Posted by Matt Spada on Thu, Sep 09, 2010
In honor of National Preparedness Month, Agility is recapping our 52 Tips for 2010 program, with a tip each day throughout the month of September available on the Agility Recovery blog. If you would like to receive future tips (one email per week), please sign up here.
Welcome Innovation.
Interruptions happen all the time. And complacency can be a killer. Analyze your organization's response to everyday events like computer crashes, prolonged power outages and loss of phone and internet. How long did it take before you were back up and running? What job functions were most severely impaired? What can you do going forward to resume operations faster?
Always look for ways to streamline your response. Most importantly, solicit opinions from your staff, stakeholders and customers. Innovation can be found in surprising places. Embrace it.
If you have additional questions or would like to talk with a recovery professional about your business continuity needs visit www.agilityrecovery.com or call 866-364-9696.
Posted by Matt Spada on Thu, Sep 09, 2010
In honor of National Preparedness Month, Agility is recapping our 52 Tips for 2010 program, with a tip each day throughout the month of September available on the Agility Recovery blog. If you would like to receive future tips (one email per week), please sign up here.
High And Dry.
Over the past two weeks Agility has responded to fifteen different Members whose businesses were significantly interrupted due to flooding. Spring is the perfect time to evaluate your preparedness in the event of a flood, and with hurricane season around the corner, think about how your business could be affected.
Take a look at Agility's Flood Preparedness Guide for useful info and steps you can take right now.
If you have additional questions or would like to talk with a recovery professional about your business continuity needs visit www.agilityrecovery.com or call 866-364-9696.
Posted by Matt Spada on Tue, Sep 07, 2010
In honor of National Preparedness Month, Agility is recapping our 52 Tips for 2010 program, with a tip each day throughout the month of September available on the Agility Recovery blog. If you would like to receive future tips (one email per week), please sign up here.
Pay it forward.
Prepare your business financially for long-term interruptions. Encourage direct payroll deposits for all staff in the event that mail is either interrupted or employees are not reachable due to displacement. Business owners should also decide on the levels of accessible cash required to maintain business operations and be able to provide cash advances to employees in dire need.
If you have additional questions or would like to talk with a recovery professional about your business continuity needs visit www.agilityrecovery.com or call 866-364-9696.
Posted by Matt Spada on Tue, Sep 07, 2010
In honor of National Preparedness Month, Agility is recapping our 52 Tips for 2010 program, with a tip each day throughout the month of September available on the Agility Recovery blog. If you would like to receive future tips (one email per week), please sign up here.
Always evolve.
A recovery plan is not meant to be written, filed away and then forgotten. Review your plan at least quarterly to ensure your recovery preparations are keeping pace with the changing needs of your business. Every time your IT network and hardware change, update your plan. Every time there is an organizational change or you hire new people, update your plan to reflect any changes in responsibilities and contact information. Your company is always evolving, and your recovery plan should keep pace.
If you have additional questions or would like to talk with a recovery professional about your business continuity needs visit www.agilityrecovery.com or call 866-364-9696.
Posted by Mark Norton on Wed, May 05, 2010
While continuing to follow the latest updates to the BP / Gulf Coast oil spill (that has claimed 11 lives and now threatens hundreds of species of wildlife along the Gulf shores, and which in 35 days is projected to be larger than the Exxon Valdez) I grew sad to learn of the underlying problem complicating this huge catastrophe that has transformed the Gulf Coast in just a few days - failure to plan.
On Saturday, May 1st, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, was still waiting for a plan from BP on how to protect the state's coast from the massive oil spill. Nine days had already passed. Over 600 National Guard soldiers were on duty to help contain the spill with another 1,000 on standby; however no one had received any marching orders. Meanwhile the oil slick continues to expand from roughly the size of Rhode Island to something closer to the size of Puerto Rico, populating the normally blue-green gulf waters with sticky, pea- to quarter-sized brown beads of oil.
The reason they are waiting is because there was never a plan. BP had no plan for a major oil spill because in 2009 the company determined it was unlikely, or virtually impossible, for an accident to occur that would lead to a giant crude oil spill and serious danger to wildlife. BP Spokesperson David Nicholas stated, "The sort of occurrence that we've seen on the Deepwater Horizon is clearly unprecedented." While I agree this event is unprecedented, I challenge their thinking that such an event was virtually impossible. Since BP did not plan adequately for a worst-case scenario, they also failed to address the kind of technology needed to control a spill at that depth of water. And so we wait...we wait for one to be developed for an event that has already happened - one whose effects are being compared to those of a Category 5 hurricane.
The results of BP's planning failure will undoubtedly have an impact on most of us. However, my hope is that we use this disaster as a reminder to the rest of us - to plan for our worst-case scenario, no matter how unlikely. I encourage everyone to take a second or third (or first!) look into your disaster recovery plans and determine if the preparation we rely on is fit to handle that virtually impossible occurrence. The historic satellite image of the oil spill on the Gulf will always serve as a reminder for me that worst-case disasters do happen and we all need to have a plan.
- Mark Norton
Associate Continuity Planner
Agility Recovery Solutions
Agility Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity Solutions
Agility Recovery on Facebook
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.
