About 50 workers at Sirius XM were laid off Tuesday, a bit ahead of schedule because they logged into their company’s internal Ultipro payroll site and saw their termination dates — Oct. 15 — next to their name.

The company was forced into frantic damage control, as staffers flocked to the site to see if they were among the employees being let go.

First step: Shut down access to the site.

Then, according to reports, management contacted the affected workers and gave them formal notice they were being terminated.

But no company likes being behind the curve on sensitive operations like layoffs.

It’s always a good idea to remember that routinely used technologies can often provide clues to upcoming events. Deleting a user’s access privileges, posting a position on an online recruiting site or making changes to a payroll or intranet site can cause your organization to lose control of its message at a bad time.

Repairing the damage can often be more trouble than taking steps in advance to prevent sensitive information from being spread before you’re ready.

Source: RadioandRecords.com

Enter the “extranet” – a private network that uses Internet technology and the public telecommunication system to securely share part of a business’s information or operations with suppliers, vendors, partners, customers, or other businesses.

An even better ‘Intranet’

Plenty of companies have created “intranets” for their employees to use for sharing info and making data available across an organization.

The “extranet” goes one better. It can be a part of an organization’s intranet that’s extended to folks outside the company and used to:

• exchange large volumes of data using Electronic Data Interchange
• share product catalogs
• collaborate with other companies
• develop and use training programs
• provide or access services, like an online banking app managed by one company for affiliates, and
• share news of common interest.

The caveat: An extranet needs security and privacy. To manage this, you may need:

• firewall server management
• digital certificates or some other kind of of user authentication
• message encryption, and
• virtual private networks (VPNs) that tunnel through the public network.

Need to know more about extranet? Click here for more info.

The receptionist would normally transfer calls to employees without knowing if they were there, away or already on the phone.

Often callers ended up getting voicemail when they could have held for a minute or have been told a better time to call back.

But the only way for the receptionist to know was to walk to the employee’s desk.

That was tough, since our building is pretty big. So we looked for a better way to keep employees connected to each other.

The solution: an internal IM program.

It only works on our intranet – no one outside our network can be contacted through it.

Now when the receptionist gets a call, she can easily message the appropriate employee.

It’s been a huge help for IT, too.

I spend a lot of time on the phone with users. Now, if people
need something when I’m on call, they can IM me. Then I can let them know when I’ll be free to help them.

Bonus: It’s great for security. Since it runs exclusively on our network, it doesn’t leave us open to security threats from outside.
(Joyce Olson-Burpee, MIS Director, DBS Companies, Bay City, MI)

The receptionist would normally transfer calls to employees without knowing if they were there, away or already on the phone.

Often callers ended up getting voicemail when they could have held for a minute, or have been told a better time to call back.

But the only way for the receptionist to know was to walk to the employee’s desk

That was tough, since our building is pretty big. So we looked for a better way to connect employees to each other.

The solution: an internal IM program.

It only works on our intranet – no one outside our network can be contacted through it.

Now when the receptionist gets a call, she can easily message the appropriate employee.

It’s been a huge help for IT, too.

I spend a lot of time on the
phone with users. Now, if people
need something when I’m on call,
they can IM me. Then I can let them know when I’ll be free to help them.

Bonus: It’s great for security. Since it runs exclusively on our network, it doesn’t leave us open to security threats from outside.
(Joyce Olson-Burpee, MIS Director, DBS Companies, Bay City, MI)

Many companies set up internal message boards on their intranets as a way for employees to communicate. Much like the traditional cork message boards in break rooms, they give people a way to share information with co-workers in a public place.

But some lawyers warn employers about the potential problems with all that electronic sharing. Possible areas of liability include:

1. Harassing or defamatory comments on the message board
2. The sharing of confidential information with unauthorized co-workers, and
3. Issues related to union solicitation.

Avoid problems

If your company uses an internal message board, you can help keep legal issues at bay by having a policy on what is acceptable to post (i.e., nothing discriminatory, harassing, confidential, etc.). Employees should be reminded of the policy each time they log on to the system.

Also, the content should be monitored regularly, and complaints about the use of the board must be addressed effectively.