Action Plan

DeAnne Toto

As the cover story on East Windsor, Conn.-based Infoshred illustrates, having a disaster recovery plan can be vital to business continuity. Such a plan can spell the difference between quickly and successfully recovering from a disaster—in the case of Infoshred, a roof collapse—struggling excessively to recover or, worse yet, failing to reopen. Granted, a disaster recovery plan is not going to make the process painless, but it can ease some of the pain and help to assure continuity.

The Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS) reports that nearly 25 percent of businesses fail to reopen following a major disaster. Your company does not need to fall into this group if it takes advantage of the many resources available to aid in developing a disaster recovery plan.

Gail Moraton, business resiliency manager for IBHS, says, “Businesses that have a business continuity plan in place—and use it during and after a disaster strikes—typically experience less damage, loss and downtime than businesses without a plan.”

Before a business begins preparing its disaster recovery plan, it helps to consider the potential risks to the business. IBHS offers a risk and vulnerability assessment tool (http://64.16.194.32/content/data/file/Risk-Vulnerability-Assessmentv3.pdf) that is designed to help businesses identify their greatest risks. The IBHS Open for Business® toolkit (http://ofb.ibhs.org/ofbInfo?execution=e6s1&type=ofb_basic) can then help small to mid-sized businesses develop business continuity and property protection plans.

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) also offers a number of resources, available at www.sba.gov/content/disaster-planning, to assist business owners in planning for disasters. These resources include step-by-step advice from FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) on how to create and maintain a comprehensive emergency management plan and on how to protect your property from natural disasters.

As Stacey and Jack DiPiazza of Infoshred can attest, it’s also important to examine your company’s insurance policies so that you fully understand the extent of your coverage, filling any gaps if necessary.

While it’s never pleasant to contemplate the disasters that could negatively affect your business, it’s a necessary step in ensuring the ongoing operation of your company as well as those that you service.