kdr ebusiness

The Isle of Man branch of the British Computer Society is running a Search Engine Optimisation Masterclass on 29/10/08 at Ballakermeen High School from 18:00 hrs onwards. Admission is free to all. For anyone interested in learning how to make their website more visible to the search engines it will be worth a visit.

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Have you ever sent an email and then immediately realised that you had made a mistake? Do you wish that you could get the email back before anyone reads it? I was recently asked if it was possible to recall an email that had been sent in error, and whilst it is feasible to send out a recall notice from Outlook, this is not a reliable method across all email platforms. So are there any options for those of us prone to the odd email gaffe?

One method we found was to set a small delay on all outgoing emails. This will give you time to recover from the occasional ‘oops’ email before it leaves the building.

Has anyone else got their own solutions to this perennial problem?

UPDATE: Here’s a big list of example email bloopers

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Planning for disasters that may never happen is seldom at the forefront of business owners minds. You will have seen many vendors quoting statistics about business failures following disaster scenarios. However, these almost always leave out the most important statistic, and that is “What percentage of businesses ever suffer a disaster?” Without knowing that you cannot calculate the level of risk you take if you choose not to plan for disaster recovery. The key to dealing with this is to adopt a rational and objective approach to your business continuity planning. Thankfully there now exists a British Standard for Business Continuity Planning known as BS25999.

This latest development in business contingency planning is the recent publication of British Standard 25999. The British Standards Institute is pushing hard to promote this standard and it is worth taking a look at it.

Part one of the standard is a concentration of business continuity best practice. Using the “BS25999 Part 1: Code of Practice” as a guideline makes it easier for businesses to plan, manage and maintain their business continuity so that disruptions or disasters have a reduced impact on customers, staff, business partners, and shareholders.

Why should your company be interested? There are a number of reasons:

1. Having a business contingency plan that is regularly tested and exercised means that you know that you can recover from business disruptions.
2. Your customers, partners and suppliers can have a greater confidence in your company which may help to protect your businesses competitive position.
3. You are protecting the reputation of your company or brand.
4. You are reducing the financial, physical and operational risks to your company.

“BS25999 Part 2: Specification” deals with the Management Systems in place that ensure that your business continuity plans remain up to date and current. This part of the standard can also be audited against and your company can seek BS25999 certification against this standard. Based on what we know from uptake of earlier standards (such as ISO 9001) we know that early adopters certified to BS25999 will gain early competitive advantage and can demonstrate to their stakeholders that they can survive business disruptions. You no longer will have to say to your customers ‘trust us’.

Rob Mercer is a recognised Lead Auditor for British Standard 25999. In addition he has many years experience of practical application of disaster recovery planning and testing. If you would like to learn more about how your company can benefit from adopting or certifying against this standard then please get in touch.

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