Ruined data and equipment can set your business back financially for weeks, months, and years to come. That’s why you should take the appropriate precautions now to back up your data and protect important documents. In the sections below, find out tips and best practices to ensure your records and data can weather a disaster.
Data & Records
Back up and protect your vital records and data. Without data, a business can’t recover. According to the US Department of Labor, 93% of businesses that suffer a significant data loss are out of business within five years. Symantec research shows that the median cost of downtime for a small-to-medium-sized business is $12,500 per day. So, back up your data regularly and store it offsite. It’s a lesson learned by many businesses too late. For a micro-business, a simple CD/DVD could be a short-term solution to your company’s successful recovery.
Vital records are defined as: electronic and hard copy documents, references, and records needed to support critical operations during an emergency. The two basic categories of vital records and examples of the types of records that fall into either category are:
Emergency operating records:
- Plans and directives
- Orders of succession
- Delegations of authority
- References for performing critical functions
Legal and financial records:
- Personnel records
- Payroll records
- Retirement records
- Insurance records
- Contract records
In addition to these two categories of records, your planning team may also require other materials and resources. If so, these materials and resources should be considered “vital” for business continuity. Consider what documents you want to include in your Grab-n-Go case.
Vital Records Program
If you don’t have one, consider launching a vital records program – something every business should have. An effective vital records program should account for the identification, protection, and ready availability of vital records, databases, and hard copy documents needed to support critical functions of the company. Because vital records are essential to the performance of critical operations, they must be accessible within 12 hours of activating your disaster plan — either electronically or in hard copy. For those businesses whose operations cannot be interrupted for any period of time (e.g., online trading), vital records must always be readily available.
Physical copies of these items are most safely maintained in a location that is likely to be away from the impacted area. Online storage of documentation is becoming more popular, especially as costs fall and many sites offer free services. Just ensure that your documents are stored in a secure manner and that you are careful about how you access those documents to deter identity theft or other cyber-crime. Many online storage sites are password protected and utilize encrypted data transmission technologies.
Many businesses choose to maintain records electronically because of the ease of updating them and copying them to an offsite location. Some companies will keep encrypted versions of their disaster plan and key documents on thumb drives carried by key staff and executives. Whatever method(s) your company chooses for preserving vital records, they should be defined in your records management policy and in your disaster plan.
The recovery and restoration of your vital records can be a good theme for an exercise (or drill). After performing the exercise, ask yourself: How did it work? Were you able to get vital records in sufficient time? Were they current? Then use your lessons learned to revise your vital record management procedures, as well as your disaster plan.
Property
Take action to mitigate potential impacts to your equipment, buildings, and facilities. Mitigation is the specific act of reducing your exposure to specific hazards. As you learn about the likely hazards in your area, you can take steps to protect the properties your company needs to remain operational, based on your risks.
Equipment
First, gather lists of all your equipment and review the details you have on each (manufacturer, part numbers, version, existing warranties, etc.). Then match up the equipment with the critical processes you defined for your business (this may have been done during the prioritization of critical processes).
Begin to prioritize the equipment based on its involvement in critical processes, noting any potential issues. For example, if the only manufacturer of a particular critical machine is in England, replacing this machine could prove challenging. This is a potential vulnerability that you’ll want to address. If you have a diverse business, it may be easier to split the list into office equipment and industrial equipment, and then have your Planning Team work with the SMEs who use those machines to learn more about their role in your company’s operations. This process will result in a list of all equipment, details, and potential replacement challenges.
Buildings & Facilities
Looking again at your operational priorities, now review your buildings and facilities. Very few businesses can operate without a building. List and create a profile of each of your facilities and buildings, using any details you have available. Should you need to relocate, these details will help you recreate your operations layout in a temporary location. This is where the critical documents you gathered (e.g., floor plans, lease agreements) will come in handy and why they need to be kept in your Grab-n-Go case.
Reviewing your likely hazards in combination with your building profile details should help identify where improvements are needed. If you lease space, you may need to work with your property management company or landlord to address identified issues. Necessary improvements could include seismic retrofitting, elevation of utilities, the provision of backup power, or other protections.
Next, look within your building’s four walls at all of your other furniture and fixtures to determine if anything can be done to secure and protect these items. See the Tools & Resources page for tips on protecting your furnishings from damage and preventing them from causing injuries during a disaster.
If you need to relocate after a disaster, don’t forget to communicate with your property management company or landlord. They may have alternate space for you at another site. At your current location, you will need to coordinate with the management company, as they will control access to the building after a disaster. Maintaining good relationships with them before a disaster can help you afterwards.
Protect your inventory and storage before it is lost to a disaster and you have nothing to sell. Start by prioritizing any inventory, goods, and supplies in storage that may become damaged or unavailable.
Based on the likely hazards in your area, identify methods of securing, elevating, or generally protecting these goods. Because of how often these goods are accessed to fill orders, sometimes they are the last ones to be protected. This oversight can have tragic consequences; your entire inventory could be wiped out within moments. If your business relies heavily on available inventory, don’t wait. Take steps to mitigate your exposure now.
Also be sure to review and identify the damage mitigation measures that need to be taken to protect any other non-inventory supplies or goods you have in storage.
Finally, review the steps that would need to be taken to replace your inventory if it were damaged or destroyed. Do you have more than one supplier? Do you have an agreement with suppliers to provide products in a particular time frame? Can delivery be expedited if necessary? Where is the supplier located and what hazards do they face? Could they experience a disaster that would not impact you directly, but that would affect your company’s ability to provide critical goods or services? What disaster plans do your suppliers and vendors have in place?
Again, take direct action within your four walls, but also consider your dependencies on outside goods and services. Any disruption in the inputs/outputs to your business can affect your ability to keep your doors open, thus impacting your bottom line.
Inventory
Protect your inventory and storage before it is lost to a disaster and you have nothing to sell. Start by prioritizing any inventory, goods, and supplies in storage that may become damaged or unavailable.
Based on the likely hazards in your area, identify methods of securing, elevating, or generally protecting these goods. Because of how often these goods are accessed to fill orders, sometimes they are the last ones to be protected. This oversight can have tragic consequences; your entire inventory could be wiped out within moments. If your business relies heavily on available inventory, don’t wait. Take steps to mitigate your exposure now.
Also be sure to review and identify the damage mitigation measures that need to be taken to protect any other non-inventory supplies or goods you have in storage.
Finally, review the steps that would need to be taken to replace your inventory if it were damaged or destroyed. Do you have more than one supplier? Do you have an agreement with suppliers to provide products in a particular time frame? Can delivery be expedited if necessary? Where is the supplier located and what hazards do they face? Could they experience a disaster that would not impact you directly, but that would affect your company’s ability to provide critical goods or services? What disaster plans do your suppliers and vendors have in place?
Again, take direct action within your four walls, but also consider your dependencies on outside goods and services. Any disruption in the inputs/outputs to your business can affect your ability to keep your doors open, thus impacting your bottom line.