place to be able to operate remotely.“

“M5 Networks Australia contacted us a few days before to ensure that we had everything we needed to be able to continue operations. The level of service and support we receive from M5 has been excellent,” he concluded.

M5 Networks Australia provides all customers with a redundancy, or disaster recovery plan. These pre-determined plans are put into action when there are issues at the customer’s premises or in the event of a natural disaster.

Customers are able to choose from a variety of options:

1. Divert all direct in-dial lines to voicemail, which can be received via email as a wav file
2. Divert all direct in-dial lines to mobile phones
3. Divert main lines to another office
4. Divert main lines to a manager’s mobile phone or direct line
5. Log into handsets at home or at another remote location

All diversions are effected instantly when necessary, and are available at no extra cost.

If you are a current customer and wish to re-confirm your Disaster Recovery plan, please contact your project manager.

If you are interested in disaster-proofing your phone system, please contact:

Richard Ruth

National Sales and Marketing Manager

Direct: +61 3 9946 4198

Mobile: +61 413 622 844

Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.