News in this morning from Hugh at mobile messaging and telephony provider, MediaBurst. They’ve won a deal wth reputable law firm, Reynolds Porter Chamberlain, to provide them with ther disaster text service, ‘Business Continuity’.
It’s genius. Well, it is, and it isn’t. It’s actually really simple — but a massive, massive issue for almost every company. The genius bit is getting clients to buy and use the service. I just can’t understand how so many companies can get by without these kinds of systems. It’s similar to how I react when I hear that a school’s only way of communicating with parents is by sending a letter home! Ridiculous.
What do big companies do if there’s a bomb alert — or, worse — if the company’s building is destroyed by a bomb at 6am in the morning? Do they phone each employee to say ‘right, er, listen…’ and explain the problem? How do they co-ordinated their employees? I know most financial institutions have standby trading rooms and telephone tree style systems. One bank I know has issued all its traders with a business-card sized instruction leaflet containing helpful suggestions like: “If you think the office has been blown up, please phone this number to hear an answer machine message from the management”.
So I am always delighted when I read and report about trailblazers in this field.
Have a read of the announcement:
City law firm Reynolds Porter Chamberlain (RPC) LLP is the latest business to adopt Mediaburst’s Business Continuity tool as central to its disaster recovery plan. The web-based tool will enable the law firm to instantly communicate with partners, lawyers and support staff during emergencies to ensure business continuity.
‘Mediaburst’s Business Continuity text tool is one of the most cost-effective and efficient means of instantly communicating and interacting with people during emergencies,†says Neil Davison, RPC’s IT operations manager. “At a time when phone networks become congested and communications fail, text messages get delivered. That’s why Mediaburst’s tool has been selected as the prime communicator in our disaster recovery plan.”
Davison’s comments refer to a specific communications problem that all businesses will face during emergencies be they floods, fires, bomb incidents, or otherwise. Phone lines will be come congested and people will be difficult to contact. As text messages do not rely on voice channels for transmission, they don’t piggyback on enterprise mail servers and travel as small packets of data on a wireless carrier’s control channel … the same portion of the spectrum that keeps a mobile network apprised of a particular phone’s location and status. Being isolated in the control channel, SMS messages are therefore usually unaffected by heavy traffic or adverse conditions that overwhelm wireless networks.
More from MediaBurst at www.mediaburst.com.