To employ or not to employ? Factors to consider when looking for IT support The first thing to disclose is that EasylifeIT ...
How should I prepare for a successful video meeting?
[lwptoc]
FORE! A technophobe has just joined the video meeting
Before COVID-19 drove us all indoors, I enjoyed the occasional game of golf. Golf has a somewhat stuffy reputation, with some justification. It is particularly well known for its mysterious etiquette, a set of usually unwritten rules, completely separate to the technical rules of the sport but apparently almost equally important. Players are expected to observe this etiquette or face some very severe tutting and muttering. Woe betide you if you tread on the line of another player’s putt.
Golf is very long established game, so the etiquette has had time to evolve and become part of the game’s culture. Whatever your opinion of its principles, it certainly does create a consistent level of behaviour recognisable in clubs across the world. And much of it is well intended, for example to prevent slow play and show some respect for your fellow golfers.
Video conferencing by contrast is a very young sport. It has recently experienced an explosion in new players thanks to COVID-19 and extensive home working. People are joining clubs such as Zoom, Teams and Skype and heading off ill prepared for 18 holes. If this were a real golf club, the impact would be quite anarchic and frightening – a load of novices turning up on the first tee with little experience, dodgy equipment and dubious technique. Balls flying in all directions, a few broken windows in the clubhouse and fury in the members’ bar as etiquette disintegrates.
What should be included in a business continuity plan?
[lwptoc]
Unpalatable, but predictable
You’ll be glad to know this isn’t another Coronavirus article. Businesses have been faced with severe threats to their survival long before anyone had heard of COVID-19 – floods, fires and other localised disruptions are not new. Pandemics do remind us however that unpalatable events can and will happen.
COVID-19 is unusual in recent history because its consequences for business have been so severe and so widely felt. And it brings into sharp focus the relationship between likelihood and impact. Once in a lifetime events are, by definition, very rare. But when they do strike the pain can be relatively high. We may be less able, or perhaps less willing (sometimes with justifiable good reason), to prepare. And – yes – let’s be honest – that justification may be that reducing the risk is prohibitively expensive and we decide therefore that it is a risk worth taking.
I once heard said that 60% of lost business is through “perceived indifference” on the part of the vendor. I have never been able to verify this figure, but looking back on my own dealings with various companies, I can well believe it. Hours spent listening to a recorded voice assuming me how valuable my call is, promised calls not returned and quotes that take days or weeks to arrive; usually after numerous calls to chase. I have walked away from numerous suppliers because what makes them looks bad reflects on your dealings with your own clients. “Sorry, but I am still waiting for the information” only washes for so long.