So you’re on a business trip in Beijing and you can’t access the corporate network — that secure VPN is so secure, it won’t let you in. Or, you didn’t bring the right adapter to power your laptop, so you find yourself wandering the streets, trying to find an electronics shop where you can attempt to communicate with your Mandarin phrase book.
You could find yourself traveling for business to parts of the world — such as Asia, Eastern Europe and South America — that have different standards of connectivity (or privacy) than the Western world. Trying to troubleshoot technology while in a foreign country can be much more frustrating than back home, since you face all sorts of unexpected challenges. Perhaps the electricity keeps cutting out, or you can’t get decent coverage for your cell phone.
Here’s a road warrior’s crisis guide on how to be better prepared for potential IT disasters while abroad.
? the crisis: No Privacy
When Carmi Levy, senior vice-president of strategic consulting with AR Communications, traveled to Shanghai last year on a business trip, he planned to provide updates on his blog — not realizing the potential limitations imposed by the government, which monitors Web sites and e-mail. When attempting to update his blog, he discovered that while it wasn’t fully blocked, it was compromised. Fortunately, he recognized the layout of the page (the links were turned into question marks), so he was able to graphically pick his way through and eventually post his blog. But this significantly reduced his productivity.
“I should have identified alternative resources I could have used if that first resource was not available,” he said. If you’re responsible for updating a Web site or blog while abroad, identify those alternative resources before you travel. Levy’s blog, for example, is hosted by Google’s blogger service, so while the blogger interface was essentially unavailable, the service offers other ways of updating a blog, such as through e-mail or other Web sites.
“Redundancy is everything,” said Levy. “Companies learn from disasters that if you don’t have alternative methods of getting at your data, you are essentially out of business. The same thing applies when you travel.” Don’t assume that the one set of tools you rely on at home will always be available when you’re on the road (this includes virtual private networks), so broaden that tool set.
? the crisis: No plug, no play
When Levy went to Shanghai, he brought along a voltage converter that was certified for China. But as soon as he got into his hotel room, he realized the plug for his laptop was two-pronged and the laptop his company had provided was three-pronged.
Something as simple as this could leave you high and dry, unless you have a backup (or are able to find an electronics shop where you can buy the appropriate converter). Before you travel, offload the data you’re going to need onto a flash drive and CD or DVD (preferably a CD, because CDs will play in everything).
“I got the biggest flash drive I could and I wear it around my neck, inside a shirt that’s tucked in,” said Levy. Consider buying a U3 flash drive, which includes software, so you’re not reliant on the software installed on the host computer (in an Internet café or business centre). You can bring your data and applications with you, and when you pull the U3 drive out of the host computer, you don’t leave a trace of your activities behind. The most recent ones will run on anything up to and including Vista. But, if you’re going to be in a position where you’re dealing with highly sensitive data, you may want to ask your supervisor or team whether you should be sending anything over the Internet in the first place — or if it can wait until you get back home, said Kathleen Ameche, vice-president of RightPoint Consulting and author of The Woman Road Warrior: A Woman’s Guide to Business Travel.
? the crisis: No e-mail access
Web-based e-mail is a great tool for the road warrior, since you can access your e-mail from anywhere — well, almost. If you’re only using one service, you may want to add additional services to your toolkit. Before you travel, set up auto-forwards so messages are bounced to a secondary account.
Governments in countries like China and North Korea know about Hotmail and Yahoo, so in some cases they might be explicitly blocking them simply because they are the most popular American services out there, said Levy. Set up an account from a small provider they might not be aware of, such as a canada.com account through Canwest.
? the crisis: no cell signal
Just because you have a cell phone doesn’t mean it’s going to work. Coverage could be patchy. Or you may not have a compatible SIM card, so speak to your provider before you travel. Even if those arrangements can be made, voice and data charges might be so onerous that you may as well keep your phone off, except for emergencies. Consider alternative methods of communication such as IP-based telephony or audio-conferencing through an instant messaging client like Google Talk or MSN Messenger.
Michelle Warren, senior research analyst with Info-Tech Research Group, recommends an unlocked GSM phone for travel outside North America. With an unlocked phone, you can pick up a local SIM card and pay local charges. If you’re going somewhere for a longer period of time or on repeated business trips, do as the locals do: consider buying a local phone with a pay-as-you-go card, which in some cases could be a cheaper option. For BlackBerry data transfers, you’ll need a local power adapter — also look into getting a local card (for better data transfer rates).
? the crisis: no Remote access
If you don’t want to lug around a laptop, consider a remote desktop, said Warren, which you can access at any Internet café or business centre (this has to be set up before you travel). With some services, such as gotomypc.com, you can set up multiple passwords that rotate through as you’re using them, so security is addressed in case anyone’s logging your keystrokes or looking over your shoulder.
VPNs are still a great way to remotely access the office, so long as you can get a connection, said Tony Olvet, vice-president of communications, segments and channel research with IDC Canada.
But business travel, in general, is poorly understood, he added. “Business users often have to learn for themselves, especially if they’re entrepreneurial and only have a handful of staff or if they’re self-employed and only have access to a technical resource through a contract.” Talk to your service provider before you travel about what remote access solutions are available. “The quality and consistency of access to key business data will become more of an issue as networks and network access in other countries is less standardized,” he said.”