Ever since Hurricane Katrina hit, information about public preparedness and emergency planning have dominated the media and day-to-day conversations.
Health departments have urged elected officials to ensure emergency response plans are complete, while families have discussed what to do in a wide-scale emergency. Police officers and fire and rescue personnel are trained to handle emergency situations. Even citizen emergency response teams are prepared.
But, what should a business do?
Idar Voldnes can answer that question. Actually, his company — Wise Online Services Inc. — can.
A sister company to Intra Point AS, a Norwegian based company, Wise Online Services has its American headquarters in Herndon. And, although Wise Online Services is somewhat new to the area, IntraPoint AS has assisted global businesses prepare for any disaster scenario since 1998.
"Our crisis management component offers end to end solutions that clients can use to mitigate a crisis," said Voldnes from the simple Herndon office on Elden Street. "It's a completely Web based solution."
FORMED IN APRIL 2004 to create preparedness plans for any type of business, Wise Online Services changed its approach in January 2005, said Voldnes, president and CEO.
The company's initial intent was to offer overall preparedness software to help companies find order in an unorganized situation. But, it was not long before company executives decided to break out the five components offered in the crisis management package.
These modules include crisis management, disaster training for employees, an alert function, a process manager and a system to broadcast information internally and externally.
"These services are applicable to the community as well as the federal, state and local governments," said Voldnes, a Centreville resident.
Using 15 years worth of experience implementing crisis management in major international enterprises, the manager allows an organization to identify, prepare for and manage all potential crises, according to the official Web site. Crises can include physical, financial, product-related or affect a company's reputation.
An example of how the company's services work would be to use the devastation caused by the hurricanes along the gulf coast. A company with the crisis management services could evaluate the situation, shut down the business and get out in time and in an organized fashion, said Voldnes. Employees would be notified of the evacuation plan through an intranet system that would indicate what they should do and how they should do it, he said. Once the hurricane passes, executives could reevaluate the situation, determine if the work space is safe for employees to return to and send out an alert to let them know what to do next. The alert could come via e-mail, cell phone or be posted on the company Web site, allowing employees to be notified no matter where they are in the world.
"It's kind of like a fire drill," said Voldnes. "Companies plan and prepare through the training then through exercises. Then they use the program as a direct management tool for assigning tasks and reassigning tasks."
"AS COMPANIES BECOME public they have more of a responsibility to shareholders and clients to explain what happened in light of a crisis," said Mark Wolsky, vice president of marketing for Telarix.
Based in McLean, Telarix is a global provider to telecommunication companies across the country.
In March, Telarix used Wise Online Services' Wise Publisher to upgrade its Web site. The program — one of the five components of the crisis management — was created to be easy to use, even for people with little technical experience. It also allows for Internet and intranet organization to keep employees and customers connected without being too complicated.
"Being a fairly small company," said Wolsky, "we don't have a large internal PR [public relations] company."
The revamped Internet has helped the company in that area, he said.
Executives for Wise Online Services chose the Herndon location for its proximity to Washington, D.C. and government businesses that operate in the Northern Virginia area, said Voldnes.
Currently the company has eight employees in the Northern Virginia area, although it is anticipating expanding its staff to 30 or 35 employees by 2006.
"This year our expected revenue is $2.7 million," said Voldnes. "Next year it’s expected to be $6 million, so we have a fairly aggressive growth rate."
Wise Online Services' clients include Cable in the Classroom, Partnership for Jewish Life and Learning, Washington University in St. Louis and the College Board, among others.
Each client uses Wise Online Services for different reasons, Internet and intranet organization, Web site design and even some for the entire crisis management package.
"The better prepared you are," said Voldnes, "the better your outcome will be and the better your company will do following an emergency."