A recent study undertaken by Virgin Media Business is showing that those people working in the South of the country are adopting social media for work purposes more than those people working in the North.
The study, covering 5,000 organisations, revealed that Northerners are far more likely to use their desk phone to contact customers and colleagues than Southerners, who prefer to keep in touch via social networking sites and instant messaging.
Whatsmore London has the most Twitter users of any country in the world.
Around 71 per cent of organisations in the North of the UK say phone communication is critical and second to that came face-to-face meetings rather than email or other digital formats.
For me this throws up a couple of, perhaps, obvious business continuity issues:
In the North
If fewer people are savvy when it comes to digital communication then telecoms continuity plans should take this into account. If normal incoming calls to desk phones were disrupted, an alternative PSTN solution is the best option to employ rather than forcing people to rely on data communication tools for back-up.
In the South
You would think that my argument here would be the reverse of that above, i.e that I would recommend an alternative data back up solution for resilience, but you would be wrong. Even though the trend is moving away from traditional phone conversations, everyone knows how to use a phone! Plus a PSTN back up plan is far more resiient than an IP telephony plan, which I would not recommend for a business continuity situation.
The upshot is that though the hype around the digital age of communication continues to increase, and indeed give us faster and more flexible ways to communicate, the reality is that old-fashioned POTS (pretty ordinary telephone services) continue to be the best solution for telecoms continuity all round.
Tags: northerners southerners desk phone telecoms continuity
