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#1 Protect Your Business From Disasters

#2 Document Business Processes

# 3 Backup Data Off Site

#4 Write a Business Continuity Plan

First Response

• What are the first steps that you take when disaster strikes?
  1. Call local authorities (where are those numbers documented?)
  2. Call your insurance company
  3. Call your management team with the news and plan going for, who in turn disseminate this information to their staff
  4. Inform clients of the disaster and how long you anticipate being down
  5. Inform vendors of the disaster. Stop or reroute shipments as needed.
  6. Notify the post office and commercial couriers such as FedEx and UPS of alternate delivery locations

Communications

• Telephone
  1. Where will the main line forward?
  2. Do you have an employee contact lists stored off site? How quickly can you access that information?
  3. Do you have a client contact lists stored off site? How quickly can you access that information?
  4. Do you have a vendor contact lists stored off site? How quickly can you access that information?
  5. How can you replicate the phone system quickly after disaster? Some options might include:
     • Going with a managed PBX
     • Going with a call center that can route calls
     • Have your telephone line provider forward to a home or mobile phone

Email

• Setup email archival (see #3)
• Setup email sand bagging with an alternate MX record with secondary priority in the DNS zone for your company’s domain name. (the record that tells the Internet where to send email for your domain, i.e. mail.yourbiz.com – an usual alternate might be mail2.yourbiz.com). I strongly suggest professional help with this.
• How will user email client software (Outlook) connect to an alternate email source?

New Work Place

• Alternate Network Infrastructure (definitely seek the help of a professional IT person here)
  1. Do you have access to spare servers or can you lease some from a datacenter?
  2. What computers will end users use? Their own? How will they access data.
  3. How will information security be addressed in disaster mode?

Alterations in Business Processes

1. Address any deviations needed from standard business processes due to the event

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