In the first 2 parts of this series I made a case that collaboration solutions like WebEx are not only great productivity tools but also provide companies with a business continuity solution. Two great solutions for the price of one. So what should your company look for in a collaboration solution when they want to use it as part of their business continuity solution? Three key requirements come to mind:
1. The collaboration solution needs to be used daily. When your employees can't make it to the office because of a disruption, you want to ensure that they can remain as productive as possible. That can only be achieved by giving them tools they use daily and are comfortable with. If suddenly you would introduce a new tool, you will likely see a drop in productivity. This could put your business continuity strategy in doubt.
2. The collaboration solution needs to be accessible from anywhere. You don't know where your employees will be when the disruption happens. They can be at home, on the road, at a customer site or on vacation. So you cannot tie your business continuity telework solution to a specific location (i.e. the home office). Your employees should be able to telework from any location where they have Internet access and a phone line.
3. Your collaboration solution needs to be secure and meet the most stringest reliability, availability and scalability requirements available in the industry. Again, this is for an obvious reason, when your own infrastructure is out because of a disruption; you need to be able to trust on an on-demand collaboration solution that will be there for you when you most need it.
To learn more about these requirements and why on-demand collaboration solutions are a great engine to drive your telework initiative, listen to 3rd podcast in this series.
--Jan Sysmans, Director, Marketing, WebEx
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