Businesses can still act to mitigate earthquake

Businesses can still act to mitigate earthquake effect

Even at this stage, businesses in Christchurch can take measures to help ensure their survival through the current earthquake crisis.

“With aftershocks, the facilities and systems that work today may not necessarily remain available,” says Ian Forrester, managing director of New Zealand’s largest dedicated business continuity provider, Plan-b.

“For businesses that still operate in the affected region, their short-term focus should be to make sure things don’t get worse. First, they should ensure a business grade back up of their data is taken right away and get it to a safe and secure location.”

He adds that this is a good policy for private individuals too, as many people keep family photographs and crucial information about their financial affairs and insurance on computer. “For your home computer, it’s as easy as going to Dick Smith, getting a memory stick and backing up your data.”

Apart from looking after data, each business should ensure that a few key components of its business continuity plan are up to date. “We’re talking about simple things such as having a current list of contact numbers to get in touch with key business contacts and staff outside of the office.”

Mr Forrester says managing staff in this time of upheaval requires special care. “Keep people informed of what is happening with the business and set their minds at ease. Also, give people the opportunity to attend to all the personal matters that require their attention.”

He urges businesses to use the opportunity to note the problems they’re having, so that they can learn from it and avoid repeats in future. “We’re not just talking about earthquakes or natural disasters here, but also server failure or a fire that denies the business access to its usual premises.”

As soon as possible, businesses should get key people together to capture what gaps and key problems they have experienced and how they could better manage them in the future.

The discussion should include key points such as who should do what in a future crisis. While the business manager will probably focus on bigger picture issues, someone should be assigned to drive the recovery while others take care of each vital business function.

Businesses should also identify the things that absolutely need doing within the first two hours of a disruptive event, for instance looking after staff safety, what needs to be communicated and to who. There may be physical items such as phones, cash registers or servers that are crucial to the functioning of the business.

An important part of any business continuity plan is deciding what information people will need urgently, putting it all in one place and making sure that place is accessible, even if the building collapses. This information should include contact information for staff and next of kin, customers and suppliers.

“It’s a good idea to keep this kind of thing updated on a website of some sort,” says Mr Forrester.

The Christchurch earthquake is proving a valuable learning experience for Plan-b as well, says Mr Forrester.

While Plan-b is not set up to mitigate the effects of widespread events such as the earthquake, the company has been able to help its customers – not only recovering their data and servers, but even accommodating some in Plan-b’s emergency standby office facilities in Christchurch.

“We were there Saturday morning getting our house in order and by lunchtime the first customers moved in, continuing to run their business from our facility.”

Plan-b has a fully equipped emergency standby office in Christchurch that can accommodate 70 people, as well as a mobile standby office for 9 people that can be moved to any location in the city. With its other standby offices in Wellington, Hamilton and Auckland, Plan-b can accommodate more than 350 people countrywide.

He says the most obvious fact that came to the fore is that businesses who have current business continuity plans manage the disruption surprisingly well. “Having a rehearsed plan just helps people handle the stress so much better.”

The other early learning has been around data backup and recovery. “We’ve definitely seen that those who test and prove their backup and recovery systems, for instance, find it so much easier to get the business back up and running again.”

Mr Forrester says the situation is ongoing for his company, with an increasing number of earthquake affected customers activating their continuity services.

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