Comcast Business Offers Tools to Help Businesses Cope with COVID-19

Comcast Business is partnering with a number of companies to offer tools for free or at a discount to support businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Craig Schlagbaum is Comcast Business’ senior vice president and channel chief. He said ensuring partners and their customers remain connected is a top priority.

The third-party apps help businesses better communicate with their customers and employees. They also help with managing projects, and even promote good health and mental well-being, he said.

• Zipwhip is a business text messaging platform. It lets users send and receive text messages from their business phone number. Comcast Business customers can get Zipwhip free for 60 days to help them stay connected to their customers.
• Hive is a project and task management platform. It allows businesses to track tasks and projects, communicate and keep projects moving. Comcast has teamed up with Hive to offer enterprise and workspace add-ons free for 60 days.
• EComFax lets users send and receive faxes securely to and from anyone using an email client. Comcast internet customers can sign up for 60-day free trial access to eComFax SMB Edition.
• Stella Connect’s platform connects customer feedback, quality assurance and coaching. It gives contact center leaders visibility into performance. Comcast has teamed up with Stella to offer access free for 90 days.
• In addition, Grokker provides access to content for fitness, mindfulness, sleep, stress reduction, nutrition and financial well-being. And SevenRooms provides restaurants a direct online solution to offer delivery and pickup options to customers.

Comcast’s Craig Schlagbaum

“We are staying in close communication with our partners to understand what they are hearing from their customers in order to identify solutions that would benefit the immediate needs of businesses impacted by the pandemic,” Schlagbaum said.

Focus on Priorities

Comcast’s main priority is staying focused on its customers’ evolving needs, he said. It also is helping as many clients as possible carry on with their business “during these unpredictable times.”

“Maintaining connectivity is currently one of the most important aspects helping to keep businesses productive,” Schlagbaum said. “This sudden shift to remote working and digital commerce has put new demands on technology infrastructure.”

Emerging technology like SD-WAN can be especially useful in effectively managing this new reality of distributed workforces, he said. For example, IT departments can remotely monitor the health of company networks from a single portal.

“SMBs can best protect themselves by working with their service providers to fully understand the resources and tools that are available to them,” Schlagbaum said. “Whether it is through government funding, or working with a tech provider to see if there are additional offers that could assist them in keeping their business moving — remaining educated and resourceful is key during this time.”