Many businesses these days have switched permanently to a remote workplace. In doing so however, they do have to consider emergency preparedness. Fortunately, companies can leverage technologies such as SIP Trunking to make E911 practices convenient. SIP Trunking is also great for remote workplaces because it is scalable and cost-efficient.
What is E911?
First of all, what exactly is E911? Also known as Enhanced 911, E911 is a cloud-enabled feature of the traditional 911 emergency calling system. E911 can associate a person’s physical location with their phone number via software. This is important because it can automatically route emergency calls to the appropriate Public Safety Answering Point. This means that the emergency dispatchers will have pinpointed your location without the caller having to provide it verbally. With a remote workforce, this is especially advantageous because identifying a precise location can prove challenging when everyone is spread out.
Best Practices for E911 in a Remote Workplace
Enable Softphone Applications
A great idea for optimizing E911 for a remote workplace is to incorporate softphone applications. A softphone is an app as opposed to actual hardware. It is installed on an internet-connected device such as a computer or mobile device and is used to make phone calls. Softphones are valuable because they permit employees to work from anywhere. Softphones are also linked to the company’s Business Phone System and can provide a real-time location to 911 responders.
Activate Emergency Alerts
Companies should also have the ability to notify the appropriate personnel when someone dials 911. For example, when an employee dials 911, emergency alerts should go out to security personnel, administration, trained medical personnel, etc. With E911, you can set up these alerts to go out to whichever personnel you wish. This is especially important for a remote workplace, where it may not be immediately obvious to upper-level management that there is an issue.
If you have any questions regarding SIP Trunking, please contact Intuity today at (800) 811-1086. Please feel free to also follow us on Twitter.