Jimcor Agency, Inc., an independent managing general agent and insurance wholesaler, has selected Alteva, Inc.’s unified communications as a service (UCaaS) solution suite to provide as vital components of their disaster recovery and business continuity (DR/BC) plan.
Business continuity and disaster recovery (BC/DR) solutions are slowly gaining popularity as strategic tools to achieve sustainable, long-term growth, as many companies fear over system failures and data losses caused due to natural or man-made disasters.
A new report by Global Industry Analysts (GIA) forecasts that the global market for BC/DR solutions and services might reach $61.7 billion by the year 2017.
As part of its evaluation process Jimcor tested Alteva's UCaaS platform and VoIP phone system during October 2012, when Superstorm Sandy hit the East Coast. During the Sandy catastrophe, Alteva's hosted VoIP phone system helped Jimcor calls to be redirected to unaffected locations, cell phones and home phones. This capability enabled workers to make and receive calls via the VoIP system. Consequently, users could make inbound and outbound calls, even during the calamity, across Alteva's platform in a seamless manner regardless of location and device to maintain business continuity.
As a provider of hosted UCaaS solution, Alteva has integrated and optimized advanced cloud-based technologies and business applications into its UCaaS solution, to deliver a complete voice, video and collaboration service for the office and mobile workforce.
During the calamity, Alteva’s UCaaS solution provided Jimcor with instant message (IM) and desktop sharing features, which enabled the wholesaler to handle an unprecedented volume of insurance claim inquiries. At the same time the presence tools offered by Alteva’s UCaaS improved response time and customer satisfaction by showing which employees were available, on a call, in a meeting, or unavailable. This empowered receptionists to direct incoming calls quickly, thereby efficiently serving Jimcor's customers.
"In the aftermath of such a devastating disaster as Superstorm Sandy, it is a pleasure to hear our customer say they were able to continue to conduct 'business as usual' by leveraging the many features of Alteva's UCaaS deployment," said Bill Birnie, executive vice president, Alteva, said in a statement. "Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity are things both Alteva and Jimcor are passionate about.”
Jim Morris, information technology (IT) manager, Jimcor Agencies, added that, "Without Alteva's UCaaS and VoIP phone system, Jimcor would not have been able to serve our clients and insureds at the level of professionalism and responsiveness in which we pride ourselves."