The Cost of a Cloud: Taking a Look at How Europe's Ash Cloud Affected America

There are plenty of hidden factors that could stop us from getting in to work. Maybe there was an accident on your route to work and the traffic was bad; perhaps there was a problem with the subway and your train was delayed; you might have had a family emergency that called you back for a couple of hours. Maybe your flight was cancelled due to the cloud of volcanic ash the swept across Europe, grounding flights and closing airspace for weeks at a time.

Back in April, an eruption from Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano resulted in a cloud of ash floating east across Europe, causing all flights into or out of major business destinations such as the UK, France, Germany and Scandinavia to be grounded. Costing airlines billion of dollars, the knock on effects on all industries were felt the world over. A report by the US National Business Travel Association (NBTA) found that 80 percent of the companies surveyed had been affected by the airspace closures. Furthermore, across the 234 major global corporations asked, the average costs of contingency travel arrangements came in at $197,000 per company, with an aggregate 160 personnel from each firm stranded abroad an unable to return to work. "The immediate lesson," explains Michael McCormick, COO at the NBTA, "is the power of travel management at work." McCormick went on to highlight additional personal effects felt by business people stranded away from home, explaining that most of the companies who did not have a strong travel management programs in place did not in all likelihood meet their duty-of-care responsibilities to their employees.

As with crises of any sort, the businesses that came out on top throughout this event were those that had built in a natural redundancy, durability and resilience capability into their operations. Iceland's ash cloud crisis has highlighted once again that risk mitigation, impact minimization and sustainable contingencies are more important than ever before in today's culture of unrestricted travel and a mobile workforce. For one industry however, the ash cloud brought a golden opportunity to boost business. With so many global firms looking to ensure that an empty seat did not equate to an absent worker, the telecommunications industry was in a prime position to capitalize on business executives' travel woes.

The last ten years has seen the rise of the internet and a boom in technology, two events that combined have led to a transformation in telecommunications. Where businesses were once reliant on antiquated systems such as fax, advances in communications technology have made it possible to attended meetings, address staff, interact with clients, access company files and pass documents around without even being in the same country, let alone the same office. These technologies, when implemented effectively, can minimize the business damage caused by a missing employee.

At the cutting edge of communications' systems is Cisco, a world leading communications firm that enables high speed and secure communications networks for businesses across a range of platforms. VP of the firm's Wireless Networking Business Unit, Ray Smet, explains that the work place as we know it is changing. "We are in the middle of a transition to where work is really any place," says Smet. As a marketing strategy it seems to be working, with the firm boasting a better than predicted growth last quarter and net income rising 63 percent from a year earlier. Smet highlights that Cisco's business customers are now conducting their business on any device, on any network, at any time and moving from place to place in order to do it. The traditional boundaries of the workplace have been removed. Work is now more an activity, says Smet, than a place to go.

Internet telephone company Skype, who made itself a household name by providing a free telecommunications service to consumers via the internet, also enjoyed a boost in interest after the disruption and took advantage of the opportunity by releasing its new Skype Manager tool. With business looking to improve their mobile communications this is the ideal time to raise the company's profile as a viable business solutions tool and not simply a glorified social media platform. "We looked at how Skype was being used in the workplace," explains David Gurle, VP and General Manager of Skype for Busines. "We specifically designed Skype Manager to make it easier for businesses to centrally manage how Skype is used, managed and paid for by an organization."

The new technology enables the administrator to analyze the software usage and assign features to users, as well as efficiently manage Skype for SIP. With 37 percent of all Skype users today utilizing the technology for business purposes, an increased focus in this market is a shrewd move. "We want to empower businesses to exploit the full power and value of Skype, so they can receive all the benefits of enhanced collaboration and cost savings."

With the business world reeling from the effects of the volcano's eruption, more and more executives are caught between a desire to go everywhere and nowhere without compromising on business performance. The disruption to air traffic back in April served as a stark reminder that reliance on air travel can be risky. This factor combined with the expenses that business travel poses on a company and the personal cost involved in long trips away from home are all serving to encourage more companies to look to alternative solutions. Technologies such virtual events systems and video conferencing platforms are becoming increasingly popular with business. On the other hand, executives operating on the move, whether that's at a different office, a separate global division or simply working from home, need to be able to access the same quality data systems from whichever platform they have available.

Advances in communications platforms are helping to enable the mobile workforce. Apple and Blackberry continue to sit at the forefront of this market with the recently released iPhone 4 and iPad both becoming increasingly popular with corporate clients. Google's Android technology, emerging on to the market, looks set to over take the brands however. In fact, Cisco's recently revealed business tablet utilizes the Goole operating system; the Cisco Cius implements services including video streaming, multi-party conferencing, browsing as well as the ability to produce, share and content. Tony Bates, a senior vice president at Cisco, explains that this device represents that changes in the way that we work and live. "This platform can transform how healthcare professionals advance patient care," says Bates, "how retailers deliver service experiences to consumers, or how universities deliver world-class education to their students."