Telcare

Telephone systems maintenance is one of those things that it’s all too easy to overlook.

After all, modern small business telephones systems are put together with technology that is far more reliable than earlier generations of what may appear to be similar equipment. So why bother with a maintenance contract?

Theory and practice

The key weakness in such sentiments is that they’re really hostage to fortune.

For example, if your business telecom services have just collapsed in a heap and you can’t use them to contact your clients (and vice-versa), then you may not take much consolation from the fact that you’ve just been exceptionally unlucky and everyone else is okay.

In fact, even if everything is currently fine, you typically will have two concerns:

• to stop problems occurring in the first place;
• to ensure that any problems that do arise are fixed quickly and effectively.

Prevention

Once installed, all small business telephone systems may typically benefit from preventative telephone systems maintenance.

Some of this you and your colleagues may be able to do yourself with training. This is sometimes referred to as systems administration.

Other aspects of prevention may be a little more technically demanding and require specialist support.

This may involve (depending upon your system) things such as:

• checking and clearing log files;
• checking error messages and taking corrective actions where required;
• periodic circuit tests;
• disaster recovery and standby testing;
• etc.

Although these actions can’t guarantee that you won’t experience troubles down the line with your office telephone system, they may reduce the chances of catastrophe.

This may be doubly important if you have an older or antiquated system. Such business telephone systems may well have passed their natural expiry date but that may be extendable, to a point, if they are regularly checked and maintained.

Cure

However diligent your telephone systems maintenance, there is always the possibility that you’ll suffer what’s sometimes called a major system outage.

In those circumstances, your business may grind to a halt very rapidly indeed if you can’t communicate with the outside world.

Should that worst-case scenario arise, what you won’t want is a philosophical debate about why it happened but rather a fix – and quickly.

That’s why businesses where business telecoms are critical to their operation sometimes have two things in place:

• a support contract with specified service levels (this may be with the manufacturer or an agent if the system is under warranty or a third-party it if is not);
• a standby system that can kick-in to provide minimal telecoms support until such time as your own system is fully restored.

Price

The support structure you select and pay for will be defined by your perceptions of the criticality of telecommunications to your business.

What is clear is that economising on telephone systems maintenance and related contracts may be a significant risk.

If you have any form of business telephone system, then sooner or later you’ll have a problem – unless you’re exceptionally lucky! That’s why a telephone systems maintenance contract may be very important to the continuity of your business.

Of course, today’s technology is generally reliable and it may also have a high degree of what’s called fault tolerance. In other words, a single problem shouldn’t cause your entire system to collapse and there should be a degree of built-in backup.

Even so, your business telecoms are likely to be core to your ability to conduct your business. Lose them and in some cases you may be physically unable to continue your professional activities.

Having a telephone systems maintenance agreement could help you avoid such a catastrophe. It may offer three forms of protection:

• preventative inspection and maintenance;
• the attendance of qualified engineers on your site if you encounter a problem;
• fallback or contingency emergency cover.

Preventative inspection is self-explanatory and may be important – particularly if you have an old and perhaps obsolete system. It may be serving your needs perfectly adequately but if it goes wrong, it could be out-of-warranty and the original provider may no longer support it.

Having engineers get to you quickly if you lose your system may be of paramount importance. These sorts of contracts are typically governed by what’s called an SLA (service level agreement), which provides you with specified target levels for the service. This may cover things such as:

• the average time for an engineer to get to your premises;
• target resolution times (to get your system back up and running);
• periods of cover such as 24/7 or during normal office hours only, depending on your needs etc.

Fallback provision, when provided as part of telephone systems maintenance contracts, is sometimes called contingency cover or it may also be included as part of a telephone disaster recovery plan.

This type of cover means that in the, hopefully unlikely, event that your telephone systems are unavailable for an extended period through fault or a disaster that affects your office, you can quickly switch to a backup system until your own is repaired and restored.

In the case of recently purchased and modern business telecoms systems, your provider may offer a period of reactive support and maintenance as part of the purchase.

If this has expired, there are providers of such contract services.

Telephone systems and their maintenance is an area that it’s perhaps tempting to economise on. This may be particularly true if you’ve had a long trouble-free period using your existing business telephone systems.

If so, some caution may be advisable. If your system fails, it is likely to do so without being thoughtful enough to provide you with a warning period! Thinking about a telephone systems maintenance contract in advance of such a crisis just might save you some stress and also possibly your business.