We were in South Carolina in January during the days leading up to the Republican primary election.B For the record, politics exasperates me.B I just donb t see how the candidates get away with making grand promises that they KNOW they canb t keep.B And, how the voting public still gets caught up in the process is explicable.B But, web ll leave that discussion for another day.
Today, web re discussing the impact of the presidential election on the national telecommunications infrastructure.B Since web re likely to see localized disturbances over the next few weeks, I thought it might be helpful to know what to watch for b and, more importantly, that b this too shall passb .
The amount of money that is pumped into marketing efforts during a presidential election year is mind boggling.B The direct mail system is stressed b certainly.B But, thatb s not the lifeblood of our businesses any more.B Rather, if the telecommunications infrastructure is over-burdened, we are in trouble!
One of the technologies that campaigns rely on is predictive dialers.B These computers are capable of gobbling through as much bandwidth as they can get their bytes on.B For most, these dialers are just a nuisance b causing pain in the form of endless phone calls.B For business that is ultimately sharing the backbone, it can go beyond nuisance to disabling.
There are many examples of situations where having redundant access for your internet or phone service makes sense.B This is likely to be one of them.B Of course, itb s too late this year to put a new alternative in place.B However, if you already have an alternative, now would be a good time to test it and make sure itb s ready for b prime timeb .
I hope you wonb t need it.B But, youb ll be feeling pretty lucky that you read this and took action if you do.B And, you know what they say, b Luck is when preparedness meets opportunity.b
