An area often overlooked by many firms, a disaster recovery plan is generally pushed
to the bottom of the “to do” list or not dealt with at all as it’s considered a problem more likely to be faced by bigger businesses. Statistically, however, any
firm that suffers an event that renders trade impossible for a period of three days
or more will never recover to the position that it enjoyed pre-disaster.
Disaster recovery is all about safeguarding your business when an interruption happens. With some planning, you can make the difference between a marketing coup (”Company survives major flood”) or business failure as your clients seek an alternative
provider.
We have highlighted a few scenarios below for you to consider. Just by putting some
thought into how you would cope with these issues should they arise will help you
be aware of what actions would be necessary if the unthinkable should happen.

Natural Disaster
Whether it is fire, flood or something more catastrophic, the assumption has to be
that your office premises are unusable and are likely to remain so for some time.

Action:
Review availability of vacant units and serviced offices, and assess how quickly
you could be up and running in the short term while looking for longer term solutions.
Are you insured for business interruption events?
What are the critical aspects of your business – what can it not survive without
e.g. phone systems; desktops; server; coffee machine?

Power Failure
How would your business survive if it lost power because workmen cut through the
electricity cable outside your office?

Action:
Install Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS) – these can give you additional breathing
space (from half an hour to a few hours dependent on how much you are prepared to
spend on them!) while you work out the scale of the problem and how long it will
take to be resolved.
See below for ways of dealing with Telephone/IT equipment.

Computer/Telephone Equipment
In today’s modern age, computers are relied upon for almost every aspect of business
life – in fact most modern phone systems are often specifically programmed computers.
Whilst the replacement of PCs and laptops are relatively easy, computer infrastructure
(servers) and phone systems cannot simply be bought off the shelf. In the event that
you lose either of these pieces of equipment, do you know how quickly you could have
replacements configured to your requirements working in your office?

Action:
A conversation with your IT/Phone supplier should put your mind at rest on this issue.

Data
The information that you hold electronically about your business, customers and suppliers is vital, yet companies often do not take sufficient precautions in protecting their data should computer systems fail. There are a variety of solutions available which
do not cost the earth but will literally be a lifeline for your business should the
unthinkable happen.

Action:
Speak to your IT supplier about taking backups daily in your office and storing the
information offsite.

Phone/Broadband Lines
More often than not, these are completely out of your control, but although it is
rare, such services have been known to be cut. The only viable alternative if this
happens is having the ability to transfer the calls to someone who can handle them
while your systems are down – rather that than potentially lose a sale, or even worse
have it go to a competitor.

Action:
Review and shortlist the call answering companies available that you feel best fit
your business branding and model.
Discuss with them upfront how they would deal with this event so you are clear how
your business workflow will be affected.
Prepare a brief so they are aware of what your company does should they be called
on at short notice.

Staff
This might seem like an odd one to include here, but consider this – adverse weather
could mean the majority of your staff are unable to make it to work. This happened
to a number of businesses during the early part of 2009 when heavy snow fell.

Action:
Review and decide who the critical members of your team are and how their work would
be undertaken in the event they couldn’t make it to work e.g. home working; access
to serviced offices closer to their home or logging into your office. This is more
easily done for a service based company, but for a manufacturing business, there
are also options that can be considered.
Could other members of staff be trained in critical aspects of the work undertaken
and step in as a short-term measure?

You
How long could your business run without you if you were involved in an accident?
Do you have a deputy who could hold the fort in your absence? This is a difficult
scenario to envisage and actually, quite a weighty issue for some business owners
because of the impact on a whole range of aspects of their life.

Action:
Could someone else provide support in helping run the business? If the worse case
scenario should hit, this is an option available to you.
For organisations of a greater size, ‘Key Man’ insurance can be purchased. As the
name suggests, in the event that a pivotal person within the business is incapacitated,
insurance can be purchased to fund the salary of a replacement member of staff for
a period of time.