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IP Telephony
Contact Centers
Mobility
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Services
Alone in the Silence:
COMMUNICATIONS THE REAL DISASTER PRIORITY
COMMUNICATIONS AT THE HEART OF BUSINESS
Disaster planning for major events and
large populations is often absent.
Leaders in all sectors can work
together to change that.
New models can be found that define
temporary emergency roles for existing,
deployed equipment and skilled personnel.
COMMUNICATIONS AT THE HEART OF BUSINESS
Disaster preparedness and disaster recovery, especially since 2004, loom as a leading
global challenge, and the recent past may well be remembered as the decade of sudden
disasters. What is such a disaster? Many are natural — 3.3 million homeless in a Pakistan
earthquake; thousands of miles of populous coastline devastated and 175,000 people
dead because of an Indian Ocean tsunami; a million people displaced by hurricanes
in North America. Other sudden disasters are marked not by scale so much as public
fear and anguish — such as terrorist attacks in the Middle East or Ukraine, or London or
Madrid or New York. But in any disaster, the functional casualty that soon rivets public
awareness along with news of injury, hunger and exposure is confusion from the absence
of communications. The afflicted may be cut off, evacuation blocked, and aid delayed as
rescue falters for want of communications.
In disaster, the lack of communications is felt immediately, and its continued absence
prolongs suffering and loss. Ask anyone who has been through a disaster: “We wondered
if anybody knew about us.” Ask those who have served in a disaster recovery: “We didn’t
know the status or needs of the affected.” Or those charged with minimizing disasters’
effects: “Our rescue plans depended on communications, but there was none.”
Memories fade, but the urgency of disaster planning for security and recovery is enduring.
As an investment, disaster planning pays off when continuity prevails, its value invisible,
the avoidance of loss.
But global leaders must demand that investment. To make the investment efficient, what
kinds of shared models might be available?
Avaya’s experience suggests that efforts to build shared models for sustaining
communications during disaster deserve the highest priority. Avaya participated in the
recent American Red Cross call to action following North America’s Hurricane Katrina.
Based on that and a history of collaboration with public and private sector leaders,
Avaya in this document seeks to promote discussion of an underused source of disaster
preparedness and recovery — the planned sharing of privately held communications
equipment, applications and talent that can enhance the responsiveness of government,
relief organizations and business after major disruptions.
3
avaya.com COMMUNICATIONS AT THE HEART OF BUSINESS
The problem: communications is too
often the disaster within the disaster
Disasters of recent years and for the foreseeable future
have not only hurt the innocent but destroyed the very
fabric that makes response possible.
• In the Bam, Iran, earthquake of 2004, communications
bottlenecks at small airports prevented aid from
getting through.
• United States national leaders during hours and even
days following a massive hurricane were learning of
humanitarian needs not through planned emergency
channels but from the news media.
• In Pakistan 80,000 lives were lost in part because
victims could not be located owing to the absence of
communications links to remote areas.
• In the World Trade Center attacks, duplicated and backup
communications intended to ensure continuity were
useless because both primary and secondary facilities
passed through the same physical locations.
• During London bus bombings, the rapid dissemination
of news resulted in congestion and paralysis of the
mobile calling network — not a surprise, perhaps, but
another reminder that communications advances bring
new complications to public emergencies.
As for disaster preparedness, communications is often the
missing link at the planning table: Geophysicists at stations
around the world detected the undersea earthquake of
December 26, 2004. But communications planning that
included notification protocols would have enabled them to
warn the countries with endangered shorelines.
Communications: common thread in
disaster, too often a broken strand
Communications disasters affect telecommunications
facilities — public networks that carry voice and data
over distances, wireless facilities for first responders,
emergency deployable communications units, and
satellite carrier services. And they may impact
communications applications, such as call centers
for human services and family aid, and broadcast
messaging for group and public alerts and coordination
of emergency activities. Yet just when any connection
may be a matter of life and death, systems that carry
them are stressed beyond their limits. In the aftermath
of Hurricane Katrina, the American Red Cross found
the scope of disaster, already overwhelming in physical
scale, to be exacerbated by the widespread absence of
communications.
The challenge of communications continuity is
different in the Internet era. Over the past two decades
centralized authority over communications has lessened.
Many national telephone networks were accountable
for and capable of overseeing emergency planning and
disaster response. Among other things, those authorities
mandated standards of interoperability that eased
communications recovery.
While central authority and funding for just-in-case
resources through high tariffs may be reduced, the range
of communications resources has expanded. Phone calls
reach a person anywhere as individuals move among wire-
less networks of diverse types. People operate automated
systems with speech response systems. They receive email
and hear it read to them as if it were voicemail. They can
be notified automatically by triggers, which may be a data
point in a process or a caller with a word of distress — or
even a distressed tone of voice. Triggers can be transmitted
automatically as messages or phone calls to a hierarchy
of decision makers. Call centers can scale up rapidly, as
linked multiple call centers in a dispersed, virtual domain.
Advanced communications is at cost levels within reach of
many nations and is obtainable by owning applications or
buying services from providers on demand.
But communications architectures of today still have
interoperability challenges. As dependencies on commu-
nications multiply, we must now regain a needed level of
coordination among diverse resources so that communica-
tions remains ready — and does not itself compound a
disaster when it must serve as the heart of recovery.
4
COMMUNICATIONS AT THE HEART OF BUSINESS
The solution: shared planning to
prepare and recover communications
New plans are needed for communications resource
deployment to prevent and ease emergencies. It is time
to look to all owners of communications resources; some
are in the public sector and relief organizations, some
in telecommunications companies. However, to extend
those resources, we must harness the underused or
sharable communications resources of enterprises and
organizations that own communications.
The illustration below, depicts the complexity of opti-
mally sustaining communications under duress, par-
ticularly when large populations are affected. Disaster
services that may be required are diverse — police,
medical facilities, radio and television, government
agencies, insurance companies, and others. In every
region these will vary according to economic and social
models. Response models that are strong at the outset
in command and control, owing to foresight and robust
planning, are often not planned to scale up to meet the
needs of large populations with limited infrastructure
and geographical challenges.
Response models that address large scale disasters are
in development in the communications and information
technology sectors, such as the initiative of the American
Red Cross following Hurricane Katrina in late August
2005. The American Red Cross convened major technol-
ogy companies, including Avaya Inc., to urgently respond
to the unprecedented scale of disaster in the southern
United States. Participants set aside competitive interests
and successfully and quickly devised and implemented
solutions to re-establish vital technology infrastructure,
providing new temporary communications capability to
support delivery of American Red Cross and partner agen-
cies’ disaster services.
In disasters, focus from the outside in
Communications provides support for a wide variety of organizations whose coordinated response delivers care to victims and others affected. Initial
disaster responses based on effective command and control (from the inside out) often do not extend broadly to support the diverse sources of aid, nor
enable that aid to reach the victims at the perimeter of need. This need requires partnerships of a type only beginning to get attention. It may be met
by joint planning among the public sector and the many businesses and organizations whose communications can be planned for readiness in disasters
and to compensate for missing communications. The measure of success is how quickly care is delivered to the perimeter of need.
Conventional limited communications planning Communications based on collaborative planning
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avaya.com COMMUNICATIONS AT THE HEART OF BUSINESS
“We knew that private companies can make a broader,
more significant contribution than we can achieve
by ourselves, but the help has to be immediate,
blueprinted in advance, and it has to fit with established
disaster recovery models,” says Steve Cooper, senior
vice president and chief information officer with the
American Red Cross. Today the American Red Cross
is forming a crisis partnership with many of its post-
Katrina team to enable companies to support relief efforts
based on predefined roles and shared resources. These
organizations are anticipated to meet regularly beginning
in 2006 and will include suppliers of telecommunications
and of data and voice applications and equipment.
A shared model for disaster response is attracting global
interest. According to Robert E. Bellhouse, executive
director of the Disaster Resource Network of the World
Economic Forum, “Fully coordinated, scalable and
integrated communications capabilities are the critical
element in any effective disaster assistance effort. The
communications industry, including public carriers
and manufacturers of communications systems and
software, must develop realistic integrated plans for
disaster situations.” Bellhouse envisions an integrated
communications sector approach, modeled in part
on DRN’s successful deployment of volunteers in the
logistics and healthcare sectors.
From a governance point of view, two solution
frameworks emerge where private and public
communications resources can converge in disasters.
Collaboration core. In disaster an array of constituents
arise suddenly and require diverse resources for which
planning must already have taken place: victims, shel-
ters, mission controllers (relief agencies), volunteers,
and third parties such as hospitals, energy utilities,
and insurance companies. Around these constituents,
businesses, relief agencies and government can jointly
design a communications “architecture for disasters,”
specifying resources, planning for their donation or shar-
ing, and drawing scenarios for deployment. Critical com-
munications backup can be provided across
IP infrastructure to remote facilities without regard to
distance or location. Collaborating planners can expose
and correct or at least plan to avert interoperability
issues that may frustrate a disaster response.
Extended resources. Emergency virtual networks of
disaster volunteers and first responders can be defined
when multiple parties commit themselves to regional
disaster planning. The flexible base of modern voice
and data communications, mobility- and Internet-
enabled, is spreading rapidly, while it continues to serve
organizations and hundreds of millions of users still using
traditional telephony. Key among the extended base must
be the employees of organizations familiar with regional
communications characteristics both new and old.
When models for shared emergency technology
deployment are agreed to, and blueprints for continuity
and recovery are pre-defined ahead of time, what can we
predict for disasters of the future?
• Much larger pools of workers will become free
to participate as emergency responders owing to
employees’ use of mobile communications. Adoption
of mobile communications now exceeds 40 percent in
many regions, and home broadband in many countries
is expected to reach 60 percent. Workers with critical
skills in emergency response will be liberated for voice
and data communications from any location. The result:
a greatly expanded base of workers who can be linked
for participation in disasters.
• Volunteers in any sector willing to apply their skills in a
disaster will enroll and coalesce as sub-communities
A Model of Private Participation in Global Disaster Recovery
Initiated by the World Economic Forum’s Disaster Resource Network and working with the air carrier DHL Worldwide, a core of
volunteers has been identified within the ranks of air carriers, experts in airport logistics, to fly in and expedite delivery of
disaster relief. The result helps eliminate bottlenecks at airports unprepared for high volumes of urgent traffic.
6
COMMUNICATIONS AT THE HEART OF BUSINESS
of responders marshaled during emergencies by
focused broadcast communications guided by joint
public-private planning. Registrants’ availability for
communications will be known by automated systems
to speed the reaching of individuals best able to
act. The result: rapid deployment of communications
technicians and other specialists based on precise
geographic and skill requirements, not only within
organizations but also across regions.
• A million miles of fiber-optic (broadband) transmission
facilities owned or controlled by government
organizations and non-communications companies
can be tapped as backup in emergencies. Regional
joint planners will ensure these are ready for linkage
to satellite networks. The result: geographically
dispersed resources able to serve in recovery
scenarios far distant.
• Victims will gather around emergency communications
vehicles or dropped-in communications units
equipped with mobile phones and Internet
connectivity, enabling prompt communication with
relatives and helpers. The vehicles, driven to a scene
of destruction, will link to prearranged satellite
circuits and carry any communications that might
support victims. The result: easing of victims’ isolation
and sense of abandonment even as evacuation or
shelter plans are formed.
• Organizations will make more use of existing
communications features, such as emergency dialing.
Emergency calls can be heard not just by emergency
teams but also by designated helpers within the
organization from which the call emanates. The
result: while waiting for an ambulance or fire truck,
designated individuals very close to an emergency
can move to the distressed individuals and administer
initial relief.
• By 2008, half of the phone lines in use by large
enterprises in North America and Europe and 35 percent
in Asia will be IP, thereby acquiring a fundamental
capability for flexible, planned redeployment. Internet-
enabled technologies, such as session initiation
protocol (SIP), web services, and presence awareness,
promise interoperability to allow access by employees,
customers, suppliers, partners, and communities
to private communications supplementing public
emergency resources. Result: resource sharing
in disasters and payoff from joint public-private
preparedness planning.
What is the leadership point of action?
In disaster readiness and response, communications
has emerged as a key resource for enabling responders
to determine the right actions, ordering and monitoring
relief activity, and avoiding confusion, waste and loss
of time. Only government and industry leaders can
prioritize communications as a critical resource for
continuity and recovery. As the World Economic Forum’s
2004 Global Governance Initiative Annual Report notes,
global objectives like the United Nations Millennium
Development Goals require public-private partnerships to
complement activity by governments.
Leaders must act together and continue to develop the
shared models for planning and action that are emerging
today. Directives and organizations are pointing the way:
• the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs of the United Nations,
• the United States Agency for International Development,
• the United Nations’ Tampere Convention,
• the Secretariat of the Working Group on Emergency
Telecommunications at the United Nations Office for
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs,
• the United Nations Foundation,
• the American Red Cross, and others.
Under auspices such as these government and
technology leaders must convene and collaborate on
blueprints for defined technologies deployable by teams
of communications experts and volunteers prepared in
advance for their roles in a crisis.
Only business leaders can mandate that their organizations
invest time and share what can properly be lent — expertise
always, resources often, and a vision that balances the
needs of business with the vulnerability of victims.
7
© 2006 Avaya Inc.All Rights Reserved. Avaya and the Avaya Logo are trademarks of Avaya Inc. and may be registered incertain jurisdictions. All trademarks identified by the ®, SM or TM are registered trademarks, service marksor trademarks, respectively, of Avaya Inc., with the exception of FORTUNE 500 which is a registeredtrademark of Time Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.01/06 • LB3047
About AvayaAvaya enables businesses to achieve superior
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over one million businesses worldwide, including
more than 90 percent of the FORTUNE 500®, Avaya’s
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advantage by allowing people to be more productive
and create more intelligent processes that satisfy
customers.
For businesses large and small, Avaya is a world
leader in secure, reliable IP telephony systems,
communications applications and full life-cycle
services. Driving the convergence of embedded
voice and data communications with business
applications, Avaya is distinguished by its
combination of comprehensive, world-class
products and services. Avaya helps customers
across the globe leverage existing and new
networks to achieve superior business results.
COMMUNICATIONS AT THE HEART OF BUSINESS
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