The world is getting smaller. This is not a new or profound statement, but when you stop and consider the implications attendant to this shrinking, they are certainly sweeping. First off, we continue to see strong population growth in many parts of the world, with the global population continuing to move upward, projected to crest between 9 and 10 billion people.
And all these people are living in closer proximity than ever before, as accentuated by the increasing urbanization of the world's population. According to the UN, for the first time in recorded human history, more people now live in cities than in rural areas.
This larger concentration of people brings increased complexity and congestion - a challenge that governments, companies and individuals must navigate to remain productive and competitive. The increased concentration of people also places amplified demands on many of the environmental resources upon which society depends, such as water and energy. Of course, this density also brings increased innovation as people interact with more and more people. This innovation will be necessary to find solutions to issues such as congestion and limited resources.
The Olympics as a microcosm
In many ways, hosting an Olympics is a microcosm of the global trends outlined above, as the massive influx of athletes and spectators places significant demands on existing infrastructure. Part of this challenge is alleviated by infrastructure expansion and development, but that is often not enough. We here at Avaya are proud to be part of the second major answer, by offering our customers high tech communication and mobility solutions and platforms. Specifically, with high performance mobility technology tools, businesses, no matter their size, are able to ameliorate the challenges created by the Games for their most important resource, their people.
How do you deal with this influx of people? One technique employed by governments is placing temporary restrictions for travel. For example, in Vancouver the following restrictions are in place, as articulated by the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Transportation Team on its TravelSmart 2010 website, "During the 2010 Winter Games, there will be road restrictions, increased vehicle traffic and no parking at venues and along key routes." We know how important it is for our partners to be able to mitigate these to the greatest extent possible, and Avaya technology will be a key cog in achieving business continuity throughout the Games.
Our work in the Vancouver/British Colombia area extends far beyond the Olympic network deployment. With our many partners and customers in the area we have worked to ensure that their IT solutions are flexibly designed to withstand the types of increases in operational challenges that are occurring during the Olympic Games. These partners range in size from small to large, with the benefits of such platforms impactful for any size organization. We have also worked with many of our customers with robust mobility platforms, which enable them to let their employees work remotely. These mobility platforms are effective regardless of whether an employee is primarily mobile, office-based or remote. Through mobility, employees can circumvent much of the challenges created by millions of people visiting the area in a concentrated period of time by altering their schedule to move at non peak times or work from different locations.
In fact, telework technology tools are a key part of the overall regional transportation plan to ensure that this aspect of the 2010 Olympics Games is successful. In advocating for teleworking during the Games, the regional transportation authorities outlined benefits such as less time lost due to weather or business interruption, increased productivity, recruitment and retention, higher job satisfaction and morale, reduced commuting costs and improved air quality.
The bottom line is that throughout these ITC deployments our goal is to provide a cost - effective way for employees to remain productive from anywhere.
How does it work?
The technology behind such a system is based on unified communications ("UC") carried over a virtual private networks. An Avaya UC client gets loaded onto each corporate laptop providing all workers with the necessary tools to do their job. Features available on that client include instant messaging and chat, voice mail/unified messaging, IP telephony and video conferencing. Additionally, a private network ("VPN") infrastructure provides end-to-end security between their computer and the corporate network, with the same security provided remotely as that protecting the corporate headquarters.
Triple Bottom line benefits of a robust enterprise mobility platform
In addition to the productivity gains there are also significant sustainable benefits (economic, environmental and social) from enterprise mobility.
- Economic: By enabling remote access, organizations are able to more efficiently right-size their office space and are more readily able to scale during periods of growth. Also, a robust VPN network underpins enterprise security. Finally, mobile workers reduce commuting expenses (gas, time) and can increase productivity.
- Environmental: Employees are able to commute less or at off-peak times and as a result significantly decrease CO2 emissions. For example, the United States Bureau of Transportation Statistics Report found that the average U.S. commute was roughly 30 miles per day, round trip (over 7,000 miles a year). This commuting produces an estimated 3.3 tons of carbon annually. Employees who can eliminate this commute will have a real and meaningful decrease in their personal carbon footprint.
- Social: Surveys of teleworkers indicate that mobility programs produce significant personal benefits; specifically an increased sense of well-being and reduced stress. They also save a lot of time, with the average commute time per day in the Vancouver area being 67 minutes, according to Statistics Canada.
Mobility as a global tool
You don't have to be in a region fortunate enough to be hosting a major sporting event like an Olympics or World Cup to realize the power of a robust mobility technology platform. With the world getting ever smaller, there are many sustainable reasons for moving to a UC platform and no matter your location, there are significant benefits such as those I have outlined above to be gained by shifting to a more flexible and resilient network:
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Posted 18 Feb 2010 at 05:34 PM