A Virtual Work-Around The RNC

The Republican National Convention will hit New York City next week. Gridlock and frozen zones, as well as the arrival of armies of protesters and RNC delegates
could make it tough for ordinary citizens to go about their work days. To cope, some
companies in the hot zone are making their operations virtual.

Several square blocks of midtown Manhattan will be at least partially
closed to traffic from Sunday, August 29, through Saturday, September 5.
Delivery drivers are expecting long delays as they make their ways through
security, while cabbies will have to drop their fares and let the folks walk in.
Complicating the scenario further is the fact that Penn Station,
a major commuter hub for workers coming from all over the Tri-State area,
sits beneath Madison Square Garden, which is the RNC venue. And one of its entrances
will be closed.

With some 250,000 out-of-towners expected to converge on the city for protests along with just under 5,000 delegates, the week will not be commute-friendly.

Businesses are
preparing to take a productivity hit. In a survey of local real estate
executives, CoreNet Global found one quarter of those surveyed are letting employees work from
home, and 6 percent have set up alternative office space away from Madison
Square Garden. But telecommuting isn’t a panacea. The trade organization
for real estate executives found 56 percent
expected a decline in productivity, while 29 percent said that this decline
would hurt the bottom line.

That decline is not only due to dislocated and distracted employees of
RNC-area businesses working from home. The prospect of protests and
traffic jams looks like it will create a ripple effect, with a general
slowdown throughout New York.

Infinity Consulting is across the street from Madison Square Garden, and
none of the 25 employees in that branch will attempt to trek to the office.

“Our New York City-based clients really aren’t showing up, or they’ll be on
limited work schedules,” said CEO Louis Forino.

But the Infinity team will keep
cranking, focusing on customers outside the metro area, thanks to the
Internet and Voice over IP (VoIP) .

VoIP turns
speech into packets that can be delivered to any IP address. It’s a boon to
businesses with workers who telecommute, because, with an IP phone in hand,
they can log in from any broadband connection and begin receiving calls to
their direct-dial number.

Business people have long relied on Web access to e-mail and Web
interfaces to enterprise systems and applications. But VoIP could provide the
missing link, eliminating missed calls and phone number confusion.

“[During the convention], everyone will log in from home, and our
receptionist, from her home, can transfer calls just as she can from the
office,” Forino said. “Plus, your direct-dial line will still work. You
combine VoIP with all the technical stuff we know how to do, and people can
work wherever they want.”

The RNC will be a good test of companies’ disaster recovery plans, as
well. For example, The Lloyd Group, provider of outsourced IT services for
small- to medium-sized businesses, began using VoIP after last summer’s
blackout, which
crippled New York and other cities in the northeast.

“I was handling client calls from a cell phone on
the Ocean City Boardwalk,” said Lloyd Group CEO Adam Eiseman of the effect the blackout had
on his business. “We decided we
wouldn’t be quite as haphazard in the future, and the RNC was a catalyst to
put a plan in place that will cover anything from a water main break to
something more serious.”

The Lloyd Group’s system includes a Manhattan apartment with a phone bank
and PCs, while the company servers are replicated and hosted at a remote
location. The company has signed on for a hosted IP phone system from M5, a
VoIP provider for businesses in the New York area.

“With the hosted IP, it
doesn’t make a difference where you are, because the phone system sits
somewhere else,” Eiseman said. “Anywhere you have broadband Internet access,
you can plug in a phone and receive your calls.”

The Lloyd Group is using the VoIP service as a backup right now, but Eiseman plans to move the
company’s complete phone service to M5.

“Long-term, it offers cost benefits,
especially to small and medium businesses,” he said. For example, smaller
operations might wish to install redundant broadband lines, but they may not be able
to justify the cost. With hosted IP, companies save on telecommunications costs
to cover extra Internet connections.

The major telcos also are offering VoIP services,
and they’re responding to intense advertising by VoIP
upstarts by cutting prices.

At the same time, wireless telcos are offering services targeting the
business user who wants access to business information while out of the
office — or who can’t get into the office.

In one of the latest deals,
Verizon Wireless and Intellisync teamed to offer Wireless Sync, a service
that provides constant synchronization of e-mail, calendar, contacts and
task lists from the corporate server to Treo 600 wireless handhelds from
PalmOne . Constant syncing helps eliminate problems of
telecommuting, such as not having access to a critical e-mail that was
downloaded to the desktop at work.

However, it’s a different story for convention delegates. The city is
leaving it up to wireless providers to bump up service if they choose.

“At
the end of the day, it’s the carriers who provide the service,” a
spokesperson for the Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. “Entrepreneurial companies can provide
service or not. It’s all up to them.”

While Wi-Fi has been banned from the convention floor, delegates who
venture outdoors can take advantage of free Wi-Fi provided by NYCwireless, a
volunteer group constructing a network of individually owned and maintained
wireless nodes.

“We definitely expect an increase in usage of NYCwireless nodes
throughout next week,” said Dana Spiegel, director of the community-based
organization. NYCwireless members aren’t adding nodes for the convention,
but Spiegel said some of the group’s free Wi-Fi nodes are easily available
near the convention.

Conventioneers won’t be able to avoid the mob scene, but at least they
can check their e-mail — if they brought their own tech along.
As for the area businesses hoping they have happily connected home-workers
keeping day-to-day operations humming. Only the week will tell.

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