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| Dealing with the fallout of terror |
November 6, 2001 |
By Peter Wolchak
No one was prepared for the death and suffering inflicted on America in September, but out of that has arisen a determination to continue with business and personal lives, to prove that the terrorists didn’t win.
But we’re not facing a business-as-usual situation. Many changes are hitting the workplace as a result of the terrorist attacks. And only some are evident now.
Business travel: As this column is being written a precipitous drop in travel has Air Canada planning massive layoffs, Swissair going bankrupt and American carriers asking Washington for an emergency cash bailout.
A post-attack poll by The Society for Human Resource Management among American HR professionals found a majority felt employees no longer considered travel as glamorous, and 37 per cent said business travel would be reduced.
This reaction will hit home for any business that routinely flies staff to meetings and it’s important for management to understand that fear is now a factor.
No travel substitutes: Is there a viable option to business travel? Not really, according to telecommunications analyst Ian Angus, the president of Angus TeleManagement Group in Ajax, Ont.
The obvious pinch-hitter would seem to be Internetbased teleconferencing. The price has dropped, the quality has improved, and many meetings are now held online. But Angus said important gatherings still tend to work better in person. “Nothing replaces sitting in a room with the same people. A lot of what’s decided in a meeting is not the talking-heads part but what’s discussed while you’re off having coffee.”
The rise of mobile technology: Wireless and mobile technology has long been a hot topic, but the attacks in New York and Washington emphasized the importance of staying in contact. Emergency cell calls were placed by those directly affected by the attacks and stranded travelers tried to do business via mobile phones and wireless e-mail.
Unfortunately, crises will likely overwhelm the limited capacity of even advanced wireless systems, according to Angus. “The capacity of wireless networks is doubling about every nine months, but the total capacity is never going to match that of even one strand of fibre cable. Inside New York City and Washington wireless got pretty poor as a communications technique as a result of the attacks. There are reports of people waiting five and 10 minutes to get a dial tone on cell phones.”
The lesson here, Angus said, is key corporate players should have access to multiple devices. “[An executive] is probably not going to carry a satellite phone, given the weight of such things. But someone like that should at least have satellite service accessible, so he or she can get it in a rush. These people should also have cell phones, plus a BlackBerry or some similar wireless e-mail device, and there should be a home office that can duplicate the main office functions.”
The threat of more: As horrible as the recent attacks were, perhaps the biggest fear is that more may be coming.
As reported on page 34 of this issue, the next conflict could be launched by computer experts targeting North American communication, financial or power systems. Like other terrorist assaults, these operations are relatively cheap to launch and require few attackers.
On a smaller scale, your corporate information may not be as safe as you believe. Disturbing news on the security of wireless networking can be found on page 24.
Going forward: Through the gloom of this tragedy come some glints of hope.
Web-shopping site BizRate.com reported in late September that online retail sales returned to 85 per cent of normal volume in the week following the Sept. 11 terrorist actions. That day saw only US$56.3 million in online sales, a drop of 39 per cent compared to the Sept. 10 total of US$92.41 million. By Sept. 17 the figure had climbed to US$82.49 million.
That is a welcome vote of confidence for the economy and for e-business.
Another hopeful sign comes from companies such as Entrust, International Data Corp. and IBM, which are reporting a swell of corporate interest in computer security. Computers are inherently vulnerable but companies can take proactive steps.
Lastly, it is reassuring to see many companies benefited in September from Year 2000 preparations carried out in 1999. Many firms in New York’s financial district, for example, made use of procedures and back-up facilities designed to offset date-related computer outages. Many of those systems performed exactly as designed.
pwolchak@backbonemag.com
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