Fear of the Unknown Coupled With Ignorance Can Be a Deadly Combination

By Lance Winslow

Many folks in New York City, in the lower elevations by the water, thought they were safe because the storm was coming in from the other direction, and therefore they assumed they wouldn't get hit with the waves. This is a faulty assumption based on ignorance of how tidal surges work, and perhaps the media should have done a better job explaining it, or the Mayor of New York City should have been a little more blunt, persuasive, and assertive in the matter. Do I believe this is a problem of failed leadership?

Well, I don't believe that our government leaders should be protecting people from themselves, people should be allowed to have liberty and freedom and make their own choices. However, they should also be allowed to live with those consequence, and yet, on the flip side of that issue, in this case they didn't receive the proper information, had they better known, and if they could've looked at the mathematical tidal flow modeling they would have realized this.

Unfortunately with all this great predictive software and visual graphics, it was never shown on TV for the people to see. I would say those graphic renderings on the nightly news could have certainly changed people's minds, causing them to evacuate as needed.

People on that little island in NY stayed in the homes when the Mayor told them to leave, they didn't heed the warning, felt safer in their own homes, but they didn't understand storm surges, they thought they were safe on the opposite side from the approaching storm. They didn't get the concept of a Venturi-like effect of an inlet or the reality that Hurricane move in circles. It is interesting that in our schools, we are worried about teaching people to read and write, and math and science.

Believe it or not these types of concepts are not hard to explain as long as you show it to someone using visual graphics. They don't need to know the math, in this case they just needed to understand that the mathematical modeling pictures and take all of the future issues into consideration. Mayor Michael Bloomberg constantly pitches Global Warming Theory, and shows us graphics of sea level rise, ice melt, and explains why we must do something about it.

And yet when it comes to something that's happening in real time, such as a hurricane approaching or in this case a downgraded super storm, well, they didn't do that. Many people stayed in their homes because they had feared of the unknown, not knowing where to go, and wanted to stay in a place they felt more comfortable or secure, and something that have come to know; their homes. Because of this, and also because of their ignorance, it became a deadly combination. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.

Lance Winslow has launched a new provocative series of eBooks on the Future of Education. Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net

Telephone Systems and Business Continuity, Don't Leave It Too Late!

By Jon Aston

Over the past years/decades there have been some terrible things happen around the world that couldn't have been foreseen, apart from the obvious damage to people and property these event's have caused interruption to businesses as well.

If your business is one where you need to be there to serve your customers, a coffee shop for example then this article might not help you, but if your business is one that isn't physically customer facing, for example most office staff function with a computer and a phone and never meet customers face to face then this article might be of use to you.

In the UK we get snow, personally I like snow, however in recent years it has brought large areas of the country to a standstill and for several days at a time, we have all seen it on the news and probably been stuck in it somewhere.

More recently in the UK there has been a lot of flooding in certain areas.

And of course other problems, gas leaks, crime scenes etc.

All of the above stop your staff getting into the office to answer the phones and deal with your customers enquiries and sales.

There might be flooding in York or snow in Manchester, but a customer in Devon who doesn't actually know your offices are in the north still expects to be able to call you and buy some widgets, or complain that the ones he ordered yesterday haven't arrived yet.

But your phones do not get answered if no-one can make it into the office.

So what happens now differs between customers and businesses but generally there seems to be a common theme,

• Loss of business (loss of profit)
• Unhappy customers (loss of profit)
• Extra workload for staff maybe overtime (loss of profit)

So what happens when someone phones in and doesn't get answered?

New customers who phone and don't get answered will seek an alternate supplier (result, loss of profit).

Existing customers who haven't been customers for very long and not have much loyalty may seek an alternate supplier (result, loss of profit).

Existing customers who are loyal will be upset and will want to know why they couldn't order their widgets and what "you" are going to do to make sure it doesn't happen again. This means putting in extra effort to please them and maybe also putting some extra free widgets in the box (result, loss of profit).

If your phone system has a message facility, voicemail, answer phone, these will get filled up with messages and complaints, all these have to be processed by the staff on their return along with the "customer.services@yourcompany.com" mailbox which is also full of complaints.

Remote access to computer systems is really easy nowadays, and with a lot of systems being web based these too are easy to access from home.

But how do you remotely answer that big black phone on your desk?

There are several main methods of solving this problem:

1. Panic and find a company who can drop what they are doing to help you (they might be stuck in snow as well), this will have a price tag, a time delay and is stressful.
2. Have an established relationship with a company that can invoke your Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity plan with one phone call/email from you.
3. Have an established relationship with a company that provides failover services in the event your phones don't get answered, this doesn't need a phone call from you to invoke it is always there and working.

I don't recommend option 1 for obvious reasons, however it is the most widely adopted option, do nothing until it really is a problem, then shout at some supplier to sort it out for me.

Options 2 and 3 can be setup in advance and with many hosted telephony systems suppliers to choose from there appears to be lots of choice, but make sure you choose one who is experienced in Disaster Recover/Business Continuity so you get the right advice for your business.

I personally like option 3, it doesn't need a "named" person to invoke DR, you might be that named person and might be on holiday or unavailable to make a 2 minute call.

Option 3 is there and working all the time, much like an overflow system except your staff can use a PC softphone (supplied for free) at home on their home PC to access the incoming calls and make outgoing calls, combine that with voicemail to email and instead of returning to the office to an overflowing answering machine/voicemail box the messages come to you in real-time via email, they even come to your phone (if it mail enabled).

So now you have your key staff safely tucked up at home and still dealing with your customers enquiries.

Results:

• less traffic stuck in the snow
• happy staff "get to work from home"
• happy customers, are able to order their widgets
• happy you, if staff and customer are happy then you are happy also, right?

Its a win win win win and if it's setup in advance, it can be automatic and not as expensive as you might think.

Jon Aston has been involved with Telephony and Telephony Systems since the mid 80's and has seen the progress and changes from Analog to Digital, Mobile and now VoIP systems.

He has also worked for and in a Major Telecoms PLC a Major Outsourced Service Provider "Hewlett Packard" and several large chemical/pharmaceutical/manufacturing companies where Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity processes were a standard part of the business.

He now has his own Telecoms business which provides DR, BC and many other services.

If you need Telecoms DR, BC or any other Telecoms advice then visit http://www.lanonyx.com and follow the "Telephony Services" link.