The Dutch Voice over IP (VOIP) telecom operator Voys will move its entire operations including all 34 employees from the Netherlands to Spain for a week. With the temporary relocation the company wants to demonstrate the location independence of their cloud telephony business for which it provides the same benefits to its customers. The company will remain reachable on its local Dutch phone numbers and hopes to provide "business as usual" to its 4000 customers.
Voys is a Dutch VOIP telecom operator that mainly serves SMEs in the Netherlands but is also in the progress of expanding to other European countries. The company allows users to manage their telephony over the internet and also manages its own operations in "the cloud".
In case of Voys that means it's able to connect new customers, bill them, access Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software and provide support all in the cloud and/or over the internet. Also the software to provide the telephone service can be accessed from any remote location and the company is nearly paperless.
To demonstrate to their customers how well that works, the entire company today moved 1500 Km to a house in Spain for a week , where all 34 employees will live and work together. The company promises its customers that they won't be aware of the move, the telecom operator will provide business as usual. The entire relocation has a single point of failure however, the connection with the internet.
To make the relocation possible, preparations started in 2012, when the idea first came up. Desktop computers of all employees were gradually replaced by laptops and a project was started. Several requirements were set, as much employees as possible should be able to participate in the relocation, the location for a week had to have nice weather, it should be within the same timezone and the location should have a solid internet connection.
After searching for a while, the company picked Girona, a city close to Barcelona in Spain, known for great weather circumstances and close to many popular European holiday destinations. All employees could take a direct flight to Girona from an airport close to the Voys' office and stay in a villa suitable to host 40 people.
The location didn't have a sufficient internet connection and therefor the company decided to use internet by satellite. Today the relocation takes place and the company hopes to demonstrate that indeed their cloud telephony service is really location independent.
