This is not another scary blog entry on how bad Swine Flu could turn out. While the debates on whether it would turn out to be a catastrophic outbreak can be seen on every national t.v network every night, one thing we know for sure is its terrible impact on local economies, especially in Mexico (as if global credit crisis was not enough).
No micro-economic analysis is needed to see the correlation. Simply, people are rightfully afraid to leave their houses (or sometimes forced to stay by curfew) to go to work and no economy can survive without labor, the most important factor of production. While physical presence is required for many jobs, telecommuting, especially Web Conferencing, can be an important alternative to lessen these terrible consequences. According to omNovia’s web analytics reports, hundreds of people from Mexico used omNovia web conference in April. Most of those online meetings were held by international companies with participants from all over the world. That was very convenient for participants to hold their meetings online instead of traveling to or from Mexico.
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- omNovia users from Mexico
Of course, the most import thing is to be able to prevent a possible catastrophic outbreak of swine flu and I think health officers, media, local and federal administration are all doing their part. But human history is full of examples where bad situations produce or promote better and more effective practices. Can Swine Flu help companies, and therefore global economy, though forcing them to use web conferencing that would bring important cost savings and improve global work force collaboration?
