You have an excellent emergency response plan in place. You have successfully evacuated resident facilities; sheltered in place one of your nurses when that angry spouse tried to enter a facility or agency in violation of a restraining order; and handled the H1N1 flu outbreak. You are confident about your preparations, but have you thought about the following questions if your corporate facility and data center were to be destroyed?

1. What alternate site(s) will your staff work from?
2. Does everyone (including those who use public transportation) know how to get to the location?
3. How many PCs are stored offsite and how long will it take to prepare them so that staff can return to work?
4. Does your alternate data center have the necessary network capacity and has all the other equipment been maintained for recovery purposes?
5. How long will it take to have your phones forwarded so you can take calls from remote workers, caregivers in the field, agencies, facilities, families, referrals, and other partners like banks and suppliers?
6. When will offsite tape backups arrive at your alternate data center so you can recover your Information Technology (IT), and how long will the recovery process take?
7. If your business functions are paperless, how will your agencies and facilities track information until your computer systems are back up? Have arrangements been made with the USPS, UPS and FedEx?
8. Do you have a plan to pay your employees when it isn’t possible to cut checks or deposit funds?

Thankfully, this situation is hypothetical, but hopefully it got you thinking that you cannot afford to rely on instinct when it comes to preparing for a disaster.  Preparation is vital to maintaining “business as usual” when adversity strikes.  A facility that is only partially prepared is doing itself and its residents a disservice. When a disaster occurs, all bases must be covered to make sure that a business can continue to function.  Advance planning is essential in keeping a business active even in the face of disaster. 

Business Continuity Management helps protect agencies and facilities by thinking through how your business continues during recovery of damaged corporate facilities and data centers.  You can’t afford to get caught flat-footed; your business depends on it!

Contact us for help preparing your organization’s survival kit.

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