Disaster Recovery Tip #42

It's not about a plan. It's about a culture.

Is your company really prepared? Be honest. If you're reading this, my guess is that you take recovery planning and disaster recovery very seriously. But what about the rest of your company? What about your community? What about your family? To be truly prepared you need to create a culture of preparedness that extends beyond the basic continuity plan, phone tree and emergency kit.

Preparedness must permeate the culture of your organization.

In a recent article, Dave Miller, President-elect of the National Emergency Management Association discussed the individual's role in emergency management and provided some insight into the need for creating a "culture of self-reliance linked to a sense of community." Check out the full article here. It's a good read.

Disaster Recovery Tip #30

Final destination(s).

Building a robust recovery plan is all about establishing redundancies (for your staff, technology, communications, etc). These redundancies need to extend to recovery sites as well. When considering a temporary office recovery site you must think of the worst case scenario. Fact is, your obvious first choice may not be available during a large-scale event (think New Orleans post-Katrina, and Manhattan following 9/11).

Take some time to brainstorm multiple location options. Think creatively about how isolated vs. local vs. regional disasters may impact where and how you recover. For example, do you have a good relationship with a vendor in your supply chain? Maybe they can help you out in a pinch. Do you have access to flexible office space like the offerings that Agility provides? Can your employees work remotely? If so, how long before inefficiency creeps in?

The bottom-line is - don't hinge your entire plan on a single recovery site. Flexibility is key.

Disaster Recovery Tip #29

Right off the bat.

Every business has a main objective in mind when writing their disaster recovery plan. Whether it’s to reduce insurance premiums, eliminate liability, minimize loss or to satisfy compliance requirements from regulators – you’re better off doing it right the first time – before an interruption when the stakes are the highest.

Developing a plan with the sole intent of skating by examiners during an exercise may save you time and money in the short term, but in the long run it is a huge missed opportunity to protect your business, your employees and your promise. Cutting corners now could have dire consequence on the long term viability of your organization and those who depend on it.

Disaster Recovery Tip #28

Reap the benefits.

We talk every week about the importance of creating a comprehensive and actionable recovery plan. It will come as no surprise, that most plans are built with the worst-case-scenario in mind. But the reality is that most business interruptions are not major “smoking hole” events. Employee illness, transit strikes, religious holidays or even scheduled events like the recent G20 in Toronto are just a few examples of the many things that can keep people out of work throughout the year.

A comprehensive recovery plan takes these “minor” interruptions into account. For example, if you have a large group of employees out of town for a tradeshow, who will function as their backup? What’s the impact on your customers? How will external audiences be notified? What’s the procedure for handling increased workload? Is your current process efficient? You back up your data every night, but have you made the same accommodations for your people?

A robust recovery plan will help you address these concerns throughout the year.

Disaster Recovery Tip #20

Keep a local emergency list.

Be sure to include contact information for local resources in your recovery plan. This includes the obvious: police, fire department, poison control; and the not so obvious: local government agencies, as well as state & county emergency management offices. Employees should have access to local emergency agency information (phone numbers, email, etc), particularly in the event of unexpected disasters and terrorist attacks.

Disaster Recovery Tip #7

Lay your cards on the table.

Every test of your recovery plan is a chance to improve it. For your first test, you can find great value in a "Tabletop Exercise." This usually consists of a day-long meeting with the employees that make up your disaster recovery team. The goal is to simulate each of the steps taken during a recovery in order to test the plan, identify shortcomings, and help employees practice their recovery responsibilities.

A tabletop test can be a great way to test your plan without any cost at all. Once your team is confident in their responsibilities and your plan, you can begin adding hands-on elements to your tests.