E-management

1. Describe the main categories of risks in virtual management also explain the importance of planning for high-risk and catastrophic events.

Planning for Catastrophic Events

· Internal catastrophic events could include:

Hardware or network failures

Large reductions in workforce

Losing one or more very large contracts or accounts

Loss of multiple team members at one time (perhaps a mass exodus to start a new company or join a competitor)

Privacy or security breaches that might become public knowledge

Faulty products that have to be recalled, or have caused harm, and for which there has been negative publicity

Environmental issues or damage caused by the company or its representatives

· External events include such things as the following:

Natural disasters

Acts of terrorism or war

Airplane accidents

Client or vendor issues

Strikes

Lawsuits, arrests, or scandals

Business continuity plans are necessary for all of the external events and many of the internal events.

2. Explain how mobile communication tools and instant messaging contributes to virtual management. Site any example.

The Sidekick is also a combination tool. The Sidekick combines a mobile phone with Internet, text messaging, instant messaging, email, an organizer, a camera, and a QWERTY keyboard. It cannot play mp3s, which is disappointing to some users. However, it gets great reviews for its flip-up screen.

IM and SMS

Instant messaging (IM) and text messaging (SMS, for “short messaging service”) are helpful tools for the virtual team. Messages can be received via computer, phone, or PDA. This makes IM and SMS great for contacting people, whether they are in the office, on the move, or at unknown whereabouts!

There are a few different IM tools from various companies. Incompatibility between the tools means that many people need to have two or more IM programs installed. Some of the IM companies have Web portals that enable users to send and receive messages without having to install the software on their computers. This functionality is ideal for users who are limited to one type of IM program on a work computer system, or for those who are using someone else’s computer.

Some of the more popular instant messaging services include the following:

· America Online’s, AOL Instant Messenger

· Yahoo’s Yahoo! Messenger

· Microsoft Network’s MSN Messenger

· IBM’s Lotus Sametime

Text messages (SMS) are another great way to communicate via cell phone, pager, or PDA. SMS is a very effective communication tool for getting short messages to recipients quickly. Most people keep their mobile phones and PDAs with them in meetings, even if they do not take their laptops. For time-critical messages that cannot wait until the recipient checks his or her email, text messaging is ideal.

Text messaging is used much more extensively in the United Kingdom and Europe than in the United States This is mainly due to the high cost of making calls to mobile phones in those regions, versus the low (or no) cost of sending text messages. In the United States, calls to mobile phones are relatively cheap, and text messages tend to be relatively expensive. Therefore, phone calls are still a more popular communication method than texts in the United States