Jason Brawner, Chief Information Officer for Conifer Holdings, points out that even prior to the pandemic, he was less than thrilled with the company’s phone solution. “We had an on-premise system that was technically VoIP, but it only worked well for people when they were in the office,” he explains.
One of Jason’s biggest concerns was business continuity. “We’re based in Michigan and with our phone system running in-house, storms could cause down time with the office network, meaning live calls could drop and employees could lose phone service for as long as the power was out.”
But Conifer had already invested in the phone system, and the IT team had gotten skilled at finding workarounds for the system’s shortcomings. Jason planned to squeeze another year or so out of that investment. Then COVID happened—and he realized Conifer couldn’t wait that long. “Our support and sales agents were struggling with the phone system at home. It just couldn’t support us as a remote company.”