Unified Communications Helps Enterprises Combat Bird Flu

From Unified Communications News, this online article describes information technologies (ITs) that provide flexible communication structures among employees, partners, suppliers, and customers for organisational survival during disasters. As stated by the author, the reasoning, particularly focussed on pandemic disasters, is that "... now is the time for network architects and engineers to make business preparations. IT personnel need to become educated - and to educate others - about the potential crisis, and they must also leverage tools to mitigate communications problems."


However, IT-based communications, including wireless phones, personal digital assistant (PDA), laptops, and smartphones with messaging, instant messaging and text messaging capabilities, already lend themselves to the possibility of mobile, location-independent communications, which should aid in pandemic flu business-continuity planning. "In addition, [Internet Protocol] IP phones and [Session Initiation Protocol] SIP-based multimedia tools pull together faces, voices, documents, and presentations into a single virtual, collaborative space. And presence servers, which let callers know whether you're available and which device will reach you most easily, are currently making inroads into corporate communication strategies... When deployed strategically, this set of technologies can play a pivotal role in the jobs of network architects and network engineers who are charged with ensuring that communications - the heart of any business - remain operational 24/7."


The author uses the example of SIP-based architecture: "a unified communication platform removes dependence on location, freeing up call centers and IT departments to be reassembled and carried out from a part of the country deemed safe for work", and are already available from multiple technology vendors. The article suggests the use of IP telephony by which a person can remove their desk telephone from the office and plug it in by ethernet cable at home, using the same phone number and features like voice mail and speed-dial.


Another strategic tool which takes into account the pandemic scenario of some workers being unavailable to clients, is conferencing software that makes conferencing, thus all clients and data, available to whole organisations both at an on-site office or off-site in home offices. It has been used by the American Red Cross in the Hurricane Katrina disaster management when training and information was needed in its 800 chapter locations before volunteers went to the disaster area. Volunteers could train at home through web conferencing, even in dial-up and low-bandwidth situations. In addition, volunteers were able to get online by using the audio device of their choice, including voice-over-the-computer, traditional telephone, cell phone, or IP phone.