You're on your own! Hard experience during recent disasters has shown that telecommunications is often the first and most important resource to be lost. And this at a time when being able to communicate is absolutely essential for company survival and disaster recovery. While there have been some rumblings in US legislative circles, frankly, no amount of legislation or government oversight is likely to guarantee the integrity of the infrastructure or availability of communications in the wake of low probability, high impact events. The days of a single entity with complete and effective oversight of the communications infrastructure are long gone. And, they won't be coming back. In the two decades since the break-up of Ma Bell, the telecommunications infrastructure and resulting services offered have greatly increased in complexity and sophistication. At the same time, the infrastructure has become more fragmented with the various pieces of it owned by myriad companies rather than a single entity. Mapping the physical location of assets is now an almost impossible task. Pieces of the infrastructure change hands on a moment by moment basis and no one completely knows exactly where all of the assets are located, who owns them and, due to the nature of resource sharing, whether or not redundancies truly exist. When failures occur, it is difficult to determine whose piece of the infrastructure may be at fault, where it's located and who should fix it. When you add to this mix the heightened awareness for national security, it is increasingly difficult to gain the quick access to the infrastructure that is absolutely necessary at such times. During these wide ranging, high impact events, identity and authorization concerns may cause local, state and federal authorities to deny technicians access to critical pieces of infrastructure for long periods of time. If there is a single compelling lesson to be gleaned from these occurrences, it is that “You’re on your own.” You and only you are responsible for yourself, your organization and your community. Following a disaster no-one may be coming to rescue you, particularly not in those first few hours or days following a major event. In his book ‘The Resilient Enterprise’, author Yossi Sheffi addresses public responsibility saying: “Companies have a societal responsibility to protect their assets and operations, not only for their own sake, but for society’s sake…’ During times of disaster your ability to communicate the facts of the situation as well as your capabilities and intentions to your supply chain partners, the local community and authorities, employees and their families, even the press, is an important demonstration of your commitment to fulfil your ‘social contract’ with each of these entities. It can also be an opportunity for you to gain competitive advantage over those who fail to seize the opportunity to control their future. ‘On your own’ isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it can be a great place to be. ‘On you own’ means that you can choose to exercise control over your destiny. The message is clear: “You’re on your own. Now, how will you turn this into a company advantage when everyone else sees it as a problem?” That is where the planning for these events can save the day and even expand your market share. Mike Bemis, CBRM, CEO, Voice Continuity Services, Inc.
•Date: 25th April 2006 • Region: US • Type: Article •Topic: Telecoms continuity |
