Batten down the hatches

How do you prioritize?

“You have to look at the expense versus the reward,” says Pudles. “If your car is worth $10,000, you shouldn't buy $100,000 worth of replacement insurance.”

A small cataloger might limit itself to setting up a special phone number so that somebody answers during a disaster and says, ‘We're currently experiencing an emergency. May I take your name and number and have somebody call you back?’

But a firm that depends heavily on a Website for business needs a high-availability backup server in a safe location.

If your primary server goes down, it will immediately go to a copy in a different location, “so you're still up and running,” says Ellen Rome, vice president of sales and marketing at STORServer, a manufacturer of business continuity appliances.

Applications and data that do not need to be accessed all the time can be stored less expensively, she says.

“I go into a lot of [IT] shops and I ask them, ‘Are you confident you can recover in the face of disaster?’ And I get nervous chuckles,” says Rome. She also advises businesses to test their backup systems to ensure that they can quickly retrieve data and stay operational in the event of a power or facility loss.

And your plan? It shouldn't be too bare bones — or too complex. “I just can't emphasize enough: Don't make it overcomplicated,” warns Frank Bell, the facilities manager for Tessco Technologies, a wireless communications provider that was flooded in 2002 when a nearby fire hydrant broke. “Too many companies go nuts with it,” Bell says.

In some cases, the planning and attendant crisis solutions can cost more than an actual disaster would.

Bell adds: “Invariably your plan isn't going to address the specific disaster that you have. In our case, it was a broken fire hydrant, and I defy you to find anybody whose continuity plan says, ‘Have you checked with your fire department to see if the local fire hydrants are in good working condition?’ It's not going to happen.”

Tessco's business plan, which was revised after that incident, consists mainly of ensuring that all data is regularly backed up, duplicated and stored off site daily. If another disaster hits, the merchant just has to flip a switch.

The company also has strategic agreements with vendors such as Verizon so that phone service will continue no matter what.

Finally, Tessco makes sure that each department head is listed by function, not name, as people change but positions don't.

The marketer also has an emergency Rolodex, a list of all employees, vendors, and partners to contact if a catastrophe occurs. Tessco keeps its plan online and each department head has two hard copies, one kept on his or her person or at the office and one kept at home.

If your business does not have a written plan, or if you are looking to revise an existing plan, the “Ready Business” section of the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) both have good sample business continuity and disaster preparedness plans on their Websites.

You can download the Ready Business Sample Emergency Plan, which provides spaces for things like emergency contact information, emergency planning, coordination, critical operations, evacuation procedures, emergency communications, cyber security, and records back-up, by going to www.ready.gov/america/_downloads/sampleplan.pdf.

Finally, FEMA has developed an Emergency Management Guide for Business & Industry, which is broken down into four major sections: Establish a planning team, analyze capabilities and hazards, develop the plan and implement the plan. Each section contains detailed recommendations for creating and maintaining a comprehensive emergency management program. You can check out and download the guide by going to www.fema.gov/business/guide/index.shtm.

Natural disasters can destroy businesses and result in loss of life. But you can limit damages and injuries and get back to normal quickly if you've planned ahead.

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Jennifer Lonoff Schiff is a freelance business writer based in Wilton, CT.

A business survival plan

• Back up data daily to a server located in a secure site, at least 50 miles away from your primary location or any flood or tornado zones.

• If you manage your Website inhouse, have a backup server and someone who can administer the site in the event your primary location or power goes down.

• Make sure each department head has an emergency contact list with the names and numbers of all employees, vendors, and partners — and that all employees know where to go and who to contact in case of a facility shutdown.

• If your business takes orders over the phone or has phone-based customer service, implement a backup phone service. This might be an emergency call center that will take calls and orders and give out critical information in the event of an emergency.

• If your business does have to shut down — even briefly — immediately post information, including an emergency call-in number, on your Website and inform your call center, if you have one, so that customers, employees, vendors and other concerned parties know what's going on and how to contact you or get information about their orders.

• Distribute your plan to all department heads and post it online (securing the information with a password so employee information is not exposed).

Review your plan regularly and test it if you can.
— JLS

Related articles:

Disaster-Proofing Customer Care
Weatherproofing the Supply Chain
Operations and Management: Developing a Disaster Strategy