Next Telecom said today that it has successfully completed its first internal work from home trial for all staff to test the capability of Microsoft Teams Phone System to support the business’s ability to remain operational and productive should a work from home policy be required.
Tristan Plummer, Next Telecom CTO said the company was receiving more and more enquiries from customers about how they might be able to handle a situation that required them to close some or all of their offices for a period of time whilst supporting existing work processes including inbound and outbound calls for customer service management.
“Recent media coverage is highlighting that companies around the world are asking staff to work from home and others are testing their contingency plans to manage the increased incidence of remote working in the event of implementing a company-wide work from home policy.
In Australia, we have started to see some companies sending staff home for days or weeks out of caution for the health and safety of employees. Last week we ran a successful 100% staff work from home trial using a range of our own services.”
Next Telecom has developed a rapid implementation programme for companies that operate a distributed workforce and are looking to implement a solution to support work from home arrangements.
“Products such as Microsoft Teams are ideal, as they provide a full collaborative solution with voice, video calling/conferencing, file sharing and messaging. Our Cloud Business phone handsets can be taken home and connected to any Internet connection with a power supply and the PBX will operate as normal, offering a distinct advantage over on-premises phone systems.”
Mr Plummer said the company’s recent investment in expanding its Session Border Controller (SBC) network will also help to support global partners and clients in this area.
“When thinking about supporting enterprise communications in the cloud, for any employee no matter their location or device, we believe Microsoft Office 365 with the Teams Phone System will almost certainly be at the top of the list. This is primarily because Office 365 has broad adoption. Once an enterprise has licensed and deployed Office 365 for email, instant messaging, meetings, and team collaboration, considering the Teams Phone System for enterprise voice telephony becomes very compelling,” said Mr Plummer.