Wednesday, April 7th, 2010.
Loss of Telecommunications – a Call Center's Worst Nightmare.
by Ralph Petti, MBCI
For many years, disaster recovery preparedness seemed to be prevalent only in major corporations and environments that were "mission critical". With the advent of the Internet and more of a global economy, that thinking is changing. Every company, regardless of size and stature, should have a disaster recovery plan in place - that's what the Department of Homeland Security says.
As hurricane season approached in 2008, Homeland Security’s Ready Campaign and The Advertising Council reached out to small businesses nationally and encouraged them to “define their day after” by putting emergency preparedness at the top of their to-do list. A series of national public service advertisements (PSA) entitled “Procrastination” were released nationwide for radio, print, internet and outdoor media. These PSAs focus on what can happen when a business owner chooses to place making an emergency plan at the bottom of their to-do list. The theme taps into the natural tendency for individuals to put off making plans for another day.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, small businesses employ more than half of all Americans. However, Institute for Business and Home Safety research shows that, at the minimum, one in four businesses never reopen following a disaster.
“Research conducted by the Ad Council found that more than 85 percent of small businesses understand that emergency preparedness is important, yet only four in ten businesses have a plan to protect their businesses,” said former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. “The ability of these businesses to survive and recover quickly from both natural and man-made disasters directly benefits employees, customers, the community and the local and national, economy.”
These PSAs were created by Neiman Group and mark the third round of national PSAs created for Ready Business, a component of the Ready Campaign. Ready Business is designed to help owners and managers of small- to medium-size businesses prepare their employees, operations and assets in the event of an emergency by providing practical steps and easy-to-use templates. To date, the Ready Business effort has received more than $91.1 million in donated media support; its Web site has received more than 29.7 million hits and more than 2.6 million unique visitors; and more than 2.3 million Ready Business materials have been requested from the Web.
All businesses can benefit from a thorough analysis of their business methods. Even if a task is not deemed to be "critical", it could impact a supply-chain of activities that will cost market-share, revenue, and in the most extreme cases, even lives. Many companies still view the market for disaster recovery as major corporations or those with mission critical applications.
Systems
