Filed under: Knowledge, software | Tags: disaster recovery, disaster preparation, business disaster, disaster recovery software, business continuity software, Phoenix software, KingsBridge Disaster Recovery, COOP, Continuity of Operations, business impact analysis
In every company there are decision-makers and decision-influencers. Often it is the decision-influencers who see the need for the service/solution and who work to convince the decision-makers to agree and sign the contract.
So, how does this apply when making decisions about your disaster recovery and business continuity plans? What is the normal process for your organization when making decisions that will have a large impact on the longevity and success of your company?
Typically, most companies see the disaster recovery and business continuity plans falling into the responsibility of the information technology department. While ultimately, the IT department will be responsible for installing and managing your business continuity/disaster recovery software solution, who really makes the decision on this purchase? Are the disaster recovery and business continuity plans an IT issue or are they a company-wide issue?
In our experience, often companies approach this as an IT issue but as we discus the overall impact of the threats, what was an IT issue quickly becomes a company-wide issue. When we do our jobs correctly and thoroughly explain how a threat such as a flood or power outage can have an overwhelmingly negative impact on the company’s bottom-line and ability to survive, the decision-makers and decision-influencers are suddenly on the same page. With everyone realizing that business continuity and disaster recovery are not simply IT issues.
Really the person we want to talk to is the Chief Financial Officer. This is the person who can clearly see and appreciate the impact a disaster can have on the company. The CFO and really the entire management of the company should have disaster recovery and business continuity front and center on their “to do” lists. The trick is getting these key decision-makers to understand that a threat (no matter how small it appears) can and will affect the bottom-line.
So, where does this leave you?
If you’re a decision-maker – what are you waiting for? Call a meeting, get your CFO and managers in a room and find out what the status is with your disaster recovery and business continuity plans.
If you’re a decision-influencer – email the link to this blog post to your company’s decision-makers. Remind them that downtime results in missed sales, productivity, and potentially even bigger disasters.
To make it even easier for you (decision-makers and decision-influencers), here is our phone number: 1.888.246.6642. Make the smart decision – pick up the phone and call us.
About KingsBridge
KingsBridge is a Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity company specializing in Software, Seminars and Consulting. If you are looking for a Microsoft Office integrated recovery planning tool, Phoenix is not only an excellent tool, but the only completely integrated planning tool. Our seminars (online and in-house) are some of the longest running seminars in the recovery business. KingsBridge uses turn-key consulting for those who need the plan done, right the first time. For more information about KingsBridge, checkout www.disasterrecovery.com.
Filed under: Knowledge, software | Tags: disaster preparation, business disaster, disaster recovery software, business continuity software, Phoenix software, KingsBridge Disaster Recovery, sharepoint, iPhone Application, Phoenix Mobile iPhone App, Apple, Phoenix Mobile iPad Application, iPad, iPhone, iPad Application
We’ve been busy here at KingsBridge, working on our latest addition to our industry-leading Phoenix software. You might be scratching your head, wondering what else we can add to the Phoenix software line, that already includes:
- Phoenix Online: all of your planning is done securely over the Internet. The plans are available to your organization anytime, from anywhere, through any browser.
- Phoenix for Windows: installed locally on your computer and fully leverages Microsoft Word for editing your plan.
- Phoenix SharePoint Standard Edition: integrates directly into your existing Microsoft WSS environment.
- Phoenix SharePoint Enterprise Edition: take full advantage of Microsoft SharePoint for advanced team collaboration within your Microsoft MOSS environment.
But that’s not all. As of last week, we have a new addition to our suite of Phoenix software: Phoenix Mobile. Yes, as the name suggests – Phoenix software wherever you are.
Reach into your pocket and dig out your iPhone… It is missing something – Phoenix Mobile.
Don’t have an iPhone – you have an iPad instead? No problem – Phoenix Mobile runs on the iPad as well!
We’ve got you covered from all angles with our free Phoenix Mobile application. Phoenix Mobile lets you have disaster recovery and business continuity plans in the palm of your hand.
Our free iPhone and iPad application has a simple-to-use and intuitive interface:
- Teach Your Team: access information on detailed pre-formatted disaster scenarios.
- Contact Your Team: automatically sync with your address book.
- Find Your Team: in the event of a disaster, quickly and easily send out a Google Maps pin, letting the people in your address book know where you and your phone are.
All you have to do is visit the iTunes Application Store and download Phoenix Mobile for the iPhone and Phoenix Mobile for the iPad. We want you to use it and let us know what you think. Be honest – tell it to us like it is. This is an opportunity for you to have some input on what we provide in the next version of Phoenix Mobile.
Teach, Connect, Find – all with Phoenix Mobile.
Filed under: Knowledge, software | Tags: disaster recovery, business continuity, disaster preparation, business disaster, business, disaster recovery software, business continuity software, KingsBridge Disaster Recovery, COOP, Continuity of Operations
You’ve done everything right:
- You have a plan
- You have tested and verified your plan
- You’ve trained your team members
- You have maintained your plan
Disaster strikes! Now what? You know you’re prepared, but still there is some nervousness and uncertainty. You can relax knowing that your disaster recovery plan is working for you, but it is still essential to keep in mind the following life lessons:
Do Not Panic
Panic is the one thing that can cause your well-prepared plan to fail. The difference between a disaster that results in failure and one that results in continuity success is often how well teams control panic. Well-trained teams can recover from even the most serious incidents provided they remain calm and in control.
There is no one cause of panic. It usually comes from small problems that grow. So long as everything rolls along smoothly, people are pretty good at adjusting. But as soon as things begin to unravel, there is a strong likelihood that it will only take a small change to cause chaos and panic. With this comes the abandonment of rational thought, and this is when we see companies forgetting about their disaster recovery plans and operating in a completely reactive situation.
This will not work. Remember the number one rule: do not panic. Trust in your disaster recovery plan and the preparations you did to ensure it would work in such a situation.
Watch Out For Murphy
Murphy’s Law states that anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Poor planning, inadequate training, and poorly maintained safety and response gear are invitations for Murphy to appear.
What can you do to prevent Murphy’s Law from ringing true? Ensure your team is up-to-date with the latest disaster recovery plan, remember to maintain this plan, and be sure to have your necessary hardware working and fully operational.
By doing these little things, you can keep Murphy away, and breathe easy. Remember a successful disaster recovery plan only works if you do your part in the maintenance of the plan, your team, and your essential equipment.
Practice Makes Perfect
We’ve all heard the mantra that practice makes perfect. Well it couldn’t be more true than in a disaster scenario. The more you practice your plan, making sure team members know how to respond, the more likely things will operate smoothly.
Think about the things that could happen and practice ways to counteract or to respond to them. What would you do if you get separated from others in your unit during an evacuation? What would you do if the building were completely dark during the exit? What would you do if the emergency responders are delayed in arriving and you are informed that there are still people unaccounted for and maybe still in the building? (Remember to build these scenarios into your disaster recovery plan….)
Practicing these will quickly turn the situation from disaster to recovery.
Fix the Little Things
Pay attention to detail. Even the smallest mistake or misstep can quickly add up to bigger problems. All of a sudden your carefully thought out disaster recovery plan is not working because you let some small mistakes slip in.
If this does happen, act quickly, identify the problem, respond to the problem, and get back on track with your disaster recovery plan.
Pay Attention
Remember the safety briefings we receive before each airplane flight? Yes, they seem kind of boring and repetitive, but these seemingly tedious briefings can be the difference between successfully surviving an accident or not.
Same goes for the training and briefings you provide to your team. It is critical that team members are listening and paying attention to the disaster recovery training. We know this is easier said than done, but if done in a cohesive team environment where you can get everyone involved, you might find that your team recognizes why it is so important to be prepared for any disaster or threat – no matter how big or small it seems.
Be Equipped
As part of your plan development, get the safety and emergency gear needed for your response teams. This includes items such as fire extinguishers, first aid kits, AED defibrillators, protective clothing, gloves, fluorescent bibs, flashlights, water, whistles, stretchers, stair chairs, communication devices (two-way radios, cell phones, etc.), bull horns, etc.
Be Responsible For Your Safety
Remember, that ultimately we are all responsible for own safety. Train your staff to recognize this. Teach them that no one else can think for them or plan for them and nobody else can save them when they fail to be prepared. Show them to take responsibility for their own actions and be prepared to deal with problems that may occur.
Remember the Lessons
So there you have it, some basic life lessons that really do apply to disaster recovery and business continuity planning. Only make sense – doesn’t it. The lessons that apply to our day-to-day life are the ones that ensure a successful response to a disaster.
Remember these lessons and smoothly and effortlessly turn disaster into recovery.
About KingsBridge
KingsBridge is a Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity company specializing in Software, Seminars and Consulting. If you are looking for a Microsoft Office integrated recovery planning tool, Phoenix is not only an excellent tool, but the only completely integrated planning tool. Our seminars (online and in-house) are some of the longest running seminars in the recovery business. KingsBridge uses turn-key consulting for those who need the plan done, right the first time. For more information about KingsBridge, checkout www.disasterrecovery.com
Filed under: Knowledge, software | Tags: business continuity, swine flu, disaster preparation, business disaster, disaster recovery software, business continuity software, Phoenix software, KingsBridge Disaster Recovery, H1N1, swine flu education, business impact analysis, NDM-1, pandemic
Just last week we posted on this blog about the World Health Organization’s announcement about the end of the H1N1 pandemic…. And now just less than a week later, we’re reading about a new possible threat to our health and safety.
That’s right the NDM-1 enzyme which creates an antibiotic bacteria. This superbug can exist within bacteria and the concern is that it can make such bacteria resistant to antibiotics, thereby creating a “medical threat”.
Most often people are contracting this bacteria after visiting Southeast Asian countries for medical travel. That’s right, travelers visiting countries such as India and Pakistan with the purpose of receiving specific medical care are returning to their home countries having contracted this drug-resistant bacteria. This, medical officials are warning could result in the next pandemic.
So what does this mean for you? What did you learn from the H1N1 pandemic?
- Did you develop a business continuity plan?
- Did you do a review with your staff to determine what worked and didn’t?
- Have you developed a disaster recovery plan?
- Have you done your due diligence and researched the impacts of a subsequent pandemic on your business?
- Have you done a threat risk analysis and business impact analysis?
Are you responding accordingly to this new possible global medical threat or are you going to “sit back and wait”?
The really only smart choice is to react now. Remember that in times of crisis and disaster, it will be much too late to start developing a business continuity and disaster recovery plan. Take the time now to do a Threat Risk Analysis and Business Impact Analysis. Identify what the threats are to your business and move forward. Develop a plan, test the plan, refine the plan, and be confident that your business is protected and ready in the event that this does turn into the next pandemic.
Really, to be completely blunt about this, you’d be foolish not to do something. With all the information there is now about impending threats and disasters, you’re not going to get much sympathy when at your shareholders meeting, you say “Well, we just didn’t know. We didn’t think it would end up ruining our business supply chain and result in such a huge loss.”
So think about who you want to be, the businessman who can tell his shareholders that his company was protected and was able to respond to the NDM-1 outbreak and it was business as usual or the businessman who has to tell his shareholders that he ignored the warning signs, resulting in a massive financial loss and bankruptcy.
That business continuity and disaster recovery plan does more than protect your business – it protects you.
About KingsBridge
KingsBridge is a Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity company specializing in Software, Seminars and Consulting. If you are looking for a Microsoft Office integrated recovery planning tool, Phoenix is not only an excellent tool, but the only completely integrated planning tool. Our seminars (online and in-house) are some of the longest running seminars in the recovery business. KingsBridge uses turn-key consulting for those who need the plan done, right the first time. For more information about KingsBridge, checkout www.disasterrecovery.com
Filed under: Knowledge | Tags: business continuity, swine flu, disaster preparation, business disaster, business, disaster recovery software, business continuity software, Phoenix software, KingsBridge Disaster Recovery, H1N1, swine flu education, business impact analysis
Way back on November 9, 2009, we first wrote about the H1N1 flu virus. What at first appeared to just be another in the typical “winter flu” phase, quickly turned out to be much more than that. Seemingly overnight, we went from flu epidemic to flu pandemic.
Cue the panic. Cue the stress. Cue the chaos.
No one was prepared. The international health bodies weren’t prepared. Business wasn’t prepared. School boards weren’t ready. The general public was either consumed with hysteria or sticking its collective head in the sand pretending that H1N1 wasn’t an issue.
Really we should be very relieved that we all came out of this pandemic as well as we did. And just to reinforce how well we did survive this pandemic, the World Health Organization announced on Tuesday August 10 that the H1N1 flu pandemic was officially over.
But this doesn’t mean that you can forget about this pesky flu bug. Rather, this is the perfect opportunity to pay extra attention to what worked and what didn’t work during this tense and stressful period. We should all take this experience with H1N1 as a learning opportunity and use it to be prepared for the next pandemic or equally serious threat or disaster.
In an article in the Vancouver Sun on Tuesday August 10, Dr. Kumanan Wilson, the Canada research chair in public health policy at the University of Ottawa, said “we need to be prepared to shift rather quickly our seasonal flu programs to reflect this new reality. It’s a new disease. It’s not the same disease as we’ve been treating. It’s a disease that affects a different population with a different mortality rate.”
All this to say, that what worked in the past, won’t necessarily work in the future. Just because your company survived the recent pandemic with little to no interruption to your business processes, doesn’t mean that this will always be the case. Take a look at your business continuity and disaster recovery plans, did they include:
- Emergency contact information
- Work from home options
- Details on the nearest hospitals and clinics
In addition, did you take a proactive approach for your employees and look into vaccinating staff against this disease? As we all know, the ad-hoc vaccination clinics set up through-out North America were not that effective in vaccinating people. How many work hours did your company loose to employees spending up to six hours waiting at their local clinic for the vaccine?
If you’re still thinking of brushing off the H1N1 pandemic as a bit of hysteria on the part of the governing international health bodies, consider this statement from WHO director-general Dr. Margaret Chan, “pure good luck” helped prevent H1N1 from morphing into the killer first feared last year. The virus did not mutate during the pandemic to a more lethal form. Widespread resistance to oseltamivir (Tamiflu) did not develop. The vaccine proved to be a good match with the circulating viruses and showed an excellent safety profile.” She added that the international community support ensured that countries with weaker healthcare systems were able to detect and report cases quickly.
“Had things gone wrong in any of these areas, we would be in a very different situation today.”
So, a few things to think about when looking at your current business continuity and disaster recovery plans. Just because your business survived this recent pandemic, will you be prepared in the event of another such pandemic? There is no time like the present to update your plans – or if you don’t have a plan – to do a complete threat risk analysis and business impact analysis and make sure your company is ready with well-defined and practical business continuity and disaster recovery plan.
About KingsBridge
KingsBridge is a Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity company specializing in Software, Seminars and Consulting. If you are looking for a Microsoft Office integrated recovery planning tool, Phoenix is not only an excellent tool, but the only completely integrated planning tool. Our seminars (online and in-house) are some of the longest running seminars in the recovery business. KingsBridge uses turn-key consulting for those who need the plan done, right the first time. For more information about KingsBridge, checkout www.disasterrecovery.com
Filed under: Knowledge, software | Tags: business continuity, business continuity software, business impact analysis, Continuity of Operations, COOP, disaster preparation, disaster recovery, disaster recovery software, KingsBridge Disaster Recovery, Phoenix software
Thankfully, more and more businesses are recognizing the need for business continuity plans (BCP) and disaster recovery plans (DR). This means that more companies, such as yourself actually have BCP and DR plans.
But it also means that your clients and potential clients are aware of the need for such plans… So what do you do when a potential or existing client asks to see your BCP or DR plan? Is this information private internal material or should it be made “public”?
Private or Public?
This is a tough situation to be in. On one hand, you’re lucky that you’re prepared and have considered how your company will react, survive, and maintain continuity of operations in the face of disaster or disruption. Being prepared such as you are has actually become a marketing and sales tool. When you need to differentiate your company from your competitors, you can speak about your BCP and DR plans – highlighting how you can guarantee continued service, product, and business relations in the event of a disaster. But on the flipside, often these plans involve private internal data that really is not for external knowledge.
This decision really is up to you but there are a few measures you can take to ensure that all parties are happy and protected:
- Non-Disclosure Agreement – the client should sign such a document before seeing your plans
- Excerpt the plan – you don’t need to show your client the full plan. Rather excerpt it and highlight the key points that emphasize how you are prepared
- Table of Contents only – showing your client the table of contents is an excellent overview of your plan and gives you some easy talking points
- FAQ – prepare an list of questions and answers for the client that address how you handle specific situations
- Contact Information – give the client a reliable set of contact information. This way if something does happy, the client has peace of mind of knowing that he can contact you when he needs to
The Client
Of course this brings up an interesting question – what about the client? Is your client prepared with a BCP and DR plan? It is worth asking this question as well… Remember, business is a two-way street – you need to guarantee continued service but you also want assurances of a consistent revenue stream.
If you’re prepared, but your client isn’t, now you’re the one left without knowing if in the event of a disaster, your client will be able to maintain business, continue to generate revenue and in turn pay invoices and continue to be a revenue for you.
So when a client asks for your BCP or DR plan, be sure to do the same of your client. Both of you can rest easy at night knowing that you’re working with reliable and forward-thinking businesses. Being prepared goes a long way in protecting your business and confirming to outside eyes that you’re here to stay for the long-term.
About KingsBridge
KingsBridge offers private businesses and government organizations a unique combination of industry knowledge and cost-effective disaster recovery / business continuity solutions. KingsBridge products and seminars provide the tools to assess possible threats and create tailored plans which mitigate risks and minimize losses in the event of a disruption to business. Kingsbridge is headquartered in Ogdensburg, New York, with offices in Ottawa, Canada and Burlington, Vermont. For more information visit us at www.DisasterRecovery.com
Filed under: Knowledge, software | Tags: business, business continuity, business continuity software, business disaster, business impact analysis, Continuity of Operations, COOP, disaster preparation, disaster recovery software, KingsBridge Disaster Recovery, swine flu education
Like any niche business, this one of Disaster Recovery Planning and Business Continuity Planning has its own jargon and terminology. Often for people new to thinking about and considering how their company can be best protected in the event of a disaster, this jargon becomes overwhelming.
So to help clear the air and keep things simple, lets review some of the key terms of our industry – hopefully making it easier for you to discuss Disaster Recovery Planning and Business Continuity Planning with your colleagues.
Disaster Recovery Planning (DRP): refers to the recovery of IT services following a major hit or service interruption.
Business Recovery Planning (BRP): a superset of DRP and refers to the recovery of IT and all other aspects of the business. This includes everything from finance to administration to engineering to manufacturing.
Business Continuity Planning (BCP): includes BRP and highlights vulnerabilities that might cause losses to your business and plans for the continued conduct of your business. These vulnerabilities can include things such as poor security procedures following a disaster or the lack of effective backup procedures.
Emergency Response Planning (ERP): includes all aspects of DRP, BRP, and BCP but adds evacuation planning, medical aid, and security issues.
Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP): refers to the preparations and institutions maintained by the United States government to ensure survival of federal government operations in the case of a catastrophic event.
This is a brief primer of some of the key terminology that is integral to understanding how you need to prepare your business in the event of a disaster. By clearly understanding this basic terminology, you are ready to take the next step and start considering how to best approach protecting your business.
About KingsBridge
KingsBridge offers private businesses and government organizations a unique combination of industry knowledge and cost-effective disaster recovery / business continuity solutions. KingsBridge products and seminars provide the tools to assess possible threats and create tailored plans which mitigate risks and minimize losses in the event of a disruption to business. Kingsbridge is headquartered in Ogdensburg, New York, with offices in Ottawa, Canada and Burlington, Vermont. For more information visit us at www.DisasterRecovery.com.
Filed under: Knowledge, software | Tags: business continuity, business continuity software, business disaster, business impact analysis, Continuity of Operations, disaster preparation, disaster recovery, disaster recovery software, KingsBridge Disaster Recovery, swine flu education
Is the sky falling? Or are we over sensitive?
June 23rd 2010 is a date that for some will remain an important day, but for most of us, it was just another day. On this day, there was a 5.0 magnitude earthquake in the North East of North America. If you live in an area that experiences these types of tremors on a regular basis, you’re probably giggling at the near hysterical response that did occur… If you live in the North East, you experienced a one in 500 year phenomena!
How does this relate to Business Continuity?
Was this an incident? Yes.
Or was it a disaster? Hardly.
Ottawa, the largest city in the center of the earthquake, suffered slight damage with some windows breaking and cracks in the foundation of some buildings. So, this would definitely class itself as an incident, not a disaster. However, the response from many of the residents and businesses was one of major catastrophe. Most building evacuated in downtown Ottawa, which is against the established steps of “Stop, drop, hold”:
If you are indoors: “DROP, COVER, HOLD”
▪ Stay inside.
▪ Drop under heavy furniture such as a table, desk, bed or any solid furniture.
▪ Cover your head and torso to prevent being hit by falling objects.
▪ Hold onto the object that you are under so that you remain covered.
How does this impact my Emergency Response Planning (Business Continuity, Disaster Recovery or COOP)?
All incidents are a chance to take and learn lessons – this is no different.
“Should we have an earthquake response in our plan?” This depends on the likelihood of another one coming. When you did your Threat Risk Analysis (TRA) you most likely looked at the statistics and considered the likelihood of an earthquake in your region. In the North East at least, the odds of having another earthquake of similar magnitude is less than 2% and according to Scientist John Adams, of the Geological Survey of Canada the earthquake would have to be at least 10 times stronger before any damage would occur to buildings, thus dropping the likelihood to almost zero.
So, to answer the above question of adding similar incidents to your response plans, if you live somewhere that has regular incidents (snow storms, flooding, wild fires, power failures), then yes add these to your response plan. If such occurrences are a one in 500 year incident, survive it, learn from it and be better prepared to ensure it remains an incident and doesn’t turn into a disaster.
About KingsBridge
KingsBridge offers private businesses and government organizations a unique combination of industry knowledge and cost-effective disaster recovery / business continuity solutions. KingsBridge products and seminars provide the tools to assess possible threats and create tailored plans which mitigate risks and minimize losses in the event of a disruption to business. Kingsbridge is headquartered in Ogdensburg, New York, with offices in Ottawa, Canada and Burlington, Vermont. For more information visit us at www.DisasterRecovery.com.
Filed under: Knowledge, software | Tags: business continuity, business continuity software, business impact analysis, Continuity of Operations, disaster recovery, disaster recovery software, KingsBridge Disaster Recovery, Return on Investment
In a word: Yes. Really, you don’t have a choice but to devote budget to business continuity planning.
Admittedly, plans do not come free – but the costs to your business will be much better than the money spent to put a business continuity plan in place.
Why You Need a Plan
- 93% of companies that experience a disaster without a recovery plan close within 5 years. Why? Cash flow. Your insurance will keep you running through your business day, but once the money runs out you better know who your customers are going to be. Without a plan, you have lost your contact list, so you don’t know who owes you money, who is close to signing deals, and whom you’re targeting for future deals. In short, your cash flow has dried up and you have nowhere to turn!
- 50% of companies that lose their critical business systems for more than 10 days never recover. This comes down to brand loyalty. The brand loyalty that we saw a generation ago simply isn’t a constant in today’s business world. If you aren’t open for business, your customers will find someone else. This is the Internet age – it isn’t hard for your customers to find your competitors and quickly and seamlessly give them your business. Are you willing to take that chance with your customers?
- Almost 60% of businesses consider customer services and competitive advantage to be the factors most critical to their company’s survival. With so much advertising and market saturation, it is very expensive to win a new customer to your solution; it is much cheaper to keep your existing customers happy. If you aren’t open for business, or have limited services with no warning, your customers are going to find another solution. We have become an “instant generation”; if you can’t supply a service or product instantly, your customers will find someone else who can.
- For every eight hours of down time, you lose one half of a percentage point of market share (0.5%), and it takes three years to win that market share back! Without a business continuity plan, you won’t have three years…
Convinced? Good, now lets move onto what you need to consider when building your business continuity plan.
Building a Business Continuity Plan
- What is your Recovery Time Objective (RTO)? By what time must you recover? Your RTO determines how much time you have to get everything back up and running. This helps you determine the amount of resources you need to allocate when planning your recovery budget. For many small businesses, it is very important to be the first back in business. This means that, when there is an area-wide disaster, such as a snowstorm or flooding, you need a plan that gets you back in business before your competitors. This shows your clients that you take their needs seriously and are ready to go the extra step to keep them happy. Time is money for you and your clients.
- You have to determine which services are key to your success and how much you will lose (customers, prospects and money) if you don’t have those services available. The services that are crucial to your success have to be back in operation first, but be careful – sometimes the crucial operations aren’t the most obvious ones.
- You have to be prepared to have people go home and wait by the phone. Although they are not generating revenue for you (or helping in the recovery) you know where they are, they’re available when needed and they’re not distracting your core recovery.
While these three factors might seem obvious, when disaster does strike, you will be so swamped with decisions to make that you probably won’t even be able to remember your home phone number.
The Dollars and Sense
We recently worked with a small development company that experiences frequent power outages. They had backup batteries but did not have a generator. Fifty people, most of their staff, cannot continue to work without power. We calculated how much direct salary money they were losing with the power outages. The total cost was $125,000 per year! And that didn’t even include employee benefits, lost sales, and lost profits. This company now has generators and sound business continuity plan to keep them in business when power outages occur.
To calculate a gross dollar-value for how much a disaster could cost you use the KingsBridge Return On Investment (ROI) calculator. The result is the lost revenue per hour. (Yes that’s a pretty big number…)
KingsBridge develops plans that are cost-effective (the savings in insurance premiums often are enough to pay for the plan) and that are a differentiator for you and your competitors. If you can guarantee to your customers that you will be open for business, regardless of the local situation, they are more likely to remain as your customers, more likely to tell others and it is most likely that you will pick up customers when others are facing a disruption of some sort.
Your customers aren’t going to wait for you to return to operations (while their deadlines expire) – they are going to look for a solution that allows them to remain competitive and operating at full capacity. You expect the same from your suppliers, so why should your customers expect less?
Ensure your market share continues to grow, keep your customers happy, keep your investors happy and keep your doors open – put a business continuity plan in place. You really can’t afford not to.
About KingsBridge
KingsBridge offers private businesses and government organizations a unique combination of industry knowledge and cost-effective disaster recovery / business continuity solutions. KingsBridge products and seminars provide the tools to assess possible threats and create tailored plans which mitigate risks and minimize losses in the event of a disruption to business. Kingsbridge is headquartered in Ogdensburg, New York, with offices in Ottawa, Canada and Burlington, Vermont. For more information visit us at www.DisasterRecovery.com.
Filed under: Knowledge, software | Tags: business continuity, business continuity software, business disaster, business impact analysis, Continuity of Operations, COOP, disaster preparation, disaster recovery, disaster recovery software, KingsBridge Disaster Recovery, phoenix foundation, Phoenix online, Phoenix software, software
We need it to be hosted! I don’t trust the security of the Internet! Can I access my plan online?
These are just a few of the questions and objections I hear when talking with clients here at KingsBridge. For the last few years there has been a significant shift in how software and applications are delivered and run – all thanks to the growth of the Internet. This Internet boom has given us access to information at a moments notice as it is being held in the cloud.
It is this shift that motivated us to re-evaluate how we deliver products to our customers.
From our early days in 1985, our flagship Phoenix Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity software has always and only been offered in a local install version. The application resides physically on the hard drive of the computer much like its integrated partner Microsoft Office.
But just like you, we’ve also recognized the power of the Internet and how we can use it to ensure that you have constant and immediate access to your disaster recovery and business continuity plans. After months of development and testing, in February we launched our online version of Phoenix.
The product launch was a big success, with many new and existing customers choosing the online version of Phoenix. But as is normal, we’re still getting many questions about the pros and cons of the online and local install software solutions.
So to help you out, we’ve put together a list of the key considerations you need to make when determining the best way to manage and deliver your disaster recovery planning and business continuity software.
Advantages of the Online Version of Phoenix
- Constant and immediate access to the online version of Phoenix. Assuming you have Internet access, you can quickly and easily access, update, and use your disaster recovery plan.
- Your office truly becomes global. With the online version of Phoenix, you can interact with co-workers wherever they are – you are no longer limited by the “cubicle” walls.
Advantages of the Locally Installed Version of Phoenix
- The software is running independently of the Internet. You can be guaranteed that if you’re in your office and the Internet goes down – you can still access Phoenix and you disaster recovery and business continuity plans.
- Working on a laptop with a locally installed version, gives you the flexibility to access your plans without worrying about Internet access.
In the end both solutions can work, the answer lies within your business environment. Regardless of the path you choose, having a plan and being able to manage it is the deal breaker for your company. Selecting the appropriate tool comes second.
Ultimately, don’t be caught standing in the parking lot of your burning building wondering where your plan is, or worse asking yourself why you didn’t take the time to get a plan in the first place.
About KingsBridge
KingsBridge offers private businesses and government organizations a unique combination of industry knowledge and cost-effective disaster recovery / business continuity solutions. KingsBridge products and seminars provide the tools to assess possible threats and create tailored plans which mitigate risks and minimize losses in the event of a disruption to business. Kingsbridge is headquartered in Ogdensburg, New York, with offices in Ottawa, Canada and Burlington, Vermont. For more information visit us at www.DisasterRecovery.com.
