Well not so much product news, but with the Corona/Covid-19 virus being discussed absolutely everywhere at the moment we thought we’d use this opportunity to help you prepare your organisation's web needs for it. But then we figured you’ll be disaster prepared already because we live with the threat of earthquakes and floods on an almost daily basis, not to mention the threat of previous pandemics such as SARS, and the effects will be similar should the Corona/Covid-19 take hold. So instead here’s a wee reminder check list if you don’t already have a plan for pandemics.

• Back up daily – you never know when staff might become ill or need to self-isolate
• Keep the information on your website up to date – your site might get lots more visitors/traffic if quarantine becomes the norm, and might even be the ‘go-to’ place for your customers and members
• If your sector is specifically involved or affected by Corona consider adding Corona-relevant articles, guides, news bites etc to your website
• If you have an up-coming conference or special event scheduled consider putting a note on your site or FaceBook page to advise attendees of your Plan B if it needs to be cancelled or postponed – this should save you dealing with lots of email enquiries
• If you have membership events planned make sure someone can contact those registered should you need to cancel an event at short notice – check that your members/clients’ databases are up to date and accurate
• Ensure the staff who are responsible for your website can work from home if necessary – they’ll maintain your ‘store-front’ presence while your business premises are closed
• If you haven’t already got them set up, create VPN (Virtual Private Networks) so that your staff can access their work PCs and the organisation’s network so that they can work from home if they’re well enough to do so
• Set up an intranet so quarantined/self-isolated staff can stay in touch with each other and access shared information - Microsoft Teams or similar might be an option for this
• Ensure your staff members have got access to skype in case you want to have meetings or talk face to face

Most importantly - don’t leave it until it’s too late to prepare. Businesses need to have systems set up well in advance and these will need to be tested to ensure everything works properly before they might be required to use them.  And once they’re set up, keep them maintained for any new situation that might occur in the future.

If you need help with anything web-related while we weather the storm please just let us know. And here’s hoping for minimal impact and maximum (and speedy) recovery.