What Happened to all the Computers?
Disasters don’t always happen on Wall Street
Last week we talked about preparing for and surviving another business crisis like the Stock Market crash of October, 1987. There are other disaster that can be just as damaging to your business. Many are much more likely to happen.
Natural Disasters
On the West Coast the big threat is earthquakes and forest fires. The South and East worry about hurricanes. The Heartland has tornadoes. These types of major disasters could befall any of us. Okay, we know it won’t be us, it’ll be the”other guy” who gets hit, but let’s just pretend there’s an outside chance we could be that “other guy”.
Other Disasters
Maybe you’ll be lucky this time and it really will be the “other guy” who gets hit by the natural disaster. That doesn’t mean you’re off the hook. Think about what else could happen. Fire, theft, power failures, even a disgruntled employee can all cause serious damage to your business. More importantly they can cause damage to your business RECORDS.
And Just Plain Bad Luck
When the street repair crew cuts the power and phone lines by accident what will you do? If the office above you has a pipe burst in their bathroom, that water will flow down to your business. I can think of lots more, so I’m sure you can too.
Planning vs Prevention
Since you can’t completely prevent disasters you need to plan for them. If your business does get hit by one of those disasters what could happen? Think for a moment about what you would have to deal with.
Production equipment damaged;
work in process ruined;
inventory and raw materials lost;
a plant to rebuild;
and many of your loyal employees forced out of work.
Which orders have been paid for already. Which invoices have you paid. What material is enroute and when will it arrive. Who did you buy that special machine from three years ago and when can they get a new one to you.
Without your computers you are missing some of the items most important to getting your company back in business. If you haven’t planned for that, how will you explain why you didn’t?
What to Protect
There are really three classes of computer items you need to protect: hardware, programs, and data.
The easiest to protect is probably the programs you use. If these are commercial products, or other software that you purchased, all you need is a record of the purchase so you can contact the vendor to replace them. Safeguard that record as you would the data we discuss below. If they were internally generated, make copies and guard them like all other data.
The most important rule for safeguarding data is BACK IT UP. Make frequent copies of all your data and store the copies in a safe place away from your business. How often you should back up your data varies as the content does. Critical information should be archived at least daily. Software programs only need to be archived when the programs are changed.
Hardware protection is an area that requires special attention. We normally protect property based on its purchase or repalcement cost. The higher the cost the more we protect it. That’s why we pay so much attention to protecting our computers. However, especially with PC’s, remember the monitors too. Even though the cost of a monitor typically is less than a quarter of the computer cost, without it the computer is practically worthless because you can’t see to interact with it.
Survival and Recovery
If you have a plan, your chances of surviving a business disaster are significantly improved. Plan first for what you need to do to survive. Develop an evacuation plan for your employees in case the disaster hits during business hours. Train everyone, develop an emergency response team, and train the team even more. Recognize the cost of the planning and training as an investment to help you recover.
TIP: Have a laptop computer (it has a built in monitor) that contains your absolutely critical information. At the very least, be sure it has the contact information for your customers so you can let them know what happened. A client in Atlanta may not know enough California geography to realize, for instance, that your business in San Jose was damaged a the San Francisco earthquake
Recovery will take longer than survival. The key, again, is planning. You must determine, before the disaster occurs, what you will do to recover, who will do it, how, etc.
Not on My Shift
Maybe you will be lucky and the disaster will happen to someone else, when you are on vacation, or after you leave, but do you want to bet on it? It is your responsibility as a manager to make the hard choices, to plan for the things that nobody else even wants to think about. If you do it well, you may be instrumental in your company’s future success. If you fail to prepare you just might not have a company to come back to.
John Reh --
Other Management Feature Articles
