VTBrendan
Viatalk
Premium,VIP
join:2005-06-27
Clifton Park, NY
| reply to stevech1
Re: [ViaTalk] Emergency Office Closing
Hi,
If a situation arose requiring it, tech support could be ran from just about anywhere. A set facility for that wouldn't really be necessary. Obviously its not what we'd do in said situation, but you could literally goto a starbucks and do it if you had to. We had a minor natural gas leak in the building, and they came and took care of it... not exactly the kind of situation you would activate an emergency relocation plan over.
-Brendan
--
ViaTalk BroadBand Phone Service @ »www.ViaTalk.Com / NOCBlog - Company Blog @ »www.nocblog.com |
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stevech1
join:2005-01-08
| reply to dcurrey
POTS and Ma Bell were "5 nines" (99.999% availability). With 24/7 support. Not so since deregulation in the US.
VoIP is more like 3 or 4 nines.
With cell phone as our backup.
And forget about customer service, in most any service business.
Called your bank lately? |
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KLH
join:2001-09-24
Vincennes, IN
 ·Cinergy
| reply to christcorp
Well I personally think that any company should have some kind of backup plan in place. I mean how hard would it be to let some staff people work from home in case of an emergency, where you could NOT be at work? Can they not answer phone calls, and answer support tickets at home? I know they might not have access to all their system, but they could still answer general questions. No need for support to be nonexistant.
I don't know, call me weird for wanting a backup plan. |
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christcorp
Premium
join:2001-05-21
Cheyenne, WY
 ·Bresnan Online
 ·VOIPo
| reply to druber
Exactly. There might be an "Offsite" location for backup equipment should the main servers get blown up. Maybe even setup with basic connectivity to get back online. A backup location for any type of support staff is a waste of money and time.
As a company grows to the point of requiring expansion, setting up multiple locations to handle sales, customer support, tech support, operations, etc... may be a logical evolution. Not neccessarily at current levels.
I truly believe that this is my biggest complaint with voip customers who question and bitch. They try and use Ma'Bell as the standard and wonder why their voip provider doesn't have the same infrustructure. They want the service, dependability, reliability, 24X7 support, etc... of their Ma'Bell or national ISP, but god forbid if they should charge more for it.
You want the compromise, it's called Vonage. That is what happens when you get that large. You have to expand, outsource overseas, and charge $25 a month just to maintain the profit margin. Do you know how many customers paying $25 a month, $300 a year, it takes to pay for even 1 employee. It takes 70 customers just to pay a $21,000 annual paycheck. Closer to 100 customer if the provider has any benefits for their employees. We haven't even gotten into talking about the normal overhead to operate a business. That's with Vonage's prices. Now figure it out with Packet8 charging $19 or SunRocket and Viatalk charging $9. Close to 250 customers to pay for 1 employee's wages.
Ma' Bell has hundreds of central office technicians, with millions of dollars worth of electronics, computers, and power generation equipment, designed just to make sure your line still has dialtone. Even during a power outage. Then they have thousands more technicians on the outside making sure the lines and cables to your house stay in one piece.
Sorry for going off, but too many people complain about their ISP being too expensive or their phone service being too expensive. They AREN'T too expensive. If you knew what it took to keep these operations going, you'd never question it. The fact that there is an inexpensive alternative to Ma'Bell is a great thing.
People are just naturally greedy. They want what they want, they want it now, and they don't want to pay too much for it. The truth is, "YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH". "Thank you Jack". The truth is, you need a lot of the customer support overseas. (No, Viatalk, packet8, Nuvio, and few others have all their employess in the USA). You also WANT your merchandise made in Asia. You want illegal immigrants picking vegitables in the western states. If it wasn't for all this, the prices at WalMart and all the other items and services you buy would be a lot more expensive. We can't have that, now can we?
The fact that with voip it takes between 100 and 300 customers just to pay for 1 employee, then how many employees can a provider have to keep a network running 24x7, staff it 24x7, pay all the costs of doing business, etc...? Then people have the BALLS to complain that a voip provider is charging $15-$25 a month for service. Sorry, you're only saving $40 a month over Ma'Bell instead of $45.
When people say how they were talking to customer service and they were hung up on; my answer is "NO $HIT". If I was on the other end of your call, I'd probably go out of my way to make sure your phone number was added to every telemarketing database in the world. Screw it. Later... Mike... |
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aardvarkage
join:2006-04-08
Littleton, CO | reply to druber
I believe that the telcos have some support for if the line dies, 24x7, but cs and non-emergency issues are handled the next day. |
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druber
join:2000-04-11
Marlborough, MA
·VOIPo
| reply to SliderNC
we're not talking about a NOC, we're talking about a support group (or so i thought), most of which are not up 7x24. if your landline dies, verizon is not there 7x24 to take your calls. maybe we were talking about two different things. i would expect that infrastructure issues *would* be backed up, etc... |
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SliderNC
Master Of Disaster
Premium
join:2002-12-12
Cornelius, NC
clubs: 
 ·Windstream
| reply to druber
said by druber  :are you serious? does your employer keep a completely duplicate place all of you can go if there's an emergency plant shutdown? mine doesn't, and i suspect almost no-one else's does either (including verizon, etc...) My company has two primary datacenters (NOCs) and a backup one that is in hotswap mode. It is common these days for companies who provide mission critical systems to have these types of setups. The last two companies I've worked for have them.
--
I'll believe that when my sh!t turns purple and smells like rainbow sherbet.
My LiveJournal |
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JmanA9
join:2003-06-12
Export, PA | reply to dcurrey
They are opening up a second location:
»www.nocblog.com/general/2006/03/···pansion/ |
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druber
join:2000-04-11
Marlborough, MA | reply to KLH
are you serious? does your employer keep a completely duplicate place all of you can go if there's an emergency plant shutdown? mine doesn't, and i suspect almost no-one else's does either (including verizon, etc...) |
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KLH
join:2001-09-24
Vincennes, IN | reply to Nate425
Does your company have no backup place or remote location for staff to go to in an event of an emergency like this? |
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Nate425
Premium
join:2005-02-03
Charlottesville, VA
clubs:
1 edit | reply to dcurrey
Well nevermind then  |
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VTBrendan
Viatalk
Premium,VIP
join:2005-06-27
Clifton Park, NY | reply to dcurrey
FYI this is resolved now, and things are back to normal operation.
-Brendan |
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dcurrey
Premium
join:2004-06-29 | Just a heads up on Viatalk office closing.
Emergency Office Closing
Technical support will be unavailable for several hours tonight due to a gas leak at our support facilities. |
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