Mainebiz

T here's no question that the way we all do business is changed forever since the onset of the COVID��� pandemic and the associated shelter in place orders. As a communication provider, OTELCO is an essential business and keeping ourselves open for business while maintaining the safety of our staff was Priority ��. On March ��th, OTELCO President and CEO, Richard Clark, issued a company�wide memo explaining that all office staff would be transitioned to telecommuting status within the week, and that a serious set of protocols would be put in place to protect customer facing field staff. In real numbers, this translated to moving approximately ��� of OTELCO staff into remote working mode. OTELCO's IT department kicked into gear to beef up the corporate network for the increased traffic it would see and ensure that all staff had the resources necessary to telecommute. Although that was a monumental task, the fact that the company was already employing a full range of cloud hosted services made the transition run smoothly. Within � days, OTELCO's customer service and technical support teams were fielding calls from home in � states, and it was back to business almost as usual as the business sales team worked with clients virtually thanks to all that cloud hosted technology. The next challenge was to help OTELCO business clients keep their own doors open for business. Here are a few examples. • FA Peabody is a family�owned insurance agency, operating in Maine for almost a hundred years. They specialize in auto, health, life, business, and homeowners insurance. However, they have a wide variety of personal and commercial insurance products. • Like many other businesses, FA Peabody needed to reorganize their telecommuting approach to manage their affairs during the pandemic while prioritizing the health of their employees. To do this, they needed to move their staff home while maintaining operations. • Tiffany Free was able to help Peabody keep their wheels turning, even from home, with a comprehensive hosted phone solution. She provided the company with ten new phone systems quickly, allowing the team to continue communicating with their clients during the pandemic. • The new phone system enabled ten Peabody employees to serve their customers from the safety of their own home. • Synergent develops industry�leading technology for credit unions across the country. Their services include core processing solutions, payment, programming, and marketing services. • In the early months of the COVID��� pandemic, Synergent came to OTELCO for help transitioning to a remote workforce. Many of their employees were not just making the switch to telecommuting, but also fulfilling new roles within the organization. To accommodate those changes, the company needed more phones. • Molly was able to swiftly assist Synergent in time for their move from office to home. She created a plan to clone Synergent's cloud�based phone system to allow users to connect from anywhere and increased their licensing agreements to make room for new users without compromising performance or security. • This solution helped upwards of fifty employees to safely and efficiently continue their work during the COVID��� outbreak. CLIENT: FA Peabody Mid to Northern Maine fapeabody.com OTELCO REP: Tiffany Free Strategic Account Manager tiffany.free@otelco.com CLIENT: Synergent Westbrook, ME synergentcorp.com OTELCO REP: Molly Perkins Strategic Account & Wholesale Manager molly.perkins@otelco.com

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