As part of Zoom’s hybrid survivability initiative, Zoom has launched a new hybrid solution for Zoom Phone that will allow organizations and businesses to continue to engage customers during an outage by maintaining access to their core phone features.

It was designed with the aim of providing better security to large organizations, such as retailers, schools, universities, and hospitals, according to the Zoom Phone Local Survivability (ZPLS) module. The Zoom Phone ZPLS software module ensures that organizations are able to minimize revenue loss, maintain internal communication, and establish on-site safety that will last for several days when the Zoom Client is unable to connect to a Zoom Phone data center due to an outage from a carrier, storm, or natural disaster.

Maintain mission-critical services

In the event that a telecom outage occurs in a specific location of a business, maintaining essential communications services is crucial in order to continue to provide these critical services to their users. It is crucial that businesses invest in a reliable cloud system that prevents downtime by ensuring that there is no failure of the system. Zoom data centers are designed to be fully redundant and resilient, however, the last leg of the network connection from the customer’s premises to the Zoom cloud must also be reliable, since it is the line between user and Zoom.

A small-scale server on-site is used by ZPLS to provide failover capability and to add an additional layer of security to the system. On top of the Zoom Node framework, the module is deployed on top of a secure hybrid platform designed with the purpose of hosting a variety of modules as well as enabling the deployment of those modules. It provides the customer with a convenient way to auto-update their Zoom subscriptions when their connectivity is restored to the Zoom cloud by the Zoom Node.

Retail: Protect your community and customer loyalty

It is more than just a loss of revenue that retailers suffer when they lose internet connectivity. A whole community can be negatively affected if grocery stores and pharmacies do not accept credit cards and are unable to provide key items after a storm. As well as this, the number of cashless transactions continues to rise with billions of transactions taking place every year, making it even more dangerous for the retail business, as it is heavily dependent on credit cards and digital payments. If customers are forced to abandon a purchase if they don’t have enough cash on hand when they make a purchase, a cash-only payment option can lead to fewer sales and decrease brand loyalty.

In a retail setting, ZPLS can be enabled by a central source, such as a Global Help Desk, in order to permit employees to process credit card transactions over the phone. This”>phone, which can continue to be done through an existing source. Businesses and consumers alike benefit from this continuity, which provides a level of security and peace of mind when they are faced with financial emergencies.

Education: keep students safe 

In terms of Zoom Phone enhancements, ZPLS is the latest in a series that has all been created with the objective of keeping students in K-12 and higher education out of harm’s way. With Zoom’s E911 capabilities, emergency personnel will be able to identify the right address in an emergency by providing precise dispatched locations that are in accordance with the FCC’s 911 regulations, ensuring that the right address is indicated during an emergency. We are improving the connection between students and helplines for mental health emergencies through the migration of our 988 extensions. The ZPLS module is able to connect schools to emergency services when the system is down because it allows them to continue to make external calls during outages or natural disasters.

This is what the Merced Union High School District had to say about their experience participating in our ZPLS beta test: There are six high schools in the Merced Union High School District that are nationally ranked serving more than 10,000 students.

Merced Union High School District executive assistant to the superintendent Leslie Rohrback explained that it was crucial for us to ensure that our phone system would continue working in case of a network connectivity issue, power outage, or natural disaster in order to ensure the safety of our students and faculty. Having Zoom Phone Local Survivability means we can not only benefit from the ease and reliability of using a cloud phone system while knowing that we can continue to operate despite whatever circumstances may arise.”

Healthcare: Minimize disruption to hospitals 

Having no access to common phone functionality in a campus network can restrict critical patient care by eliminating the ability to put in internal calls between patient rooms, nursing stations, labs, and hospital buildings within the campus network. A ZPLS system allows nurses, doctors, and administrators to maintain communication with patients and provide them with quality care despite disruptions from the software.

…distribute the ZPLS module to a large hospital network who is in the process of deploying the solution, and one of our test partners, Black Box – a global systems integrator with a broad customer base in healthcare – provided us with this feedback as it is currently working with a large hospital network to integrate the module.

 ZPLS gives us a means of continuing to provide services to our nursing staff and patients in the event of a natural disaster or other unforeseen outages, according to Jonathan Buckle, vice president of sales for the Americas region for ZPLS. Whether a hospital is in a state of uptime or a state of downtime, it is critical for all hospitals to make sure they are not down.”

Seamless and automatic cloud connection

It should be noted that, in the event of an outage, Zoom clients who have enabled ZPLS will have continuous access to a broad range of phone capabilities, including making and receiving external and internal calls. All Zoom Phone hardware, including phones, fax machines, desktop computers that support Zoom Phone technology, as well as adapters connecting to them will remain functional during a power outage. Likewise, analog adapters connected to analog phones and appliances will continue working during a power outage.

During normal operation of the ZPLS module, there will be no interruption to phone service. A failover and fallback process will be seamlessly undertaken without the need for the administrator or end user to make any changes during the outage. Clients and devices automatically re-register back to the Zoom Phone cloud once they are reconnected to the Zoom Phone cloud, and they are able to continue using these core phone features once the internet connection is restored:

• Internal extension dialing

• Contact search/dialing

• Dial from call history

• Hold/resume call

• Blind/consult transfer

• Adhoc 3-party conference

• Full extension dialing with Site Code

• Inbound/outbound PSTN (requires PSTN)

• Call park

Extend your core phone functionality

Using Zoom Phone for your business can enable you to take advantage of a simple, reliable, and modern collaboration system combined with a range of safety and security features that will allow hybrid businesses to scale and stay connected wherever they are. Discover how Zoom Node, in conjunction with our Local Survivability module can bring peace of mind and extend the capabilities of your core phone system at the exact time when it is most needed.

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