Putting a robust disaster recovery strategy in place is a bit like going to the dentist. We all know it’s important, but not everyone’s good at doing it in practice.

High stakes

Some organisations – especially big firms or those in highly regulated industries – have exemplary disaster recovery set-ups.

At the other end of the scale, an alarming number of small and medium organisations have little or nothing in place, either not having ‘got around to it’ yet or simply hoping a crisis will never strike them – a high stakes gamble.

Many others have put some measures in place, but are operating under a false sense of security and are not nearly as well-protected as they believe.

I’ll look in subsequent blog posts at ways to create an effective disaster recovery (DR) strategy and what to look for in suitable DR facilities. But first, I’ll focus on the basic matter of why we need to have one at all.

Business continuity

Fundamentally, of course, it’s all about business continuity. You need to ensure that, if a crisis should strike, you can continue operating with as little interruption as possible.

Any significant disruption, even for a relatively short period, could well mean lost orders and therefore lost revenue and profits.

Depending on when it strikes, just a few hours’ downtime could mean your staff and suppliers don’t get paid or customers invoiced. It could cause internal chaos that takes you a while to bounce back from – even when the external crisis is over. This could affect staff morale and distract you from your core business at a critical time.

It could mean a blow to your reputation if you’ve let customers down – and the harsh reality is that reputations are far easier and quicker to damage than to repair.

And, if the disruption lasts a significant period or entails a loss of business-critical data, it could be devastating – even fatal – for your organisation.

While the exact statistics vary, there’s general agreement that most businesses will experience data loss at some point. And, in cases of major loss, a great many of these organisations aren’t in business two years later.

The good news

The good news is that a comprehensive DR strategy can protect you from all of this, whatever the nature of your organisation. While some upheaval in a time of crisis is probably inevitable, it should mean you can continue to operate with minimal impact on your customers, staff, processes and reputation.

So, given this, why don’t all organisations have a solid solution in place?

I think part of the answer, aside from blind optimism, is that many organisations don’t take proper account of the full range of risks that face them.

You might think of the most obvious disasters, such as a fire or terrorist bomb at your premises, and conclude that the risks – because, perhaps, of where you’re based or your fire protection systems – are slim.

But the reality is that disasters come in many shapes and sizes and are often far less predictable than this.

Hidden dangers

You could be hit by a fire in your local telephone exchange or a power outage which affects the whole area.

It could be a crisis that strikes another company in your building or based next door – but which equally affects you by closing off access to your premises. This could be anything from a fire to an explosion, a building collapse or protest action. You can take care over the safety of your own business, but you can do little to control the safety of other firms.

If you can’t access your premises and that’s where your IT systems are based, aside from a period of downtime, that could seriously affect your data. It maybe that no-one will be able to get in to back up on schedule. You may also find that, because your systems were suddenly interrupted, some of your data is corrupt when the power comes back on or you regain access, meaning significant work still to be done to restore normality – not to mention any data you’ve lost

It also might not a physical disaster at all but an act of data theft or IT sabotage by a disaffected member of staff, an intruder or a hacker. Just look at the huge damage a bunch of teenage hackers caused to Talk Talk’s business in 2015.

False security

The other reason I believe many organisations are not well enough protected is the false sense of security which comes from having a partial solution in place – typically some kind of cloud data back-up.

If you’ve chosen a cloud route, do you truly know exactly where and how your data is being stored? How well is it protected there? How easy will it be to retrieve in an emergency?

What level of support will your cloud provider give you in a time of crisis? Have you practised under realistic crisis conditions to stress-test the service and ensure you can get back up and running in a smooth, reliable process?

Too important

It may be that the disaster recovery solution you have in place is exactly what you need. But it might not. And with no less than your organisation’s survival at stake, it’s too important a matter to leave to chance.

In a later post, I’ll look at how to devise the most effective DR strategy for your organisation.

What are contextual links?

Contextual links are deep links from your web page content. This content is the main part deciding the uniqueness and relevance of a web page. Hence, giving links from that section transfer premium URL power to linked ones. They help search engines in developing relevancy factor for both the pages i.e. linking & linked ones. You can’t have all the information on one URL page. Additionally, it is (typically) good to split a lot of information into bite size pieces. Once you have done this these pieces can be linked internally with optimum key phrases to boost them. Linking to authoritative and well known external resources like Wikipedia (citation) increase the credibility of your content for search engines, since it means that written content is not spam. Instead it is researched based and is relevant to the linked URL. Contextual links will typically mean lower bounce rates. It is comparatively easy for the user to navigate your website through links in content since they are reading it. Users may not bother to click on links in other navigational schemes like menus, footer or other links. Enriched reader experience is highly appreciated by Google. This results in higher rankings in search engine ranking positions (SERP’s).

Contextual Linking for Users

Contextual link building will impact on your trustworthiness. Linking to other URL’s means that you admit that you don’t have the answer to everything, and also that you care enough to send your user to the right factual place. Links, at appropriate locations in content, build user interest to explore linked pages. The information can’t be put in one single article at one URL; contextual links help to piece together one subject or topic scattered across the website. If your linking is optimal your content may is likely to be shared on social media by your audience. In-content links normally offer high quality information to your reader, which should always be at the top of your priority list. More recognition will typically deliver more traffic to your website or URL. An increase in traffic can mean different things to different webmaster’s. It may mean more enquiries or, in the case of eCommerce, more orders. It may also mean a better Alexa Rank – a factor in Google ranking.

Contextual Linking Best Practices

There is no doubt that contextual linking is one of the most important SEO strategies in your internal linking and digital marketing strategy, but if you want to make the most out of it, make sure you have optimised your links properly. Here are a few best practices you should consider to create fruit-bearing linking structure:

Use Main Key Phrases as Anchor Texts

Your anchor text should be composed mainly of key phrases. This helps search engines understand the relevancy of the linked URL, and the page can be then ranked next time when a relevant query is performed.

Typically Use Descriptive Phrases – Long Tail

Don’t stuff your contextual links with key words or phrases. It is a practice frowned upon by search engines. Instead, use descriptive phrases, importantly long tail phrases that contain your keywords in a natural way. This said, however, and because all of this activity is targeted against your competitor, you may find you have to compromise. You will need to know your competitor’s spread of phrase and broad matches to be able to compete.

Natural is Optimal

You contextual links should not look like they are forced into the content. Keep them natural where possible (as above).

Link to Authoritative Sources

Link only to websites and URL’s that are both factual and which are known to be a trusted authority on your topic. This increases your credibility among viewers as well as search engines.

Link to Relevant Pages Which Offer Viewers Something of Value

Do not include content linking on a URL for the sake of the benefits of visitors and ‘link juice’. This will cause more harm than benefit.

Is this the future of SEO? Of course not. However, you can see how valuable these links are and both from a search engine and viewer perspective. If you are not carrying out this kind of linking building strategy, I suggest you start now. You’ll love it and your rankings will increase as a result!

Because they are easy to clean, and come with a choice of finishes, blinds are an obvious choice for kitchen windows.

But… did you know that there is so much you can do with the humble blind? As well as being an essential requirement for keeping out the light and adding security and privacy, blinds can transform your kitchen and add stunning impact to your interior design scheme.

In today’s modern household, the kitchen is often the centre of the home. More new homes than ever are built with large open plan kitchen/dining rooms at their heart. We spend a lot of time in the kitchen, whether we are doing simple household chores or entertaining family and friends, so when it comes to interior design for your kitchen, you want your decorating scheme to reflect your style and personality.

Kitchen blinds can play a very big part in helping you to achieve that. You don’t have to buy generic blinds; we will create bespoke blinds to suit you and your specific needs, allowing you to put your creative style into the heart of your home.

There are numerous types of blinds and hundreds of choices of fabrics and finishes, so much so that it can almost be overwhelming. So why not seek the expert opinion of our talented team at Norwich Sunblinds?

We can advise on the best type of blinds for your kitchen, perhaps even introduce a style of blind you didn’t even know existed and show you samples from the extensive range of fabrics and finishes, including flame-retardant, anti-bacterial and solar protective fabrics.

Norwich Sunblinds has been making beautiful blinds for over 35 years. In our Attleborough factory, we manufacture many styles of blind, from the simple roller blind to the technologically innovative Vision Blinds.

Before you think about fabrics, colours and finishes, there’s the small matter of what type of blind to go for, and it’s quite a list:

• Roman (Fold/concertina-like an accordion)

• Venetian (individual slats in wood or hard aluminium)

• Roller (simple and stylish, but with endless design possibilities)

• Pleated – ideal for awkward situations and shapes

• Vertical, woven wood, or panel blinds

• Blinds for Velux windows

• Vision Blinds – made from a revolutionary fabric, which alternates mesh and solid fabric panels, allowing complete control of light and privacy.

• Motorised blinds (oh no it’s not lazy, just perfect for those hard to reach places)

• Perfect fit blinds – fit snugly into the window or door recess & move with it.

• Hygiene ultra fresh – adds an antimicrobial coating that inhibits growth of odour, mould and mildew

• Blackout blinds

• & even Fly Screens

There is also, of course, your choice of curtains.

The range of fabrics to choose from at Norwich Sunblinds is extraordinary – we are not tied to any one supplier, so can order in from a range of UK fabric suppliers, from the contemporary to the traditional, or even from further afield if you have something specific in mind.

The fabrics can be chosen to match or contrast, and bring impact to your decorative scheme. You can even customise the Larths – the straight piece at the bottom of the blind (the weight), normally not seen but it can be contrasted to add an extra dimension to your blind, or you can add beading or a narrow braid.

Instead of using a larth you can choose a café rod, and you can shape the bottom of your blind or add fancy finials. Cord pulls are also available in different decorative colours.

Put this together with our knowledge, experience, and great customer service , and you can rest assured that the result will be a stunning set of blinds or curtains for your kitchen.

So give us a call on 01603 334085 or pop in and we can show you what we offer. If you prefer to make an appointment for us to call round and discuss your options and show you samples, click here.

Feedback from customers:

Vertical blind in the kitchen:

“I have always been pleased with the work done by Norwich Sunblinds and have been a customer of theirs for over 25 years. Cannot praise them enough. The fitter was clean in his work and fast & efficient.”

New white kitchen Venetian blind:

“Would highly recommend, great service and product. Helped to create a clean modern look in our kitchen, will be using them again when we re-fit the bathroom.”

Fitting and supply of automated roller blinds in the kitchen and garden room:

“First class service, lovely people, lovely product, felt reassured and trusted their advice/ knowledge.

Kitchen blind fitted. “Efficient – prompt service. Fitter noticed crease in blind and advised us to give it a week to see if it dropped out. He also took a photo of it in case we had to contact you again which we did. No qualms, in changing blind excellent service, would definitely use the firm again.”

Fitted and supplied kitchen blind:

“Always been pleased with the service. Have used this company for 32 yrs. Salesman is always polite, friendly and helpful. Would definitely recommend to friends and family.”

Install of blinds for kitchen and bathroom windows:

“Everyone – from my meeting with the lady in the showroom – Lesley / Julie? To Fiona – measure and to Garry – installer – were all very helpful, patient and professional. The two Sarahs in the storeroom and factory the same, and Elda. A very happy experience and I would recommend them to everyone.”

One new blind installed, another blind shortened. 

“We are delighted with our new kitchen blind. We found it difficult to choose from such a selection but your man was so helpful in every way and even suggested a perfect colouring, which delights us daily! Thank you!”

This article originally appeared on the Norwich Sunblinds website

‘What is our purpose?’ is a fundamental question for companies, the answer to which will often result in a succinct and powerful mission statement. ‘What are we trying to achieve?’ similarly can unlock a vision for the future, a look over the horizon at what will be the outcome of the work.

 But just as an important a question for companies is ‘who are we and what matters to us?’ This is often a much more difficult query to respond to as it isn’t easy to distil into words the essence of a company. Or, in other words, the organisational values.

 The values are so much more than words stuck on a wall or written on a website. They are the living, beating heart of an organisation. They are what gives a company its personality as they provide the framework for the behaviours expected from the people within.

 And there are many ways in which companies can bring their values to life and make them intrinsic to how a business is run.

 They are invaluable at recruitment. They convey to potential new employees what they can expect from a company, and they allow candidates to truly consider if their own values align with those of an organisation. This can be demonstrated practically by interview and assessment around the values. This process helps both parties truly understand if they are right for each other, which is vital for any successful relationship.

 The values also have an important role to play in management – after all, conversations around behaviours are far more productive when built upon the safe foundations of the values. ‘I felt that you could have shown the Empathy value more in that discussion,’ is a more positive angle for a discussion than ‘You were very rude.’ By using the values to underpin difficult management conversations, the sense of it being ‘personal’ is diminished – which means the employee will hear what is being said in a more receptive way.

 They can also be used to recognise and reward behaviours which align with the organisational values. In drawing out positive value-based behaviours, companies are also able to highlight examples of what is expected, which only serves to continue to reinforce the whole sense of ‘this is who we are.’

 They can also provide a reference for decision-making and discussion, not least when thinking gets stuck. ‘Does what we’re trying to do fit with our values?’ and if the answer is ‘no’ then proceeding is often not advisable.

 And they provide a point of difference. This is particularly important in sectors where there may be similar companies operating. The values become the Unique Selling Point, what differentiates an organisation – and what might give it its competitive edge over its rivals.

 When I set up The Engaging People Company, I spent a great deal of time thinking about what values I wanted for the organisation. Because, through the values, I would be projecting to the world ‘who’ this company is, and setting my stall up for how I will work. After much consideration, I settled upon the values of ‘be authentic, be creative, have fun and be kind.’ Through these four fundamentals, I am communicating that this is who The Engaging People Company is, this is how it will operate, this is what you can expect – and this is what you can hold me to account on.

 By making values part of the everyday dialogue within an organisation, as well as embedding them within the engagement practices around recruitment, retention, management and recognition, companies can create a sense of belonging. The values become owned by the people, something which connects them and creates a sense of being one big team. And ultimately, the values create a sense of being valued.

Cities, by their very nature, aren’t small (unless of course you’re a pretend city like Ely). According to Wikipedia there are over 141,000 people in Norwich and over 370,000 people in the ‘travel to work’ area. I’ve got a lot of contacts on LinkedIn, but these numbers of people are large by anyones’s standards!

Since I came back to work in Norwich for the third time in 2011, I’ve been expanding my professional network at an exponential rate. From time to time, and more frequently as time goes on, I encounter people I was at school with and Rebecca White was one of those people (although she was a year or two above me at Notre Dame High School).

Rebecca is a social entrepreneur and CEO of the social enterprise Your Own Place.  Your Own Place equips young people with the skills, confidence and knowledge to live safely and securely. They achieve this by continually developing innovative and entrepreneurial solutions as well as collaborating for the benefit of  young people. By working restoratively and delivering high quality interventions they create a culture of empowered and independent young people.

After a number of exchanges on linkedin, twitter and email with Rebecca, I was invited along to hear Baron John Bird, founder of the Big Issue, speak at the St. Giles House Hotel in Norwich. This was an unusual event for me to be invited to, as there was no tech or business angle, but we’re all familiar with the Big Issue and I was already  impressed with what Rebecca was achieving, so I was intrigued. On our way to the event my wife and I encountered the Big Issue seller who is often at the top of Lower Goat Lane near the Guildhall, and I couldn’t help but wonder if he knew John Bird was only meters away.

I was completely unprepared in almost every way for John Bird. We sat at the back, the only place there were two chairs left together, around one of a handful of tables shoehorned into the packed room on the first floor of the hotel. A couple of the usual suspects  such as Sarah Daniels from the Redcat Partnership and Lucy Marks of the Norfolk Network also wandered in. My first surprise was to discover that Sarah, who I know well, was chairing. I knew from that point on that with the self proclaimed, “loudest voice in room”, we were in for a fun couple of hours.

Baron Bird of Notting Hill was astounding.  A huge personality and presence in the room. He took us through the highs and lows of his life from his upbringing in Notting Hill by Irish, Catholic, racist parents to living on the streets of Edinburgh at 21, meeting one of the founders of the Body Shop, Gordon Roddick, his rehabilitation in prison where one of the “screws” taught him to read, his three wives, money, the Big Issue and admission into the House of Lords. John Bird was funny, entertaining, loud, inspiring and great entertainment. I’ve never seen someone move so much in such a small space, often with both arms in the air, a loud passionate voice and little respect for political correctness. It was refreshing.

26 years ago there were more than 500 homeless charities in London (there are now around 2000). All of them lacked something. None of those charities were helping the homeless to stop being homeless. John Bird had a vision, inspired by Street News in the USA and spawned from a case study funded by the Body Shop, the Big Issue was born. A way of helping homeless people make money to stop them being homeless. John Bird believes in a hand up, not a hand out and is working hard to prevent the next generation of Big Issue sellers.

I could have listened to him all evening. He finished by explaining some of the social ideas he’s pursuing, such as creating a Kitemark called the Social Echo to award to businesses who act on their social conscience.

One such social enterprise is Your Own Place. Following an introduction by Sarah, Rebecca White showed us a recent video which explains the work they do:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2p5_P1fk_c&feature=youtu.be

Your Own Place are looking for employer sponsored Volunteer Tenancy Mentors. The training costs the employers just £300 per person for two days. Your Own Place work with businesses to provide their staff with a unique training and development opportunity as Volunteer Tenancy Mentors and to prevent youth homelessness at the same time. Their Volunteer Tenancy Mentoring training packages include high quality volunteer training, comprehensive policies, training packs, vetting and ongoing support for the mentors.

The event was over all too soon, but as well as finding out more about what someone I was at school with was up to, seeing some regular faces and making a new contact at Leathes Prior, I was inspired to contribute and am looking forward to Rebecca coming to speak to the Naked Element team at Whitespace.