A colleague recently asked me what my plans are if our kids school closes this winter due to HINI penetrating our community. I looked at him blankly and sighed. In spite of all the hype around the upcoming flu season, I hadn’t really thought of it actually. Being a working mom, I sometimes filter all the data (meaning I don’t have time to watch the news) or I just stay in denial and hope my carefully crafted balancing act won’t be disrupted by things outside of my control (yeah right.)
Well, Eric, you brought up a really good point, and it got me thinking. Fortunately, I work at Citrix Online and we have lots of tools that enable me to work remotely from home, using GoToMyPC I can log into my work PC, I can collaborate online with my colleagues using GoToMeeting, and get support remotely from my IT HelpDesk with GoToAssist. Heck, I can even present in a webinar from home (assuming I’m well enough and don’t have screaming children in the background) using GoToWebinar. I know this seems like a shameless plug for all Citrix Online products but these products have enabled me to have flexiblity in my crazy-busy life.
So like last year, I know that I will work from home when my kids are sick or if their school closes – but I hope they dont’ get too sick (fingers crossed really tightly) and I certainly hope the school doesn’t close. But if it does, there will be lots of families looking for ways to stay connected to their work and some of those people will even be in IT.
The beauty of using GoToAssist is that you can use it from anywhere. You can remotely support your employees from home just as easily as if you are in the office or on the road. Everyone in IT and business should be thinking about business continuity for their companies, see this article from Business Week: Small Business Urged to Prepare for Swine Flu. But have you also thought about business continuity for yourself? How will you support all those employees who have to stay home due to school closures? What will you do if your school closes?
Photo: Collin Anderson
September 23, 2009 at 2:13 pm |
Hi Brenda,
This is all great stuff. The piece that we see many organizations miss is how you survive all the communications channels to your customers, employees and other stakeholders. When you can’t come to the office – how are calls routed, monitored, escalated, etc… Along with the tools outlined there needs to be a communication strategy that also supports distributed/remote work with phone, email, chat, SMS, etc…
Thanks…Kevin
October 5, 2009 at 2:07 pm |
Hi Keven, thanks for your comment and suggestions. These are all great points.
September 20, 2010 at 10:25 am |
The events of September 11 have really made people aware of the importance of DR solutions globally. Before when someone talked about DR planning it was only the big businesses that looked at it. Today, big, medium and small businesses look at DR in one shape or form. Everyone has really realized what exactly can happen and what these impacts can do to their business. Better to be safe than sorry I guess.