This week on the #LoudounPossible Pod, Loudoun Economic Development Executive Director and podcast host Buddy Rizer chats with one of Loudoun’s top employers, Verizon Business. This series starts in a conversation with Alex Doyle on the importance of a continuity of business, through the lens of technology.
Doyle is responsible for Verizon’s Business Communications products, including Unified Communications, Collaboration, Call Centers, and One Talk, Verizon’s award-winning mobile-first business communications solution. The products and solutions delivered by Alex and his team support Verizon’s Global Enterprise customers, Business Markets customers, and Public Sector customers around the world.
In the unprecedented economic fallout of COVID-19, Doyle says that the importance of preparation has never been more evident.
“This pandemic has demonstrated that continuity of business plans really are essential. But what is remarkable to me is how quickly organizations have been able to transition to remote work,” he said. “In this crisis, what’s fascinating is that we’ve seen the businesses that did not have those well-defined plans were still able to react and mobilize fairly quickly and re-establish operations.
“CIO’s usually have a three-to-five-year plan or a theoretical plan, and the crisis forced them to really accelerate those three-year plans into a one-week plan. That’s great. That’s an indication of what today’s technology can provide and what businesses are able to do with the right partners.
Doyle says the way we work, and the pressure on the Verizon network has doubled, saying: “The number one day of the year for phone calls is Mother’s Day. Everybody calls on Mother’s Day and that makes sense. Literally, every day now is two times that of Mother’s Day.”
In late March, Verizon CEO Hans Vestburg appeared on CNBC, offering these stats about how reliance on the network has changed in the era of social distancing:
- Verizon customers are making an average of 800 million calls a day;
- Those calls are 33% longer in duration;
- 9 billion text messages are also being sent each day;
- Gaming on Verizon’s network has increased by 107%;
- VPN connections have increased by 50%.
The Verizon Business team has worked in record time to meet its customer’s needs.
“The amount of work we’ve done in a rapid amount of time has been inspiring,” Doyle said. And more change is coming and coming fast.
“Typical [digital] workforce traffic, for 30 years, has been very predictable. It’s been a 9-5 or 8-6 workspace, conference calls at a busy hour of 11 a.m. But in this new environment, you’re seeing conference calls at all times of day. You’re going to see different technologies, you’re going to see great innovation from the device manufacturers.”
On Wednesday, we’ll talk with Doyle’s colleague, John Loveland, about another challenge facing businesses: cybersecurity.
