garygilliland:

Like all the best horror stories this one takes place on a dark and windy night. The wind is howling, rain is lashing down, suddenly there’s a flash of lightning. The lights go out. A whirr, a flicker and the backup generators have kicked in. Your management console reports that all of your servers have survived. Then you see it, the connection light on your Internet router is out. You call your provider and suddenly the night’s problems have now become a disaster. The local exchange has suffered a double hit, a lightning strike and a localised flooding. The repair estimates range from a few days to over a week. The situation may seem a little over the top but with more extreme weather events situations like this will become more common.

Most organisations spend considerable effort in protecting their network (security systems, backups, UPS, resilient servers etc.) but what about the Internet connection? Is it the forgotten element in your disaster recovery plan? There’s an assumption that because it’s run by the big telcos, everything will be fine.

How much of your business is dependent on connectivity? Can you operate without e-mail, will your remote employees be able to work without their connection to the central servers, will you be able to process orders from your website? What about your VOIP phones, video conferencing and of course access to information via the Web?

There are numerous ways to stay protected some of which are relatively cheap and simple whilst others require considerably more effort and investment. Your strategy needs to include operational, communication and technology elements. Finding the correct solution for you depends on your circumstances. How long can continue to do business without the Internet? What other systems do you have that you can deploy? Do you have a communications plan so that you can inform your customers and suppliers?

Regardless of which solution you choose the key lies in ensuring that you have prepared a plan for when it goes wrong. Do you have a plan which will protect you when the inevitable happens or will you end up starring in your own Internet horror story?

Flickr photo by Axel Rouvin’s

Approximately half the people on the planet have a mobile and by 2010 90% of the world’s population will be covered by a mobile network. This coupled with the ever falling cost of mobile data access will mean that the user base for mobile services will grow rapidly. Phones like Apple’s iPhone, Nokia’s N95, together with the various Palm, Windows Mobile and Blackberry devices have the facilities to access the data we need anywhere, anytime. Mobile phones should be changing how we interact with the net. Why is it then that the majority of organisations are ignoring this opportunity?

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Today marketing is almost as important as the product / service itself. Marketing departments develop strategies for advertising and public relations. HR departments ensure that the organisation is represented properly in the job market. Customer services ensure that problems are dealt with efficiently. These, and others, work to ensure that the company’s reputation is beyond reproach. With all of this work why is it that most organisations don’t manage their presence on the web?

For most, web presence means the company website but search engines don’t care whether it’s official content or not. Customers complain about you, competitors ensure bad news stories are made public and disgruntled employees leak internal issues. Unofficial news and comment can appear in a wide variety of blogs and forums. For search engines and the people who use them these are as much of an insight into the company or its offerings as anything that is published via official channels.

What can you do? The list below isn’t exhaustive but will provide you with a starting point.

• Search engines will allow you to do a broad sweep for where you are mentioned on the web. It is important that you check results beyond the first few pages.
• Spend some time learning which sites and forums are most influential in your sector and then monitor them regularly.
• Most search engines will allow you to create news alerts so that you can automatically monitor coverage from the formal news channels.
• Learn how use the blog search tools so that you can see what the blogosphere has to say.
• Use the logs from your own website to see where visitors are coming from so that you can begin build up an idea of what is bringing customers to you.

It’s not practical or useful to directly respond to every negative article or comment but on the rare occasion that a story gains traction don’t be afraid to interact. Offer explanations, remediation advice or explain how you plan to resolve the issue with future updates to policy or products. But don’t forget that comments you make on the web will likely be around for a very long time so ensure that they are truthful and realistic.

It’s not only negative information that appears on the web, you can learn which areas of your business are being praised and see how you are fairing against competitors. It can also be useful to see where and how customers are making use of your product / service, for instance you may find novel uses which you can exploit further or discover that it is being used in unexpected sectors.

Today, the majority of customers, competitors and potential recruits will use the Internet to do research prior to engaging with the company via official channels. You need to ensure that you are aware of what’s being said about you and by whom. Reputation is one of the most the precious commodities that an organisation has, what are you doing to ensure that yours remains intact?

photo by woodsy