Posted by Ben Pritchard on Fri, Jan 22, 2010
While some of us are not sales professionals per se, we sell every day in one way or another. We "sell" our spouses on buying the cable subscription for Monday Night Football and our children on completing their homework or going to bed on time (actually, "bribe" may be a better word...). We sell our friends on checking out a new hotspot and we try to sell our bosses on the idea of a raise (note to my boss - you know who you are).
Given that, in our own way, we are all experienced sales people, why do we have trouble selling the concept of business continuity and disaster recovery planning
to business management? The only answer I can come up with is that we assume they
don't believe it's a necessity and/or they don't believe they will ever face a disaster.
Just a few minutes of research on websites such as FEMA, KPMG, EMC2, Disaster Recovery Journal or our very own Agility Recovery Solutions reveal all sorts of thought provoking information. With that in mind, here are some statistics that should scare any sane business owner/board member and aid you in your mission to sell a concept which, strictly speaking, should sell itself:
- 43% of businesses that experience a disaster never re-open. Source: US Department of Labor
- 29% of businesses that experience a disaster will re-open, but never fully recover and will close their doors for good within 2 years. Source: The Hartford's Guide to Emergency Preparedness Planning published by The Hartford Financial Services Group
- 52% of businesses experienced an interruption or disaster of some kind within the last 2 years. Source: 2009 Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity Surveyconducted by Hughes Marketing Group & Agility Recovery Solutions.
After being aware of these facts do you think your company can dodge a bullet? Your board/owner/boss needs to be informed. You should publicize these stats and encourage them to take heed.
On a more positive note:
- Having a comprehensive disaster recovery plan means you are better prepared for a disaster and more likely to keep your business up and running, with minimum interruption.
- Testing your disaster recovery plan is critical. It allows you to determine what works best and what doesn't. The information learned during a test can help amend your plan so that when a disaster does strike you're able to recover more effectively and efficiently.
- Working with your vendors and 3rd party disaster recovery consultant/provider improves the chances of survival. They will help you get your hands on the things you need to keep your business functioning.
- A well developed, tested, up-to-date disaster recovery plan is an "insurance policy"; if the worst occurs you know you are covered. It will help you quickly react, and minimize any damage.
What it boils down to is this; at some point in time a disaster will
happen, whether it's natural or facilities or resources related. If you have a comprehensive disaster recovery plan which has been tested and regularly revised then your chances of survival are greatly increased. If you don't, you are playing Russian roulette and the odds are stacked against you.
Does your boss really want to run the risk of a failing business? Or disrupting customers? Or forcing their employees out of work? Who will be left to pick up the pieces? Ask them. Remind them that disaster recovery planning
doesn't have to be expensive, and emphasize the point until you can see true progress.
For more information on how to gain management support join us on Wednesday, January 27 at 2:00 p.m. EST for a free educational webinar - Securing Management Buy-in for Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity. Register today!!
- Ben Pritchard
Agility Recovery Solutions
Agility Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity Solutions
Follow us on Twitter here.
Posted by Ben Pritchard on Wed, Dec 16, 2009
Communication saturation has become as normal and vital as
breathing, especially in the business world.
We need efficient and constant communication channels both internally
and externally for our organizations; as well as with colleagues, partners,
vendors and customers.
Put simply, communication makes our business more effective
in every way, even allowing for the stream of inappropriate and occasionally
funny emails that circulate within every office.
A communication breakdown can worsen the immediate and
lasting effects of a disaster. So, the question I have is: how will you
communicate in the midst of a crisis? How will you get your employees back to
work if you cannot get in touch with them? How will you get the resources
necessary to recover if you can't talk to your vendors? How will your business
survive if you can't reach out to your customers? If you don't have a solid answer
to these questions then your business could be circling the drain.
Don't wait until your office is a glowing hole in the ground
to start wondering how to communicate with the world. The key is planning. With
that in mind, here are a few ideas:
- Define the essential individuals you need to
communicate with i.e. employees, customers, and vendors.
- Identify appropriate and effective forms of
communication for each group.
-
Build an emergency contact list for employees
and key vendors that includes home and mobile phone numbers, personal emails,
and family contact info.
- Set-up an Alert Notification System (there are a
number of vendors out there, plus Agility provides one as part of our standard
membership). Be sure to share its purpose with employees and test the system regularly.
- Determine how you will contact your customers as
well as how they can contact you. Don't let them call in to a dead line; you'll
lose a lot of customer confidence in a very short space of time.
Once you have identified the key contacts from each group,
start working on your media choices. For example:
- Employees - text messages, emails, Twitter (see,
it does actually have its uses after all!), online message boards, phone trees
(delegate responsibilities for calling within your organization).
- Customers - in addition to emailing and Tweeting,
think about placing announcements with local newspapers, TV stations, radio stations
and your own website. If your building is still standing then put up notices
there. You should also have contact information for your customers, so email them
and, if you can, follow-up with a reassuring phone call to inform them of the
current situation and what you are doing to resolve it.
- Vendors - to be honest a combination of any of
the above would be effective. Contact them, tell them what you need, and tell
them the best ways reach you.
- For all of the above make sure you get an
effective phone redirection strategy in place and get it working as soon as
possible following a disaster. A disconnected phone line can lose you
customers, panic your employees, and even lead to your vendors allocating the
resources you need to other clients.
The caveat I would place here is that it is important not to
get carried away. If you go all out and try to do everything listed above,
things are likely to get complicated. Take
a good long look at the most effective channels of communication that are
appropriate for your business, and stick with them. Incorporate this communication
plan into your larger disaster recovery strategy, and make sure to communicate
your disaster recovery plan to the people who will be required for it to work,
and then practice it. And, as always, be prepared to improvise, adapt and
overcome.
Happy DR planning! Have a wonderful, safe and
disaster free Holiday Season!
- Ben Pritchard
Agility Recovery Solutions
Agility Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity Solutions
Follow us on Twitter here.
Posted by Matt Spada on Mon, Sep 28, 2009
Fear…it’s an emotion shared by all creatures, both man and beast. The only difference between these two subsets is that man has been blessed with the ability to consciously choose how to react to fear inducing stimuli as opposed to simply being hard-wired to respond instinctively.
When I was quite young, my father had once asked me what I thought was man’s greatest fear. When I replied with what I undoubtedly believed to be the correct answer, spiders, he proceeded to tell me that the correct answer was “the unknown”. Of course, I didn’t believe him at the time, since the only thing scarier than a spider was perhaps an unknown spider that may have crawled into my ear while I slept. However, with age comes wisdom and through the years not only have I found the sword to slay this ‘unknown spider’ but I’ve also made some interesting observations.
Now, we’ve all had those horrible nightmares where you are seated in the auditorium with the final exam on your desk, realizing you hadn’t studied at all (unfortunately for me, this wasn’t so much a nightmare as it was a true story). You might have also dreamed of being in front of your classmates, clad only in your underwear, while frozen in place, unable to hide your embarrassment (again, another unfortunate true story). If you’ve ever given a presentation, you know all too well the frightening thought of being bombarded by questions you wouldn’t be able to answer. After pondering on these many misfortunes in my life, I came across the answer. The silver bullet or the sword to slay the unknown spider is preparedness.
It is only the foolhardy who go through life without taking responsible steps to plan for the unknown (another one of Dad’s pearls of wisdom). It is the reason we have life and car insurance, fire extinguishers, first aid kits or that spare tire in your trunk. It’s all for the just in case. Should the unexpected occur, most people would have no problem dealing with the situation by putting these preparedness tools into action.
Why is it then that so many businesses fail to prepare for unexpected events? It is astounding how many people don’t have an answer when asked “what would you do if your business suffered an extended power outage?” The same silence is heard when asked about a host of other hypothetical yet highly plausible events. Is it simply because so many days have gone by without incident and we just decide that the ‘unexpected’ won’t occur? Or perhaps it is complacency, or even the fear that planning for an event means uncovering a very real risk exposure to the business with no way to cover it. Whatever the reason, it is blatantly obvious that the old adage stands true, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”
I’d like to take this opportunity to use another old adage, and that is “It’s never too late.” Even if your preparedness plan is simply just some phone numbers for emergency vendors scrawled on a napkin in the top drawer of your desk, it is truly never too late to get a solid preparedness plan in place. Most businesses begin with a risk assessment, determining what exposures threaten the day to day operations of the business. You must take into account all facets of your business, your key elements being your workspace, power, connectivity (your phones and internet access) and your technology. Most importantly, you must have a plan that incorporates your people, as no business can function without its employees. You may also take comfort in the fact that you don’t have to do this alone. Agility is committed to providing the necessary tools to assist businesses in getting prepared and staying that way.
As September is drawing to a close, we are proud to present the final webinar in our FREE 2009 National Preparedness Month series. On September 30 at 2:00pm EST, the acclaimed former Administrator of FEMA, Mr. R. David Paulison, will discuss the need to re-energize America’s commitment to personal, family and business preparedness. Creating a culture of preparedness is critical for helping all of us better prepare for disaster response and recovery.
I strongly recommend you attend this particular webinar, so the next time someone says you “have nothing to fear but fear itself”, you can shoot them back a smile, wink knowingly and correct them with confidence. You can let them know that what we really fear is the unknown, and once we learn to adopt a culture of preparedness, we really have nothing to fear at all. Well, except for maybe spiders.
- Jonathan Prasad
Agility Recovery Solutions
Agility Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity Solutions
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