We’re a bunch of collegial competitors in IT support, and in recently sharing some thoughts with an industry fellow, I learned that Toshiba is shutting down its telephone business as part of a global restructuring. It seems that the pending bankruptcy of its Westinghouse Electric nuclear division is having a major financial fallout that’s affecting Toshiba America Information Systems’ (TAIS) Telecommunication Systems Division (TSD).

If you have a Toshiba phone system, as one client does, you need to make plans to secure third-party support or be ready to migrate to whichever company may buy Toshiba’s phone system assets. However, there are many things that any company needs to do whenever any of its technology suppliers goes out of business. Some companies have assets that can be acquired, in which case you can most likely expect factory-level support. Some companies are better than others about helping you stock up on replacement parts and providing final firmware updates and security patches, but we wouldn’t count on it.

As an IT support company, we can help you in a number of ways.

• We’ll check to make sure you have the most up-to-date firmware and security patches for your hardware system. We can’t emphasize enough the importance of this. Any security hole in your phone system can easily lead to a breach in your entire network. Updates will buy time for any next steps you’ll need to take.
• We’ll help you evaluate your options. Your best option may be to continue with your system based on its age, its capabilities and the strength of current firmware and security software or the strength of support from another provider. Our two goals are to protect the integrity of your business systems and to help you maximize your investment in your current technology.
• If migration to another system is your best option, we’ll help you plan a budget and timetable for making your move. As part of the process, we’ll help you evaluate all the available systems that fit your needs to help you fully understand the strengths and weaknesses of each and set ROI goals.

System providers come and go. Always have; always will. But if you keep your eyes and ears open and take a deep breath when you get bad news about one of yours, we can always help you find a solution. And working together, we can find one that meets your cost and capability needs as best as possible. Call us – 973-433-6676 – or email us with any questions about looking for new systems.