National Holdings Corporation
Phone System On Fire: A true story
When Everything Goes Up in Smoke
On Friday evening, October 21, 2011 more than 120 firefighters responded to a fire on the 28th floor of an historic 41-story building in downtown Manhattan. The 2-alarm fire was contained by 6:45 p.m, but the 28th floor would remain closed because of heavy smoke and water damage. The building, which dates to 1915, is listed as a National Historic Landmark and was the largest in the world when it was completed.
The 28th floor was occupied by National Holdings corporation, a full service investment banking and brokerage firm and a recent subscriber of ShoreTel Sky’s cloud-based phone solution. National Holdings had decided to convert its seven locations to the ShoreTel Sky system in succession. The New York location had not yet converted and was still operating with an older phone system located on site. The phone system suffered extensive smoke damage and simply stopped working, bringing the office’s voice communications to a screeching halt.
Realizing that an operational phone system was essential, especially during this type of crisis, William Silliman, VP of Information Technology & Development for National Holdings, called ShoreTel right away.
Even though it was Friday night, after business hours, the ShoreTel team jumped into action and began the steps necessary to get National Holdings’ New York location running on the ShoreTel Sky phone solution. This meant configuring the network infrastructure that was, fortunately, already in place. It also meant working with a partner to procure and deliver 115 phones by noon on Monday. It was also necessary to forward their current phone numbers to the ShoreTel Sky system. ShoreTel quickly supplied over 100 forward target numbers and programmed them throughout Sunday and into Monday. By working with the existing carrier to forward the lines, ShoreTel made sure that National Holdings could receive inbound calls on the ShoreTel Sky phones at the new location with minimal disruption to business activity. On Monday, ShoreTel staff members visited the location to make sure that everything was running smoothly.
“ShoreTel has helped keep our NYC Office up and running during the darkest days we have experienced.”
William Silliman, VP of IT & Development, National Holdings Corp
When you invest in a phone system you are buying more than dial tone and voicemail. With ShoreTel Sky you are getting an entire team dedicated to your success. Every call matters to your business so you can focus on the phone call, not the phone system.