Batten down the hatches

The people at Orient Expressed thought they were ready for anything. “We knew that we would be able to contact each other in the event of a disaster,” says catalog director Mary Malone. “We all had cell phones, we knew where our families were.” What more did anyone need in New Orleans? They found out when Hurricane Katrina hit in late August 2005.

Ordered by the city to evacuate in 24 hours, the two dozen staffers secured their homes, then tried to do the same for the company. Then they left.

The storm all but destroyed New Orleans. And it should have wiped out Orient Expressed, because phone service was limited, the city was under martial law, and the staff couldn't return until October.

But the 30-year-old children's clothing and gift merchant survived — largely because it had all calls rerouted to Signius, a phone service run by The AnswerNet Network.

“Not only did they take all of our orders, they took all of our phone calls,” Malone explains. “We could even call them to find out where other people were.”

And that made Malone an evangelist for back-up call centers in general, and for Signius in particular.

But it was a close call, and the company realized that it needed a formal business continuity plan (a program for handling catastrophes) instead of the informal one it had.

What did it do? For starters, Orient Expressed has outsourced its Website and relocated its backup server to a location further inland, away from the flood zone.

In addition, it now uses a printer located outside New Orleans. Each department head knows what to do and who to contact in case of an emergency. And the company continues to use Signius for after-hours calls and in case of emergency.

And Orient Expressed is not the only business to see the value in advance planning.

So has Rossi Pasta, a gourmet pasta marketer that sells through a store, a catalog and a Website. The firm was flooded in 2004 when the Ohio River rose 22 ft.

Owner Frank Christy and his family and staff acted quickly, and the business survived with only minimal damage. But the firm has since beefed up its business continuity plan.

“After the flood, processes were defined and written down,” says general manager Brian Hausman. “We wanted to ensure that each area was protected and that the recovery process started quickly.”

For one thing, Rossi Pasta moved its manufacturing and distribution to a single facility — away from the river.

“The core of our company is now well above flood stage,” says Hausman.

It also has moved its back-up server to a secure location and sends backup tapes offsite daily. And the company keeps its emergency contact list and procedures up to date, reviewing them regularly.

Finally, Rossi Pasta moved its retail shop to a smaller location. It's still on the river — a prime tourist destination — but it has been remodeled so that the staff can remove or disconnect everything in about 10 minutes if it has to.

The plan may not be perfect — as of August the company still didn't have a backup phone service. But Hausman is confident that Rossi Pasta is well prepared for another emergency.

How do you protect yourself against the unpredictable? By creating a plan.

Gary Pudles, CEO of The AnswerNet Network, says there are really only a few things to worry about during an emergency: loss of power, telephony and data systems, and inability of staff and management to get into the office.

“Every problem can be lobbed into one of those areas,” he says. Loss of power? Make sure you have backup power. “The remedies are not that complex, but the costs can be.”

That's what often makes disaster planning so difficult, he adds.

“Business continuity programs tend to be cost factors,” Pudles explains. “Every time you buy a piece of hardware or software [to back up data, for example], it affects the bottom line. You could spend millions of dollars on business continuity tools and processes, but a small multichannel retailer probably can't afford that kind of thing.”