December 28, 2009

Practicing What You Preach

Earlier this fall, I gave a short presentation on how the GraVoc News Blog had become a useful marketing tool for our organization because it helped show prospects, customers, and even competitors that GraVoc was a legitimate company with its finger on the pulse of its customers’ interests and concerns.

Shortly after the presentation the GraVoc News Blog had gone radio silent.  This is evidenced by the quantity of blog posts available in our archives for the month of November.  This illustrates that in order for the blog to continue as a useful tool, it requires constant nurturing, time, and attention.  My attention during this time shifted to other matters at hand, and the credibility of the blog suffered.

However, improvement is possible.  I wrote the last three blog posts, including this one, while snowed in earlier this month and unable to travel to work.  There was a limited amount of work I could do at the time, and I used my time effectively by going back and maintaining the blog by putting future posts into the draft section to be published later.  If I can juggle my responsibilities and maintain this space, a member of your organization can do that as well.  Roughly one hour a week is all it takes to turn your opinion or observations into a valuable marketing asset.

GraVoc Associates, Inc., a full-service technology consulting firm located in Peabody, MA, has served Greater Boston, New England, and beyond for over fifteen years in a wide variety of technology-related services, including the fields of information security, information systems, and professional services.  One of the services offered, is consulting on making media such as a blog work for your business’s marketing plan by proving your firm’s expertise and by enhancing your search engine optimization.  For more information, please see http://www.GraVoc.com or http://www.divergingsoul.com.

Also, please stay tuned to this blog on Thursday for a major announcement.

December 24, 2009

Warm Holiday Wishes from GraVoc

The entire GraVoc organization would like to take this time to send the best holiday wishes to all of our customers, vendors, families, and friends. 

December 21, 2009

GraVoc On Facebook

For those who do not personally institute a “No Facebook At Work” or even a “No Facebook At All” policy, GraVoc invites you to visit the company’s new Facebook fan page.  From the page, you will soon be able to view basic information about the company, connect with fellow customers/fans/well-wishers of the business, and have current posts of the GraVoc News Blog show up on your news feed.

Despite our expansion into this form of social media, GraVoc will not spam fans’ inboxes and will make all possible efforts to avoid the use of poor grammar, nonexistent punctuation, and web-speak acronyms.  The GraVoc Associates Facebook Fan Page is available here.

GraVoc Associates, Inc, based in Peabody, MA, specializes in providing technology-based solutions to small-to-midsized businesses in the fields of information systems, professional services, and information technology.  One of the services provided includes establishing your business’s web presence.  It is celebrating over fifteen years of business serving companies in a wide range of industries in Greater Boston, New England, and beyond.  For more information regarding the company, please visit GraVoc.com.

December 17, 2009

Northeast Ice Storm Anniversary (Part 2)

Note:  This is the second installment of a reflection on last year’s ice storm that devastated northern Massachusetts, southern New Hampshire, and southern Maine.  For the first installment, please refer to this link.

While many employees of a firm see a snowy day or a loss of power such as the loss of power due to the 2008 ice storm as an unexpected and welcomed day off, it is a burden on the company at large.  It means lost revenue, customers without service, and still the same expenses:  Those very same employees celebrating the day off are still expected to get paid their salaries.  This is why it is so important to have a plan both written and ready to launch to minimize disaster-related downtime.  Customers, like those waiting for power in New Hampshire last year, won’t “just understand” that a business they are relying on doesn’t have their act together in the face of disaster.

Just as important if not moreso is the lesson unfortunately learned by Unitil.  The utilities company suffered irreversible reputational damage as a result to the slow response to the 2008 ice storm disaster.  Unitil is now either a punch line or a swear word in those areas of New Hampshire and Massachusetts that lost power for so long last year.  The business will now have to continue to dig themselves out of a hole to survive.  There is no doubt that the state of New Hampshire will be investigating Unitil’s past BCP to find out what went wrong last year, as well as its new one to determine whether there will be provisions in place to prevent a repeat of this week last year. 

GraVoc Associates, Inc. is a full-service technology consulting firm located just outside of Boston in Peabody, MA.  GraVoc has served Greater Boston, New England, and beyond for over fifteen years in the fields of information systems, information security, and professional services.  GraVoc’s disaster recovery/business continuity consulting has served, among other clients, many clients in the highly-regulated financial services industry, which provides a high standard for business continuity compliance.  For more information, please visit the GraVoc website at www.GraVoc.com.

December 14, 2009

Northeast Ice Storm Anniversary (Part 1)

It’s been a year since a historically-devastating Thursday night ice storm gripped northern Massachusetts, southern New Hampshire, and southern Maine.  Though the ice eventually melted, down trees and damaged power infrastructure robbed several thousand individuals and businesses of power—and customers of these businesses still demanded adequate and prompt service.

Just as pandemic planning may have seemed abstract, vague, and useless until enterprises needed to amend human resources policies and supply chain procedures in response to this year’s H1N1 flu outbreak, traditional business continuity/disaster recovery planning is similarly abstract until it is actually tested in a live environment.  A case in point is the now-notorious utility company Unitil, who, according to a (N.H.) Union Leader article, will be investigated by the public sector for its inability to restore power to residents for over half a month in some cases.

Your enterprise’s disaster recovery plan must be contingent on what is most crucial to your business and what services you must provide immediately to your customers.  If your business is dependent on having adequate staffing in times of disaster, the plan should include how to cope with extreme circumstances by adding and dispatching additional staff quickly so that business can be delivered.  If your business relies largely on the available of technology, like many of our customers, the restoration of that technology in a timely fashion is a top priority.  This priority should be reflected explicitly and appropriately in your business continuity plan.  This should take into consideration leveraging current technology and outsourcing relationships, both of which are outlined in more detail in this IBM whitepaper.

GraVoc Associates, Inc. is a full-service technology consulting firm located just outside of Boston in Peabody, MA.  GraVoc has served Greater Boston, New England, and beyond for over fifteen years in the fields of information systems, information security, and professional services.  GraVoc’s disaster recovery/business continuity consulting has served, among other clients, many clients in the highly-regulated financial services industry, which provides a high standard for business continuity compliance.  For more information, please visit the GraVoc website at www.GraVoc.com

More information on the anniversary of the 2008 ice storm will be made available on the GraVoc News Blog, http://gravoc.blogspot.com, on Thursday December 17th.