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Crisis management – EDS stlye

by Dennis Howlett on December 20, 2005

Dear Anil, Mena and Barak :

This is how you address an outtage (all times Central European)

9:35: Vinnie Marchandani gets in touch with me: ‘Is it me or is EDS blog down?’ – it’s down.

So’s the  people directory and other gobs of EDS site. There’s a note to that effect with a smattering of advice as to what to do.

9:43: I know one of their bloggers but I’ve lost his email address. Hunting through past blogs, I find a link to his email address:

"Hi – what happened to the site? Did the powers that be think you were getting too feisty or has the site been hosed by gremlins.

Bring it back – quite a few of us out here really enjoy it."

9.44: Oh – oh automated out of office til January with little access to email response.

9:45: Send email to the only contact form I can find on EDS site to enquire about the situation

9.58: Reply from marcomms department:

"Yes, a database problem is causing intermittent availability issues. We
expect the problem to be resolved by 4 p.m. CST."

Oh my God – shades of 6A and TypePad

10.18: My respondent gets to me:

"Thanks for sending me a note. I’ll track it down"

10:25: I let my respondent know about the email I’ve received. 

11.13: My respondent gets back to me:

"Crisis averted. It looks like everything is back to normal"

It is.

And there I was thinking about a headline: "What have EDS and 6A got in comon? OUTTAGE" instead of which I’m pleased to say: "Crisis Management, EDS Style."

My respondent may be no A-list blogger, but he and his company delivered A-list service today because:

  1. EDS was upfront about the problem in a matter of fact way
  2. A very senior person, who, as far as I can tell is getting ready for or into the holiday season, gets into action – I hadn’t asked him to
  3. EDS made a commitment to which it stuck
  4. Everything was calm, professional, efficient.

 I’m sure many customers were in touch (there was an upwards blip on Blogpulse) but I’ll bet their ‘woes’ won’t make much space at Tech.memeorandum nor anywhere in the Technorati Top 10 . But I believe their response most certainly should.

 

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  • Charlie Bess
    Dennis,At least you looked at the site Dennis. A tragedy would be that the site was down and no one noticed.By the way, you were right I was off work. At least as much as I ever am. ;-) 
  • Exactly Anil! That's the whole point. There's never a conversation about something that's a non-event. Many of the issues I write about you'll never see on the blogosphere radar either. I don't care because I know I'm reaching my community through other means. It's what having a niche is all about.  

    I won't debate the veracity of 6A responses to its own issues - others have already given that a thorough airing.What I can say to one specific point is that my respondent doesn't run data centres - he's a strategic thinker. He merely offered to take a look anf get back to me - they don't need all hands on deck in a crisis because they sorted out the issues - years ago.

    Maybe you should talk to them and bring Vinnie Marchandani along with you?
  • Interesting -- I've seen zero participation in blogosphere conversations (comments, other people's blogs, etc.) from either EDS.

    I've seen no way to contact someone who's an executive at EDS if you don't already have a relationship with them, and I don't see any record of what happened anywhere on EDS's site right now. 

    I think the response to your points would be as follows:We at Six Apart were also upfront about the problem in a matter of fact way.

    A number of very senior persons, who were getting ready for or into the holiday season, all gets into action - you hadn't asked us toWe've made commitments to which we stuckEverything was calm, professional, efficient.We're here participating in the conversation now -- why isn't EDS responding to this post, too?
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