Friday Q&A: Business continuity with Ginnie Stouffer from IDC Partners

The holiday shopping season is again going to pack — our economy hopes — hordes of consumers into shops, malls and onto roads. The Liberty Bell is going to remain a practical militarized zone.

And while no one thinks the apocalypse is good for business, there is something to be said for having your business ready for disaster.

Wayne-based business continuity services company IDC Partners has built a business on that reality since 1991. They help companies prepare for the worst, and they’re using cool, local technology to do it.

Below, Ginnie Stouffer, vice president of consulting with IDC, takes her 15 years of industry experience to tell us about the cool technologies they implement to keep their clients ready for the worst and just what disaster movie is the favorite of someone who thinks plenty about disaster.

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[UPDATED] Comcast Roundup: NBC deal awaits Vivendi approval, Cohen called most powerful Philadelphian and More

Updated: 11/12/09 @ 11:19 p.m.: Vivendi no comment on NBC deal

Every Thursday morning at 8:30 a.m. EST, find all the stories you need to know about your friendly telecommunications giant in the Comcast Roundup. Get an e-mail subscription for our Comcast news updates.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Comcast and General Electric have agreed to value NBC Universal in the neighborhood of $30 billion, one of the final details of their impending deal. As the Inquirer’s Bob Fernandez reports, whether or not French cable company Vivendi—with a 20 percent stake in NBC—will exercise its ability to veto the deal, may be announced today during its third-quarter earnings call. The Inquirer reports that Vivendi executives gave no comment during the call.

But Bloomberg reports that Vivendi has little reason to move on the deal and may hold out to get a better deal.

The LA Times entertainment blog reports that “no major regulatory hurdles” need to be jumped for the Comcast-GE deal to happen.

After the jump, the most powerful man in Philadelphia, rivaling ESPN and more.

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Old City VoIP provider Alteva scores Microsoft deal

Redmond needs a little help from Philly in its battle with Mountain View.

Microsoft has enlisted Old City-based VoIP provider Alteva to help integrate its popular Office suite with phone and communications systems in businesses. We spoke to Alteva CEO Will Bumbernick earlier this month. The companies hope that the partnership helps businesses become further entrenched in the Microsoft brand of business products while simultaneously preempting the inevitable Google Voice/Google Docs juggernaut.

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Shop Talk: VOIP provider Alteva keeps it local, plans possible acquisitions

Alteva CEO Will Bumbernick, 35, came to Philadelphia for the same reason many men move to new cities.

“I followed a girl to Philadelphia. The girl didn’t work out, but the area did,” he says.

And did it ever. After running, and then selling, his own technology consulting firm, Bumbernick, along with engineer Mark Marquez, wanted to start a company in a new sector that relied on monthly subscriptions. Bumbernick said he was enticed bythe stability of a monthly invoice, especially after his consulting days.

The two soon founded Alteva, a company that provides voice over internet protocol (VOIP) services to over 300 small- to mid-sized businesses. And, unlike many tech companies in the Philadelphia region, they are doing it all from inside city limits.

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