It may seem a strange place to start, but a good beginning here is the Boston Marathon bombings in April, 2013 and the days that followed. In particular, the Friday when officials shut down the city of Boston and neighboring communities. Businesses all over the city were forced to shut down while the manhunt took place over the course of the day on Friday. While retail establishments were really out of luck because no one on the streets meant no one in the stores, other businesses were able to continue to operate because of a number of technologies that allowed remote workers to get access to their files, the systems they needed and their phone systems. Any business that implemented a full Unified Communications (UC) solution could have employees also communicating with instant messaging and know who was on-line because of the presence capabilities. Additionally, news of the events spread quickly and less because of news outlets who were, quite rightly, not allowed to provide specifics about many of the activities"-- Provided by publisher.