“Sorry Sir, our system is offline”

  • South African Proverb

It’s as uniquely South African as biltong, the Bokke, minibus taxis and tweeting about the President’s shirt. Systems being offline is by no means exclusive to our beautiful country, but it’s a saying used significantly more frequently than most of us would like. Passports, ID books, drivers’ licences (and, heck, even a whole countries electricity provider) have all been subject to it – but the modern, efficient business owner understands that even a second of downtime can make or break your entire organisation.

Admittedly, this can be a bit hard to adhere to given the difficult external circumstances said business owners face. Randomised power outages (sometimes multiple times a day), weak signal, a whole pandemic and the entirety of Facebook, Whatsapp and Instagram shutting down without warning (hey, some of us work in Social Media) all threaten to undermine your organisational commitment to maximum output.

The bad news is that at any given time, something new can arise.

The good news? Vox boasts an array of solutions which are a sure-fire way to ensure that down-time doesn’t happen at any time.

Let’s start with power outages (because they’re the most relevant and, sadly, don’t seem to be going away soon. Be patient, it’s only been 13 years…)

Well, we’ve *beeeeen* saying this, but a UPS Solution from Vox should have been designed exclusively with South Africa in mind. Sadly, we don’t have one big enough to plug into everyone’s favourite electricity provider, but we definitely have a few to take a bit of the load off while everyone else is shedding. True, nothing can eliminate the unanimous frustration of having your TV, Devices and lights shut off at least once a day, but at least you can still work remotely and reduce the impact of rolling outages (plus Netflix and chill is better in the dark anyway).

Our smaller Fibre unit is designed to connect up to 3 devices and should keep you online with a seamless switchover once the power cuts. Small and compact, it has a 40-Watt output, and can ensure that working from home isn’t at a standstill for two hours a day. Our bigger model, the Home Office UPS, reaches up to 5 Devices with a 500-Watt Output and can, if need be, power up your PC, screen and cell phone in conjunction with your Internet solutions. Both models have up to 4 hours of battery life and 24/7 support. Because we’ve got your back. Always.

What about Systems actually being offline? How do you prevent that?

Well, you’ve got to start with the best Internet connection to ensure maximum connectivity (and limited downtime). In terms of reliability, speed and durability, you can’t go wrong with Fibre to the Home or Business. Not only is it less prone to theft or impacted by bad weather, but it promises faster connectivity and a vastly reduced chance of being disconnected.

But what if your area can’t get Fibre? Relax, because LTE has you covered. Fibre-like speeds without the fixed line, it’s the best way to enjoy all the speed in the areas you really need them. Combine this with a Cloud or Archiving solution, which allows you to store, access and manage your Data remotely (or on the go) and you have no reason for your valuable information to ever be inaccessible (incidentally, you can also find a wide array of software options from Braintree, such as D365 Business Central, D365 Customer Management, BC Xpress, CRM24, Teams and M365. These enable you to manage or run your operations both remotely and from the comfort of, well, wherever you desire).

But what if my PC crashes, or I have an IT problem that needs solving?

That would be a tough one if we didn’t have a team of experts ready and waiting to assist a client in need. For only R29pm, our Home IT Support team can remotely troubleshoot those pesky issues with the touch of a button. You (or your team) can access any one of our skilled engineers from between 07h00 and 21h00 on workdays without being charged for hours of non-use (we only bill for the time spent getting actual assistance). From your end, all you have to do is activate an installed desktop icon. We offer BitDefender Anti-Virus and Anti-Malware, regular Windows Updates and patching of any identified security holes. Peace of mind, ease of access and expert assistance? You’ve got it with our team that prioritises the things that matter.

The way we see it, the modern remote workspace has enough challenges without the added stress of non-service delivery affecting your output. Thankfully, we live in the age of technology, and there’s always a solution in waiting. We’ve refined our own operational model to fully embrace the concept of Work from Home, but we wouldn’t be advocates for the concept if we hadn’t fledged out solutions which circumnavigate any potential stumbling blocks.

So leave the “system offline” problem to Home Affairs and let your experts in tech solutions offer you just that.