Continuity Disaster Recovery

Can Your Business Recover Swiftly After an Emergency?

2008-06-12T20:24:00.000-07:00

Home Security is certainly one of the most pressing worries for anyone who cares about family and loved ones. But once your physical defensive means against home intrusion are in place and after you possibly installed some form of Surveillance, you may think that the job is done and that life is only to be enjoyed.

However most people, and probably you too, spend quite long hours of their lives at their job or work or business. You may or may not have responsibilities for what happens there, but anyhow you would not want to be involved in any unpleasant surprises.

Therefore it is not out of place you take time to look around your desk, or machine, or post and see if any dangers that you may think of, seem not to have been dealt with properly.

It is true that in any civilized place there are firm rules and laws that the employer is bound to know and respect, and that there are officers whose job is to oversee their correct application. But mistakes and faults do happen. Who should be in charge of security and well being for the very place you work in?

Could a fire start and spread nearby? Are there fire extinguishers somewhere within reach? Do everybody know the best escape route? Can all run away safely in a short time?

This is only an example of something extremely disturbing that could occur either because of technical malfunction of an appliance, machine or device, or for human carelessness of somebody in your area.

Other more disturbing accidents could possibly happen. Although the Management is responsible for preparing contingency plans, everyone, you included, can easily consult official sites calling for awareness and provide suggestions for limiting the damages of disasters.

If specific precautions seem easily affordable, you, as the diligent person you are, can volunteer to do some preparation work. If more complex study has to be devoted to certain aspects, probably a team should work on it.

Bosses would probably appreciate and encourage such an involvement. If, sad to say, something serious does happen, contingency plans should be ready for getting back to work in the shortest time with the least possible disturbance.

It may not be easy, it may be costly, it may take some time but having thought beforehand of all important provisions you would certainly have helped in recovering as soon as possible by concentrating in doing useful things, avoiding inactivity and despair.

branding news

Understanding the Beginning of Business Continuity Plans and Disaster Recovery Plans

2008-06-12T19:42:00.000-07:00

Entering the computer age, a disaster recovery plan was a concept and not much else. The idea was that a plan would be in place for the day when things went wrong. This worked at the time when computers in world numbered in the 100's - there were not more computers than people in an office.

Organizations got bigger and computer departments were suddenly as big as the sales department, more IT consultants were bringing in more hardware and software and no one really noticed the day that computers had a greater value than the people in the office.

In that first phase when there was a mainframe, a form of backup was done on a regular basis, the backed up material was moved to a safe location and the idea was that if the mainframe went down, then spare time could be used on a different mainframe in a different location.

Now a 50 person office has 75 computers; at least .

Now there is a complex telephone system that is just a little gray box with some wires coming out of it, and no one cares what it does because it works.

All those little wires pass through a closet that was originally built just for the wires, but hey, with the space issues this company has we may as well stock paper in the closet; or the corrosive cleaning material.

The main frame is gone and instead of having one machine running everything important we have a lot of little computers each running a little task that collectively replaced the main frame.

Imagine; that mainframe used to do 50 tasks and now those tasks are spread out over 50 different PCs. Everything works because the computer kid set it all up. Then he has a falling out with his girlfriend, the secretary. Better for him, he got accepted into University 200 miles away on an athletic scholarship. Or, his parking is taken away because of some reason that made sense to the decision maker. For whatever reason he is no longer in the company and things run just fine.

What is the expression; things run just fine until they don't?

Suddenly the person that left is understood to be the most important person in the company, because things either slowly stop, or just drop dead. If the computer guy left in a bad mood and in a hurry he could have just switched some cables. If he had time he could have programmed your data based to erased itself after running a backup (and he set the backup to not save anything).

Your phone lines can be switched so all calls go to the lunch room, or the presidents office or just randomly to different extensions. Most expensive scenario, all inbound called are forwarded to another country. Worst scenario, all inbound sales calls are sent to your competition.

The Business Continuity Plans and Disaster Recovery plan is not something sold "one size fits all" and in fact almost all plans fail because of the impossibility to consider all the possible aspects of future failure and issues.

This is no longer the beginning of the computer age, and a disaster recover plan must be part of your business plan. I should not say it here, but an acceptable option at Managing Director level is to not have a plan because of any number of reasons, but a decision must be made.

The idea behind a modern Disaster Recovery plan is the Business Continuity aspect. When things go wrong, and they will, business must continue as close to normal while an effort is made to return the office to normal.

accounting payroll news

Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Categories

2008-06-12T19:00:00.000-07:00

A Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR) plan can be created for anything. Natural disasters, business plans, infrastructure projects, daily operations of a business, sports teams, really anything that has the possibility of not running right can have a plan. For this article the term will be project, which is open to your interpretation on what a project actually is.

Who takes the kids to schools when the primary driver has the flu? That is the most basic BC plan.

What do we do when we get a flat tire? That is the most basic DR plan.

These 2 examples may not be written out, but they are just as valid as any other plan, and there is usually a plan in place. And yes, you can have one half without the other or call the plan DRBC if recovering from the disaster is a higher priority than continuing business.

Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery plans are developed for certain circumstances that have the probability of occurring. Spending years of work and millions of dollars to secure a data center in the Atacama mountains desert region against flooding is useless. Equally useless is spending years of work and millions of dollars to prevent a New York snow in the winter.

There are 4 primary categories that are considered important in BCDR; avoidance, mitigation, transference and acceptance. Acceptance is contested as an option because there are not many people want to build a plan that says we accept a risk and a failure and can not mitigate, transfer or avoid it. There are cases when there is no real option other than accepting that there may be failure.

A sample project is to install a new telephone system in my office.

In a Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery plan, avoidance is building steps into your project to eliminate the risk or to protect the project from anything negative by means that you will determine.

My project may be late because it takes place from 15 December to 15 January, a time when many of my staff will take vacation. I can avoid an impact on my project by requesting an extension on the project, requiring additional resources, requesting extra money or many other options - you are limited by your imagination.

The idea behind transference is that the possibility of financial impact to the project is limited by contracting out some aspect of the work. I transfer the responsibility for part of the project to someone else. Transferring responsibility does not transfer accountability. The person in charge still has to accept that a failure is related to improper planning.

My December project may be late so I have hired a company to accomplish 3 critical tasks. If these tasks are not finished on time and in sequence, the project will not finish on time. I have signed a service level agreement with the vendor and the company will put all the resources required to deliver on time. If they fail to deliver on time they will not be paid, it the overall project is late because they fail to deliver on time they will pay me $1000 per day for a maximum of 15 days.

Mitigation is the part of the plan that takes the most thought. If mitigation is done properly then avoidance, transference and acceptance are clear. Mitigation is something you do to reduce the probability or consequences of a risk impacting your project. You may also define an acceptable level of impact that does not threaten the completion of your project Mitigation is very often costly and time consuming.

My December project requires new telephones for each of the 500 desks in our office. My regular supplier can guarantee 400 telephones at an $262.50 per phone, a 25% discount. The supplier is also reasonably sure to deliver the 500 on time and at the same price. To mitigate the risk of having 100 people without phones I agree that the supplier contract with a third party and buy 100 phones at the standard $350 price

Total cost of 500 phones from one supplier 500*262.50=$131,250.
Total cost of my phones from two suppliers (400*262.50)+(100*350)= $140,000
Mitigation cost $8750
Solution, pay the slight increase.

Second scenario for a larger company:

My December project requires new telephones for each of the 5000 desks in our office. My regular supplier can guarantee 2500 telephones at an $262.50 per phone, a 25% discount. The supplier is unable deliver the 5000 on time and at the same price. To mitigate the risk of having 2500 people without phones discuss with senior management to contract with a third party and buy 2500 phones at the standard $350 price, plus 10% for shipping

Acceptance is the decision to accept certain risks and live with them. This means you do not change the project plan to deal with a risk or identify any response strategy other than agreeing to accept the risk if it is too costly or time consuming. A decision must be made to accept the risk, and the consequences. This decision must be made by a person with the highest level of authority. If the risk comes to pass and something fails the decision may mean late delivery of a project or failure as a team.

Second scenario similar to the one above:

My December project requires new telephones for each of the 5000 desks in our office. My regular supplier can guarantee 2500 telephones at a $262.50 per phone, our standard 25% discount. The supplier is unable deliver the 5000 on time and at the same price. To mitigate the risk of having 2500 people without phones discuss with senior management to contract with a third party and buy 2500 phones at the standard $350 price, plus 10% for shipping

Cost of 2500 phones from one supplier 2500*262.50=$656,250.
Cost of 2500 phones from second supplier 2500*385=$ 962,500.
Total budget for phones $ 1,312,500
Total cost of phones $1,618,750
Mitigation cost $ 306,250
Management does not have $306,250 to spend on the project and accepts that there may be a late delivery on some phones.
A mitigation plan will be put in place to make sure that the problem is handled the best way possible.

As stated above, a Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR) plan can be created for anything. The coach of a team has a replacement in mind when players are injured, Floridians board up windows when a storm comes. The most important part of your BCDR is realizing that you need one and start defining the actions that people will take when things go wrong, and at one time or another - they will.

Business online blog

Uninterruptible Power Supplies and Harmonics

2008-06-12T18:25:00.000-07:00

Harmonic pollution is a growing problem in Europe and one that designers of power continuity programmes and manufacturers of UPS (uninterruptible power supplies) cannot ignore. Typical harmonic problems include the distortion of mains power supply voltage, overheating of wiring, neutral conductors, supply transformers and switchgear and nuisance tripping of breakers. Harmonics can also cause disruption to equipment on the same supply and lead to random failures.

Harmonics are caused by voltage or current waveforms with frequencies that are multiples of the fundamental frequency - in Europe, 50Hz (50 cycles per second). The multiples are always ordered in a specific sequence: for example, the 2nd harmonic is 100Hz (2x50Hz), the third 150Hz and the fourth 200Hz and so on.

The particular problem of Triplens (third order) harmonics. Harmonics are a particular issue for power continuity management due to the large number of switch mode power supply (SMPS) loads being connected to modern electrical distribution networks - and their associated UPS systems. These are the most common form of power supply unit (PSU) in use today. As a non-linear load, they draw their power in regular modulated pulses of current from a mains power supply rather than as a continuous linear supply. This can lead to SMPSs generating high levels of harmonics, especially when many are being supplied from a single three-phase mains power supply.

In particular, system designers must be aware of the potentially damaging Triple-Ns (or Triplens) whose harmonic order numbers are multiples of three and include the notorious third-harmonics as well as ninths and fifteenths. Thirds are probably the most challenging harmonic in terms of neutral conductor loading within a three-phase system. Whereas other harmonics cancel each other out, third-harmonics are in phase with each other and exhibit a summing effect which greatly increases the current - potentially overloading conductors and switchgear.

Harmonics and total power factor - implications for UPS sizing. Harmonics are also closely related to power factor management - and another key aspect of uninterruptible power supply system design and implementation. The displacement power factor is only applicable to the fundamental frequency (50Hz in Europe) and therefore does not take into account the power factor generated by any harmonics induced into the mains power supply by the load itself (referred to as the distortion power factor and produced by the harmonics produced by non-linear loads). The combination of the displacement power factor and the distortion power factor gives what is known to UPS systems experts as the true power factor. When correctly sizing a UPS, an understanding of this is critical.

Mitigation of total harmonics distortion. Harmonics issues need to be addressed at the design stage of any power continuity plan. Not least, because consumers are responsible for the harmonic levels introduced into their three-phase mains power supply.

A UPS can sometimes be fitted with a harmonic filter (post installation) but this can be a costly and inelegant solution as extensive internal wiring changes may be required. For a transformer-based UPS, using a 12-pulse rectifier in place of a 6-pulse set will reduce the levels of THDi (total harmonic distortion). Coupling this with a passive filter will provide further reduction to around 4%.

For a transformerless uninterruptible power supply, THDi levels of less than 4% can be achieved by installing an active harmonic filter. However, levels as low as 3% can now be achieved by some designs whose rectifiers are IGBT (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor) based. This can remove the need for an additional active harmonic filter and simplify the UPS design process. Such designs are expected to become the norm: not only do they reduce initial costs, but they allow a smaller UPS system footprint whilst increasing input power factors.

Active harmonic filters reduce the impact of leading power factors. When designing a power continuity plan and UPS system, various methods can be applied to reduce the impact of leading power factors (where the current waveform leads the voltage waveform): ensuring that leading power factors represent a smaller percentage of the UPS load, installing power factor correction between the UPS and the load, increasing UPS size (and that of any standby generation capacity) and specifying a UPS with leading power factor capabilities.

A popular approach to reduce the effect of leading power factors on a UPS installation is to use an active harmonic filter with power factor correction on the UPS output. This presents the UPS with a more acceptable load, but results in higher capital and installation costs, lower efficiency and a greater footprint.

Familiar territory for UPS manufacturers. Although many aspects of harmonics must be considered when specifying a UPS system, reassurance can be gained from the fact that this is familiar territory for UPS manufacturers such as Riello UPS. End users and their professional advisers can certainly be confident that this specialized aspect of UPS application will be thoroughly addressed during the modern consultative sales and specification process.

ethics news

Uninterruptible Power Supply Extended Runtime Options

2008-06-12T17:51:00.000-07:00

From an entry-level desktop or wall-mounted unit to an 80kVA n+1 installation supporting a major data centre, batteries are at the heart of every UPS (uninterruptible power supply) system. They provide the required runtime and a source of dc supply to the inverter in the event of a mains power failure; when more runtime is needed, it can be extended by adding extra battery packs or battery extension packs.

For a given UPS battery installation the following factors ensure that, when needed, a battery will give its rated runtime: correct operation (following the UPS manufacturer's instructions), a suitable operating environment (especially ambient temperature), regular battery maintenance and timely battery replacement.

Ideally, a UPS battery will be sized to provide a specified runtime at a specific load, with the runtime being sufficient to do the following: keep loads running, allow start-up of standby generators (automatic and manual if necessary) and allow sufficient time for completion of automatic server shutdown routines.

Battery runtime and orderly system shutdown. Whatever the rated battery runtime, there should be sufficient duration for protected systems to be shutdown in an orderly manner using appropriate proprietary software such as Riello UPS's PowerShield.

To ensure a required battery runtime, battery size is dictated by load size (measured in kW) and the amount of back-up time required in the event of a mains failure. Most UPS are designed to offer up to ten minutes runtime - enough to cover the most common power interruptions and safely shutdown non-critical loads.

Determining required battery runtime. The required UPS battery runtime, even the decision to specify battery extension packs, will be determined by factors including the following: site power history and existing UPS equipment, availability of a maintained standby generator on site, length of time required for load-shedding and orderly system shutdown, environmental aspects (space, temperature and humidity) and overall cost of long battery runtime versus a standby generator or fuel cell.

Correct operation, maintenance and battery replacement can ensure that a given UPS battery installation performs to the best of its ability. From the smallest UPS (typically used for power protection of small to medium sized file servers, PBX systems and point-of-sale or back-office systems), to the largest industrial series power protection units, UPS battery runtime can be extended by simply adding more batteries.

Battery extension packs for extended runtime. At their simplest, plug-in UPS battery extension packs can extend the shortest (typically ten minutes) internal battery runtime to an hour or more. On larger uninterruptible power supplies, where an inverter is rated for continuous operation, the UPS can be used to support large loads for long runtimes up to and exceeding several hours. This is normally achieved with battery extension packs that connect to the rear panel connector on the UPS (and/or a generator) in series, a configuration also referred to as 'daisy chaining'.

Designed to match the UPS aesthetically. UPS up to around 30kVA have capacity for internal battery sets. Where this is not the case, or where additional power protection runtime is required, external battery extension cabinets or rackmount battery trays are used; as far as is reasonably practical, these are designed to match the UPS aesthetically.

An alternative is to use clad or unclad battery stands; this is more common for large UPS battery sets due to their size and weight. They can also provide better access for testing.

Few line-interactive UPS below 2kVA support extension packs. In terms of extended runtimes, few line-interactive UPS below 2kVA have the capability for external battery extension packs. Some 2kVA UPS, have a battery extension pack connector and can be used to support loads (without oversizing) for up to several hours. Others don't, and must be oversized for the load at the UPS system design stage if longer runtime is required.

Major UPS manufacturers bring you a wealth of experience. Whether the answer to runtime requirements lies in UPS oversizing or the specification of UPS battery extension packs, one thing is certain. It is always best to deal with manufacturers of UPS equipment, such as Riello UPS, who have a wealth of experience as well as the range of battery extension products that can help users get the maximum battery runtime out of their UPS protection.

entrep

Uninterruptible Power Supplies Remote Monitoring

2008-06-12T17:17:00.000-07:00

Business has never been more reliant on a continuous supply of electricity - and never better served than by modern UPS manufacturers. Whether it's an easily portable desktop uninterruptible power supply or a powerful parallel-redundant installation backed up by standby power sources, every conceivable power protection challenge can be overcome.

Capability is meaningless without monitoring. The modern UPS is a sophisticated microprocessor-controlled system, capable of providing a range of alarm notifications and real-time monitoring information at local, network and remote site locations. But this capability is meaningless if it is not monitored. An unheard alarm may as well be no alarm at all, and failure to act could reduce system resilience and possibly even render it useless.

The advent of Html capability in the software arena has enabled modern UPS manufacturers to integrate sophisticated onsite and remote monitoring capability with their hardware. In fact, modern systems often enable remote 24/7 monitoring (either by the client or at the manufacturer's facility) of all critical UPS, generator, air-conditioning and fire suppression equipment. As well as alerting system managers to problems as they arise, integration of monitoring functions into existing infrastructures gives businesses valuable early warning of impending power and other equipment failures that actively increases profitable uptime.

Most UPS are available with software for remote monitoring. As well as managing power outages, certain UPS will regulate the electrical supply to prevent damage from power problems or voltage fluctuations. Most are available with software packages that monitor mains voltage, UPS load and battery charge as standard, as well as proprietary monitoring and control software, which allows remote interrogation of UPS logs and operating parameters to help diagnose alarms and faults. When instructed to do so, UPS software can also remotely perform automated and controlled shutdown of valuable equipment - ensuring hardware protection while freeing personnel for other tasks during power continuity incidents.

With suitably reassuring proprietary names, remote monitoring products such as the Riello UPS PowerNetGuard and TeleNetguard products complement UPS installations to ensure continuity for large and small businesses. Solutions range from a simple USB connection into a small PC network, to the most elaborate add-ons for cross platform communication and external management over the Internet.

Measurable financial benefits. As well as integration into the network management system, monitoring software allows operators to supervise the UPS remotely for power fluctuations and events. Power management initiatives can also be implemented using network cards and proxy agents (embedded web server, SNMP compatibility) to provide a range of remote management functions - including configuration of selected shutdowns and powering equipment and electrical points on or off.

There are measurable financial benefits too: by monitoring and implementing responses remotely, clients can often avoid the cost of sending an engineer to investigate every minor incident - an ideal solution for cost-conscious data centre and IT managers.

Monitoring the status of consumables. Remote monitoring makes clear financial sense - and provides priceless peace of mind. As well as dealing with emergencies, it's also a vital part of a power protection system's ongoing maintenance management. For all their reliability and refinement, UPS, generators and other power protection devices still rely on regular maintenance. In particular, consumables such as batteries, fans and capacitors need to be routinely checked, tested and replaced if power protection is to perform reliably. And of course, the UPS itself, as well as generators and other standby power sources, must be tested and monitored to ensure power continuity if there is a genuine power outage.

The software side of UPS is crucial. Finally, there's the software aspect of UPS. Though one of the least problematic in terms of maintenance, it is probably one of the most crucial in terms of monitoring and measuring the effectiveness of the system itself. Continued software reliability underpins the whole integrity of any remote monitoring system - and possibly a whole network. Optimum software performance can be ensured with regular updates and sound basic housekeeping - not forgetting those vital shutdown settings, tailored to a business's individual requirements, which are so important for preserving the life and vitality of key hardware.

As with all aspects of UPS specification, installation and maintenance, the choice of remote monitoring solutions (and its seamless integration with new and existing infrastructure) will be guided by a reputable UPS supplier. Correctly specified, installed and used, remote monitoring, it seems, really can make the difference between sleepless nights and ultimate peace of mind for infrastructure managers.

accounting blog news

Online Uninterruptible Power Supplies

2008-06-12T16:39:00.000-07:00

Ensuring uninterrupted power is a vital part of any organisation's business continuity planning and can be achieved with the correct deployment of a suitable uninterruptible power supply (UPS). Different types of UPS can be used as stand-alone solutions or in conjunction with one another other. The three main static UPS topologies are as follows: Online ('On-line') or Double Conversion VFI (Voltage and Frequency Independent), Line Interactive VI (Voltage Independent) and Offline ('Off-line') or Passive Standby.

So what are the main characteristics of an Online UPS? The only UPS for completely break-free supply An online uninterruptible power supply (UPS) maintains power voltage and frequency variations within prescribed limits and is independent of any fluctuation in supply. It's not just complete power failure that can affect a modern power-hungry business. The online UPS also conditions mains power to counter the potentially damaging consequences of sags, surges and other everyday power problems.

Because of this combined power protection and power conditioning capability, the online UPS is the preferred choice for critical data and voice processing systems and remote mobile telecommunication sites where there may be a high risk of damage from local lightning strikes and high-energy transients. Furthermore, an online UPS can also act as a frequency converter providing 50/60Hz or 60/50Hz. There are also solutions for 400Hz applications.

Of the three main UPS topologies, the online uninterruptible power supply is the only one that can provide completely break-free protection if the mains supply should fail. And, in the event of the UPS developing a fault or suffering an overload, the online UPS is designed to deliver safe failure to mains. This is achieved through an automatic system bypass.

Typical online UPS applications. Online UPS from manufacturers such as Riello UPS are typically used for specialist operations. They can be easily modified using a range of accessories and 'small batch' production techniques. Typical applications for the online uninterruptible power supply include the following: Rail equipment requiring extended runtimes, Remote telecom sites, Industrial applications requiring specialised air filters, Water treatment works requiring UPS with raised plinths and high ingress protection, Scientific sites at altitude or in tropical areas, Military applications requiring ruggedised assemblies, Remote sites where only renewable energy sources are available and Medical applications requiring isolated supply.

Online UPS are particularly suitable when it's necessary to expand large-scale Power over Ethernet (PoE) implementations, requiring an upgrade to the current level of UPS protection. Maybe the existing uninterruptible power supply is no longer large enough to power the entire infrastructure or, as in the case of a telecom application with existing line interactive UPS installation, perhaps the available runtime duration is not long enough. When business continuity planning has reached this stage, it may be time to upgrade to an online UPS for maximum power protection.

Sizing an online UPS for current and future needs. Regardless of the application, correct sizing is essential to avoid over- or under-specification that wastes resources or leaves parts of the network vulnerable. Then, once the current load requirement has been correctly established, it is prudent to include an allowance for future expansion. The most common approach is to allow for 25% load expansion within five years. For online UPS (above 10kVA), additional capacity, along with higher operating resilience, can be achieved by adding more modules into an existing system using a parallel architecture.

Whatever the requirements of a business's power continuity plan, and whatever the eventual uninterruptible power supply solution, the first step should always involve seeking the advice of a reputable UPS manufacturer with a proven track record in power protection. Whether for an online solution or one of the other UPS topologies, a modern consultative UPS specification process ensures that uninterrupted power for mission critical facilities are easy to achieve.

Franchising

Fire Alarms Are a Commercial Necessity

2008-06-12T15:57:00.000-07:00

In the early days of the American textile mills, fires were fought using a sprinkler system made of perforated pipes. This system was not automated and had to be turned on manually. Around the time of the Civil War, men started trying to find better ways to protect factory workers from fire. In 1872, Philip W. Pratt patented the first automatic sprinkler. It was better, but needed improvement. Therefore, in 1874, Henry S. Parmalee came up with a system that used a practical, automatic sprinkler head and installed it in his own piano factory.

At this point in time, the only people who were installing sprinkler systems were those with commercial interests. They discovered that by installing a sprinkler their insurance company would give them discounted rates. Since they were able to recoup the cost of the system by using these discounts, it made sense to these savvy businessmen to have one. In the 1940s, though, this changed when building codes were written making it mandatory to have sprinkler systems in other public buildings, including schools, hospitals, and hotels.

Commercial Sprinkler Systems Save Lives

Over the years, fire alarm systems have become mandatory in all public places where more than 100 people can congregate and in all buildings which aren't located with 75 feet of a fire station or a fire plug. Commercial fire alarms are now mandatory all over the country for schools, large churches, shopping malls, hospitals, theaters, hotels, and other large facilities. Facilities which warehouse hazardous materials are also required to have a fire alarm.

It's the policy of most insurance companies that if no fire system is installed, no insurance coverage will be issued. In this way insurance companies protect themselves from insuring risky ventures. The insurance company refuses to take on the responsibility for compensating negligent business owners for property loss, building damage, and human casualties. Businesses that must have fire protection systems now include anywhere people can stay over night, such as motels, bed and breakfasts, and resorts.

The new ESFR sprinkler system is at the cutting edge of sprinkler technology. It was designed to keep fires contained so that they don't spread. Sprinklers are pre-programmed to come on when they sense a certain heat level. Then, only the sprinklers which receive signals will go on to fight the fire. Sprinklers that aren't in the affected area remain off. In this way, the water pressure going to the active heads will be greater and uncompromised.

There are sprinkler systems available that are specially-designed for sensitive areas of a building which absolutely can't come in contact with water unless an emergency arises. These sprinkler systems are called "dry systems". In these areas, if a fire alarm goes off, the system does a little investigating to see if there really is a need for water. By employing smoke and heat detector technology, the sensors can make sure the water really needs to come on and destroy critical items in the area before the sprinkler is actually activated.

As our society has realized the devastation of fires and decided to take aggressive measures towards fighting them, many lives are being saved. Thank goodness we no longer have the terrible sweatshop fires that killed hundreds. In fact, workplace deaths have declined to almost nothing. What do you think Henry S. Parmalee would think if he could see us now?

careersemp loyment

The Monumental Task Of Starting Over In Life And Career

2008-06-12T15:02:00.000-07:00

Starting a new chapter in ones life or career can be monumental task, but there is a progression that must take place. Starting over often brings to mind, as a young businessman my first restaurant which was located next to a set of busy railroad tracks. I can remember in the evening when the chaos of the night had subsided, I often would go outside to regroup and watch the passing trains and observe the various origination of each passing car. As I observed it reminded me of where my personal journey has taken me. On this particular evening a large freight train was sitting Idle on the tracks. I recall when it began to move what an enormous struggle it was for the train to gain enough momentum to continue on its path.

The thing that always caught my attention was that distinctive sound the train would make when it began to move. I would equate that unique sound as what I would now define as my personal, spiritual and emotional growing pains. When I came to understand that our thoughts effect our emotions that cause our actions which causes our results I began to discover the mistakes I made that brought me here. At those lowest moment that's when we come to a cross road in our mind to make the right mental choices. In my situation I discovered I needed to change what I called "Stinking Thinking" and began to look at my problems as growing pains in life's journey. A friend of mine told me you only have a problem when there is no solution. But how do we begin to get that endless energy, boundless strength and vibrant excitement for life?

For me it was returning to what I'll call my personal Greek Tragedy which was extremely pain full to relive. But you must always go back to the root of something, it is there healing will begin. The root is usually tracked to the paradigms or old habits that have been formed by our circumstances, environment and people in our lives growing up. For me it was fear and unforgiveness. And that is a cancer that will destroy ones life! A great motivational speaker by the name of Bob Proctor uses the illustration of a farmer who has corn in his right hand and night shade which is poison in his left hand, when both are planted the earth does its job and they both begin to grow. The earth does not care if one is corn and the other is poison, it's the same way your mind works it's not concerned what you think it just produces the fruit of a thought. Here are the keys that breathed new life into me.

1-Regardless of what you went through you must make up your mind you are going to overcome it.

2-Admit that you are living with the root of unforgiveness and bitterness in your heart.

3-Forgive so you can begin to heal.

4-Admit that it is wrong and damaging to you.

5-Admit your own mistakes.

6-Do not talk your bitterness to others.

7-Get surrounded with good influences.

8-Soak your soul with happy music.

9-Plan new projects in your future.

10-Think ahead and not backwards.

11-Discuss your dreams and plans with others who believe in your success.

12-Study winners.

13-Never allow the root of bitterness to rob you of success and joy you can experience.

Remember "What You Fail To Master In Your Life Will Eventually Master You"

Business online blog

Emergency Planning For Small Businesses

2008-06-12T14:02:00.000-07:00

How prepared are you for some natural or man-made disaster? Now that we are well into the 2008 tornado season here in the U.S., that's a question many small business owners should be asking themselves. Most people don't have the first clue as to how to prepare their business for a disaster of any size, but have no fear. By taking the kinds of hazard that might be faced one at a time, we'll show you how to plan for a disaster and get your company up and running again as quickly as possible.

An Overview of Disaster

Let's face it, as insulated as we may feel from vagaries and dangers of the natural world, they are still out there and occasionally they drop in, as if to remind us that there is something bigger and badder than we are lurking out there and to let us know that we had better watch our step. Our friends at FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency have listed the most common types of disasters and how you ought to prepare for them.

Fire

Fire is the most common of all the hazards. Every year fires cause thousands of deaths and injuries and billions of dollars in property damage. Knowledge is key so make sure your people know the fire procedures. Some other things you should consider include:

Meet with the local Fire Department to discuss the community's fire response capabilities and your operations, especially any processes or materials that could either cause or fuel a fire, or contaminate the environment in a fire.Have your facility inspected and make sure you are up-to-date on fire codes and regulations.Ask your insurance company for fire prevention and protection tips.Educate your employees on how to prevent fires in the workplace, how to contain a fire, how to evacuate the facility and where to report a fire.Keep evacuation routes including stairways and doorways clear of debris.Assign fire wardens for each area to monitor shutdown and evacuation procedures.Establish procedures for the safe handling and storage of flammables and to prevent combustible materials, including smoking materials, from accumulating.Keep your equipment operating safely through preventative maintenance.Place fire extinguishers where appropriate and train your employees to use them.Install and maintain smoke detectors and consider installing a fire alarm that called the fire department automatically.Consider installing a sprinkler system, fire hoses and fire-resistant walls and doors.Identify and mark all utility shutoffs so that electrical power, gas or water can be shut off quickly by fire wardens or responding personnel.Determine the level of response your facility will take if a fire occurs.

Hazardous Materials Incidents

Hazardous materials are substances that are either flammable or combustible, explosive, toxic, noxious, corrosive, oxidizable, an irritant or radioactive. They have to be properly labeled, handled, stored, produced and disposed of. All of which is laid down in the Federal regulations that apply to your company and the materials you are using. Consider the following:

Obtain material safety data sheets (MSDS) for all hazardous materials at your location.Get help from your local fire department in developing response procedures.Train employees to properly handle and store hazardous materials and to recognize and report spills and releases.Develop a hazardous material response plan including:Notification of management, employees and emergency responders.Evacuation procedures.Training and organization for an emergency response team to confine and control hazardous material spills according to regulations.

Identify nearby facilities that use hazardous materials and how an incident at one of them could affect your facility.Identify ways hazardous materials could be transported near your company and how an accident nearby could affect your operations.

Floods and Flash floods

Floods are the most common and widespread of all natural disasters. Most communities in the United States can experience some degree of flooding after spring rains, heavy thunderstorms or winter snow thaws. Most floods develop slowly over a period of days. Flash floods, however, are like walls of water that develop in a matter of minutes. Flash floods can be caused by intense storms or dam failure. Some things you can do to prepare include:

Determine your risk. Are you in a location that floods?Review the community's emergency plan to determine evacuation routes and where to find higher ground.Develop a warning and evacuation procedure for your company.Inspect your facility for areas that are subject to flooding and identify records and equipment that can be moved to a higher area.Obtain a NOAA Weather Radio with a warning alarm and battery backup and use it to listen for flood watches and warnings.Flood Watch. Flooding is possible. Stay tuned to NOAA radio. Be prepared to evacuate. Tune to local radio and television stations for additional information.Flood Warning. Flooding is already occurring or will occur soon. Take precautions at once. Be prepared to go to higher ground. If advised, evacuate immediately.

Obtain flood insurance. Regular property and casualty insurance does not cover flooding.Consider flood-proofing your facility.Participate in community flood control projects.Make advance plans to move records and equipment in case of flood.

Hurricanes

Hurricanes are severe tropical storms with sustained winds of 74 miles per hour or greater. Hurricane winds can reach 160 miles per hour and extend inland for hundreds of miles. Hurricanes bring torrential rains and a storm surge of ocean water that crashes into land as the storm approaches. Hurricanes also spawn tornadoes. Hurricane advisories are issued by the National Weather Service as soon as a hurricane appears to be a threat. The hurricane season lasts from June through November. Here are some things to prepare:

Obtain your local evacuation plans from the emergency management office in your community.Develop comprehensive shutdown procedures for your facility, warning and evacuation plans, and communication plans for you and your employees.Obtain a NOAA Weather Radio with a warning alarm and battery backup and use it to listen for hurricane watches and warnings.Hurricane Watch. A hurricane is possible within 24 to 36 hours. Stay tuned for additional advisories. Tune to local radio and television stations for additional information. An evacuation may be necessary.Hurricane Warning. A hurricane will hit land within 24 hours. Take precautions at once. If advised, evacuate immediately.

Make plans to protect outside equipment and structures and to protect windows. Permanent storm shutters are best, but covering your windows with 5/8" marine plywood is a second option.Consider whether you need the following backup systems:Portable pumps to remove flood water.Alternate power sources such as generators or gasoline-powered pumps.Battery-powered emergency lighting.

Be prepared to move records, computers and other items to a safe location within your facility or to a different, secured location.

Tornadoes

Tornadoes are incredibly violent local storms that extend to the ground with whirling winds that can reach 300 mph. Spawned from powerful thunderstorms; tornadoes can uproot trees and buildings and turn harmless objects into deadly missiles in a matter of seconds. Damage paths can be in excess of one mile wide and 50 miles long. Tornadoes can occur in any state but occur more frequently in the Midwest, Southeast and Southwest. They occur with little or no warning. Consider the following when planning for tornadoes:

Find out about your local tornado warning system from your local emergency management office.Obtain a NOAA Weather Radio with a warning alarm and battery backup and use it to listen for tornado watches and warnings.Tornado Watch. Tornadoes are likely. Be ready to take shelter. Stay tuned to radio and television stations for additional information.Tornado Warning. A tornado has been sighted in the area or is indicated by radar. Take shelter immediately.

Develop a way to inform employees when tornado warnings are posted.Have a structural engineer or architect help you designate shelter areas in your facility. Your local emergency management office or the National Weather Service office can help with this. Consider the following:Healthy adults require about six square feet of space each; patients need more.The best protection in a tornado is usually an underground area. Alternatives include:Small interior rooms on the lowest floor and without windowsHallways on the lowest floor away from doors and windowsRooms constructed with reinforced concrete, brick or block with no windows and a heavy concrete floor or roof system overheadProtected areas away from doors and windows

Auditoriums, cafeterias and gymnasiums with flat, wide-span roofs are not considered safe.

Train your employees in what to do in case there is a tornado both before and after they get to the shelter.

Severe Winter Storms

Severe winter storms bring heavy snow, ice, strong winds and freezing rain. Winter storms can prevent employees and customers from reaching or safely leaving your facility, leading to a temporary shutdown until the roads can be cleared. Heavy snow and ice can also cause structural damage and power outages. Here are some things you can do to prepare:

Obtain a NOAA Weather Radio with a warning alarm and battery backup and use it to listen for the following weather information:Winter Storm Watch. Severe winter weather is possible.Winter Storm Warning. Severe winter weather is expected.Blizzard Warning. Severe winter weather with sustained winds of at least 35 mph is expected.Traveler's Advisory. Severe winter conditions may make driving difficult or dangerous.

Develop procedures to shutdown your facility and release your employees early.Collect and store food, water, blankets, battery-powered radios with extra batteries and other emergency supplies for stranded employees and customers.Install a backup power source for all critical operations.Arrange for snow and ice removal.

Earthquakes

Earthquakes can seriously damage buildings and their contents; disrupt gas, electric and telephone services; and trigger landslides, avalanches, flash floods, fires and huge ocean waves called tsunamis. Aftershocks can occur for weeks following an earthquake.

In many buildings, the greatest danger to people in an earthquake is when equipment and non-structural elements such as ceilings, partitions, windows and lighting fixtures shake loose. Earthquakes occur most frequently west of the Rocky Mountains, although historically the most violent earthquakes have occurred in the central United States. Earthquakes occur suddenly and without warning. Some things you can do to prepare for the next "Big One" include:

Obtain recent and historical seismic information for your area.Discussing with a structural engineer thing you can do to strengthen your building, including:Adding steel bracing to frames.Adding sheer walls to frames.Strengthening columns and building foundations.Replacing unreinforced brick filler walls.

Follow safety codes with any new construction or major renovation.Inspect, assess and develop measures to prevent damage to non-structural systems such as air conditioning, communications and pollution control systems.Move large and heavy objects to lower shelves or the floor. Hang heavy items away from where people work.Secure shelves, filing cabinets, tall furniture, desktop equipment, computers, printers, copiers and light fixtures.Secure fixed equipment and heavy machinery to the floor. Larger equipment can be placed on casters and attached to tethers which attach to the wall.Add bracing to suspended ceilings, if necessary.Install safety glass where appropriate.Secure large utility and process piping.Maintain copies of the facility design drawings so that its post-quake safety can be assessed.Review and update the handling and storing of hazardous materials.Obtain earthquake insurance and discuss damage mitigation with your insurance company.Conduct earthquake drills and educate all personnel on earthquake safety and procedures.

Technological Emergencies

Technological emergencies include any interruption or loss of a utility service, power source, life support system, information system or equipment needed to keep the business in operation. Such emergencies can be easily planned for:

Identify all critical operations, including:Utilities including electric power, gas, water, hydraulics, compressed air, municipal and internal sewer systems, wastewater treatment servicesSecurity and alarm systems, elevators, lighting, life support systems, heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, electrical distribution system.Manufacturing equipment, pollution control equipmentCommunication systems, both data and voice computer networksTransportation systems including air, highway, railroad and waterway

Determine the impact of service disruption.Ensure that key safety and maintenance personnel are thoroughly familiar with all building systems.Establish procedures for restoring systems. Determine need for backup systems.Establish preventive maintenance schedules for all systems and equipment.

The Bottom Line

What it all comes down to is preparedness. By the time the water is around your ankles, it is too late. A small expenditure now will ensure that you can stay in business later so consider it an investment. If you do nothing else, investing in the following items will put you well on the road to being prepared for anything.

A NOAA Weather Radio (www.weatherradiostore.com).A fire inspection and a risk assessment for the other hazards mentioned above.Specialty Insurance (flood or earthquake).Data back-ups and off-site file and data storage.Uninterruptible power supplies for critical systems.Preventative maintenance for all equipment.Flashlights, batteries and fire extinguishers.

For more information on disaster preparedness, visit www.fema.gov

branding news

Emergency Notification And What You Need To Know

2008-06-12T13:13:00.000-07:00

Emergency notification is a critical part of any organization's emergency planning. In this day and age, having a dedicated communications method to contact all of your organization's members is CRITICAL to being able to deal with unexpected circumstances such as a natural disaster or other emergency. When an incident occurs, you need to be able to respond and deal with it immediately - whether your organization is a multinational corporation, university, government agency, or small business. The members of your organization are what matter the most. Taking care of them in a time of crisis is the most pressing concern that the head of that organization has.

With an effective emergency notification system in place, you can sleep well at night knowing that if an unexpected crisis occurs, you will be able to deal with it quickly and efficiently. A reliable, tested emergency notification system is crucial to being able to, for example, notify your entire management team of the situation status, and give ongoing updates as the incident plays out. At the same time, you need to be able to locate employees and receive word back from them to confirm their location and their safety, or whether they need assistance. Emergency notification is essential for any organization of any size that wants to be prepared for unexpected critical events.

--Key Factors to Look for in an Effective Emergency Notification System--

A successful emergency notification system depends on being able to contact people no matter where they are. That means that the system cannot depend solely on one communication modality, such as email. In the event of an emergency, it is certainly not guaranteed that a person will be sitting in front of their computer. Emergency notification depends upon sending out messages across multiple modalities-i.e. email, AND cell phone, home phone, work phone, pager, text message, instant message, BlackBerry PIN message-so that no matter where they are, they are able to get word of a recent event.

Another important feature of any emergency notification system is the ability for the message sender (a manager or president, for example) to get word back from their constituents after sending out their initial message. In the event of an emergency, a manager needs to be able to send a message saying, "There is a power outage on the 12th floor. Please respond to this message by pressing 1 if you are OK, by pressing 2 if you need assistance, and by pressing 3 if you are OK but you are with someone else who needs assistance." That way, you guarantee your ability to have an accurate head count immediately following any unexpected event, and you are able to respond accordingly to those who need help.

Customer service is another very important factor to consider when choosing emergency notification and response services-arguably the most important! The ability to call up your emergency notification provider and have questions answered and a problem solved quickly and effectively is almost too valuable to put a price on. Having any questions about your system explained in an understandable way is crucial to being able to put it to good use in a time of crisis.

When looking into emergency notification, an organization definitely must consider the simplicity and ease of use of the system. It must be reliable and robust, and capable of sending out messages across multiple modalities, and at the same time be simple enough so that any manager or employee who needs to send out an urgent message can do so without any problems.

Franchising

Embracing Business Crisis

2008-06-09T03:59:00.000-07:00

"Without the strength to endure the crisis, one will not see the opportunity within. It is within the process of endurance that opportunity reveals itself."
Chin-Ning Chu

Crisis is often an entry point; an opportunity to get real, tell the truth about our selves and our business. Definition of Crisis -The moment in which we know without a doubt that if we don't make changes with ourselves and in our business we will lose. Unfortunately, at this point we usually have already lost quite a bit, which is what makes it a crisis!

Understandably no one hopes for a crisis. Certainly this applies to our business or organization. Most of us as leaders would probably say one of our primary responsibilities is to prevent a crisis from ever occurring.

However, I have found that powerful lessons for all of us can be found in the middle of a business crisis. It isn't uncommon for a leader to say, "Our staff has never pulled together more than when we were facing a crisis." Possibly it's the very real prospect of going out of business, facing a public relations catastrophe or even a natural disaster that causes people to unite.

And although this may not seem surprising, it does beg the question, "why?" Why do people set aside their usual disagreements and petty politics in the midst of a crisis?

I found one possible answer while contemplating teams and organizations that live in a perpetual state of daily crisis. Consider firefighters or soldiers in the midst of war.

At those moments, these are certainly some of the least political and divisive teams that you'll find. For them, disagreement about budgets and lines of responsibility are ludicrous, or even worse, deadly. And that's the point. When the stakes are clear and high, you know ...life or death. Well-intentioned people can't help but focus on the prevailing task at hand. Which is exactly what happens to businesses in crisis: they get focused around a compelling, over-arching goal. They put aside their egos and differences for the common good of the team or business.

We innately know this about ourselves and people which is why I personally believe some businesses create an ongoing atmosphere of chaos or crisis. Consider that there is another way, another option for focusing on the important and the common good. A way to stop avoiding the issue(s) and address what is not being said.

It starts with clear purposeful reasons to be in business, to do the job and to get the result. As the leader, it is your job to make sure your people have these:

A Vision

A Business purpose

Goals

Key measures for success in their own roles

Individual plans for growth and development

"The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word 'crisis'. One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of the danger-but recognize the opportunity." John F. Kennedy

customer services

The Backup Crisis

2008-06-09T03:09:00.000-07:00

I still see a lot of clients using manual backups to backup important files daily, picking and choosing what files to backup in the event of a disaster. Every time there is a problem and they need to recover data they always come up short. Either someone forgot to do the backup that day, they forgot to update the backup to include an important directory, or they become overwhelmed with the restore process as the underlying system was not properly backed up.

There are no real savings by using manual backups as opposed to using complete backups to tape or disk. The labor and costs involved in recovering from a single failure generally will net a break even with the correct backup equipment. You can not easily put a ticket price on loss data.

Complete automated backups are also considerably simpler to perform and even easier to recover from. You also minimize the risk of not backing up important files.

While I am on the topic of backups, I am amazed at how often clients will delay bringing in help when their backup does fail to backup for the day. Either they do not monitor and confirm successful backups daily, or they keep waiting for weeks hoping that it will just start backing up properly. A failed backup is likely useless in the event of a disaster. Thus increasing the amount of data lost due to a failure. It is disappointing to get a call to help a client recover data only to find the backup stopped working 3 weeks or, or sometimes even 8 months ago. Every backup strategy requests daily confirmation of its success and failure and on going effort to ensure successful backups.

One of the most common problem we find is that most clients never test their backups. In an event of a failure, frequently we find their "successful" backup is incomplete or unavailable when you actually need it. In an ideal world, every company would have duplicate hardware to be able to drill the recovery process on separate hardware. Unfortunately it is not common to see this properly implemented and documented.

Another common problem we find is how often clients clean their tape drives. A lot of clients believe a tape drive should be cleaned once a year or never. Proper cleaning is very important and will often be the source of failed backups and tapes that just don't recover when you need them to. Typically manufacturers recommend cleaning a tape drive every month or two depending on how many hours in service it has. Improper cleaning can and usually is a common cause of data loss.

entrep

Learn from Your Mistakes!

2008-05-19T14:23:00.000-07:00

We all make mistakes! The important thing is that we learn from our mistakes. After opening a dollar store you will likely be giving yourself negative feedback about the items that you had planned to order but had forgotten. Or maybe it is during the grand opening. There were some giveaway items that didn't arrive in time. Or maybe it was something as simple as forgetting to order tape for your cash registers.

The important thing is not the mistake. Rather it is what we learn from our mistakes. If you made any mistakes when first opening a dollar store determine how you can keep those mistakes from repeating themselves. Put systems and processes in place to catch errors before they are even made.

If you forgot to order backup cash register tape then set up an easy system where you check office supplies on a weekly basis. That way any items that are running low can be replenished before you run out. A simple checklist would work well for this purpose.

If the mistake is harder to solve, then don't forget to get down to the root cause of the issue before you stop gathering data and investigating it. By not stopping too soon you get to the real issue and then you can fix that issue so that it never returns again.

Remember that if someone else made a mistake the goal isn't simply to find the scapegoat and then move forward. That approach typically means that the issue will come up again in the future. When opening a dollar store don't set yourself up to have repeated mistakes and problems because efforts weren't made to fix them permanently.

If you are planning on opening a dollar store then always learn from your mistakes. No matter how it happened or who made the mistake take action to put a real solution in place. That helps to assure that the problem or mistake won't be repeated. By learning from mistakes we can move ever forward in the quest for business success.

To Your Dollar Store Success!

branding news

Disaster Preparedness for the Small Business Owner

2008-05-03T14:20:00.000-07:00

How quickly can your company get back to doing business after a tornado, fire, flood or computer crash? Every year, thousands of companies are unprepared. The US Department of Labor states that over 40% of small businesses that experience a disaster never reopen, and of the remaining companies, at least 25% will close within 2 years.

1. Continuity plans. Most business owners agree that having a plan is important, but too few take the steps to prepare. Plans vary according to each individual company's needs, but the basics are the same no matter the industry, size or location.

Identify what types of emergencies - from a temporary electrical outage to a large geographic catastrophe - could affect your company, the likelihood of each happening, and how they could affect your business. Then, with that in mind, determine your needs. Once this information is collected, it is easier to put a plan in place to help resume operations.

2. Determine your immediate needs. What data do you need the day after a disaster? Check with your IT provider on availability. Does your telephone service have emergency options to ensure you don't miss any phone calls? Have your customer, vendor and employee information readily available.

Can you run the business from a different location? Develop relationships with other companies so you can set up temporarily. Also, create a relationship with a competitor you trust who can meet your customers' needs short term. This will help you maintain your relationships with your customers even when you are not able to provide the product or service yourself.

Have back-up vendors and shippers in place in case your primary ones are disabled. Establish relationships in advance and maintain them. Place occasional orders so that they regard you as an active customer when you need them. Keep extras of hard-to-replace parts or supplies on hand and store them off site.

3. Information. Many companies store their important files in a safe or on an external hard drive in the office. If the building is damaged or items stolen, it is highly likely your data will be, too. Online backup is a safe, low-cost option. You can establish frequency of backup, which will allow you to resume doing business quickly.

4. Have adequate insurance coverage. Review your policy with your agent so you understand what is covered and what is not. Do you have Cash Value or Replacement Value coverage? Is this coverage on your building or contents or both? Do you have flood insurance? Should you? And don't forget about coverage for water backup of sewers, drains, or sump pump failure. Another area many business owners don't consider is Business Interruption Insurance. These are issues only you and your agent together can address.

In conjunction with your insurance policy, compile an asset inventory with photographic records and a written report. Knowing what you own, when the items were purchased and the cost will help reduce the process when filing your insurance claim because it will help you remember everything you owned. Even if you have adequate insurance coverage, most policies require a detailed list of what was lost, damaged or stolen. During the stress of recovering, you will most likely forget many items, and the time savings is imperative so you can begin rebuilding your business. Be sure to secure this information off site, and update the inventory annually.

Disaster may never strike, but if something does happen, having plans in place will help you through the transition and increase the odds that a temporary business interruption does not become a permanent one. According to the SBA, small businesses provide nearly 45% of the nation's payroll. A commitment to being prepared will support your employees, customers and the local economy.

change management

Disaster Recovery and Planning - Business Documents and Records

2008-05-03T13:52:00.000-07:00

Disaster wears many faces. People know the importance of insuring their homes, vehicles, businesses, and lives from both natural and man-made disaster. When tragedy strikes, the most important concern is obviously human welfare - surviving the event with minimal or no permanent damage. The next concern, however, is the kind of permanent damage that can feel like a life has ended: losing imperative data. While facilities and equipment can be replaced, nothing can replace damaged or destroyed documents. Every company keeps data that is so important; losing it would be catastrophic to the business. However, many businesses have unreliable disaster plans, or none at all. These companies are facing very large and unnecessary risks.

There are hundreds of news articles featuring businesses that have lost invaluable information to natural disaster. Consider the possible flukes that can set a building ablaze: gas leak, poor wiring, equipment failure, and negligence. Weather concerns are relevant across the world. The source of destruction depends on geographic location, but severe weather happens everywhere. The point is that every business is vulnerable to disaster, and no business can afford to lose their most valued data and documents. This article will discuss the aspect of document recovery in disaster planning. To efficiently and successfully prepare for the worst, several points must be considered:

Nature of disaster capable of occurring

Type of information that would need to be recovered

Format of documentation or information

How these factors affect the decision-making process

What could happen?

As stated earlier, the two kinds of disaster that can ruin a business are natural and man-made. Each is a separate and real risks.

Natural disasters: The most common natural disasters, depending on geographic location, come by way of hurricanes, tornadoes, lightning, earth quakes, floods, volcanic eruptions, extreme cold or heat, landslides, snow or ice storms, hail, and fire.

Man-made disasters: This category may include explosions, arson, hazardous materials, terrorism, sabotage, theft, structural collapse, nuclear catastrophe, computer viruses, power disruption, and power spikes.

Either form of destruction can have an enormous impact on records and files. Without backup copies or alternate forms of recordkeeping, this data may be gone forever. No matter how unlikely it is for such an event to take place, it is always a possibility.

What information needs to be saved?

There are numerous categories of information that may need to be recovered in the event of a disaster. Some include:

Drawings

Specs

Vital HR records

Video or audio records

Procedures

Financial records and information

Customer information

Quality and product tracking records

Inventory

Certificates

Licenses

Security information

Assess which records and data would be most vital to recover if all was lost forever. How would the organization function without them? What is the safest way to ensure a copy is available if the building and equipment are destroyed? How do you go about recovering this document in the event of a disaster?

How the information is kept

Businesses that most urgently need disaster planning are obviously those whose records are only kept on paper. Drawings, manuals, and books are often kept in filing cabinets, drawers, shelves, and boxes on-site. Even paper files that are kept in an off-site storage facility are susceptible to destruction. It is wisest to keep records in more than one format. Following is a brief description of non-paper methods of keeping and storing information.

Electronic Format: Files stored and retrieved by computers. Some common formats for vital records include TIFF images, PDF/searchable PDF, databases, video files, and audio files. Electronic files can be stored on hard drives, CD's or DVDs, flash drives, floppy discs, and tapes. This would include paper documents that are scanned and indexed for fast retrieval.

Microfiche: A flat film that contains a matrix of micro images that can be stored in boxes, file cabinets, drawers and envelopes.

Microfilm: A reel or roll of film that can be perforated in 35mm or 16 mm format and contains micro images. Microfilm is typically stored in open-reel type systems or in cassettes.

Aperture Cards: A punched or non-punched card with a microfilm image mounted. They can be stored in boxes, file cabinets, drawers and envelopes.

Putting it all together

Knowing what could happen, what would be destroyed, and what is most important to recover, you want to decide on the disaster-recovery plan that is best for you. Here are a few key elements to consider when choosing a method of document safekeeping:

Prioritize: Not every record or document is critical, and the likelihood of a hurricane hitting South Dakota is zero. It is ridiculous to address every possible situation, so address the most catastrophic situation that is most likely to occur.

Storage: Very few storage systems are 100% disaster proof. Humidity, extreme temperatures, fire, water, and chemicals will destroy or degrade paper, microfilm, microfiche, and aperture cards. Even electronic formats are susceptible to the elements. Duplicates of your vital records should be stored in an off-site location. To minimize damage at the off-site storage, consider the type of destruction possible. For instance, if hurricanes occur in your area, it may be wise to choose a site that would likely be out of harms way should a hurricane destroy your site.

Document Integrity: Time alone can compromise paper, microfilm, microfiche and aperture cards. Be prepared to replace that which degrades over time.

Access: Documents that are difficult or impossible to retrieve are no more useful than destroyed documents. Your retrieval system must ensure that any given document or record can be found quickly. In the case of electronic storage, images need a logical indexing format for easy search and retrieval.

Conversion: Microfilm, microfiche, paper, and aperture cards can all be converted to electronic format with digital scanning technology. The most common electronic formats are TIFF (image) and PDF (including searchable PDF). While scanning, a document can be indexed for efficient retrieval. Indexing allows the documents to be searched or cross-referenced by a number of fields, such as: name, SSN, model or serial number, date, etc.

Electronically-formatted documents are easiest to store and retrieve. One can rent electronic storage in a dozen locations around the world at a minimum cost. Retrieval is instantaneous. Electronic data can be automatically backed up to off-site locations daily or even hourly if needed. Cost is typically based on the amount of memory needed, but is relatively inexpensive compared to physical storage facilities

Documents may also be converted from electronic format to eye-readable formats (such as microfilm or microfiche.) From a security standpoint, retrieving electronic information may be impossible if power or internet access is interrupted. For some, computer/network hacking is a greater threat to security than a physical break-in at a secured storage area.

Above all, be realistic and take disaster recovery-planning seriously. Choose only what is most likely to happen and thoroughly prepare for it. Devise a plan that will work, not just a checklist that no one can put into action. Hopefully your company will never suffer the kind of disaster that can destroy a business. If the worst were to happen, though, there's no turning back. Preparing for disaster today may save your business tomorrow.

branding news

The Value Of Information, Risk Management & Business Continuity - A Logical And Structured Approach

2008-04-30T13:23:00.000-07:00

VALUE of INFORMATION

To ensure continuity (going concern) we make use of many resources. The unavailability or impairment of some resources will threaten continuity and affect our chances of success and sometimes our chances of survival. One of these important/critical resources is information.

We can consider the 'intrinsic" value of information as the cost of acquiring, the means for storing, structuring, maintaining and delivering the information (computer systems).

The "consequential" value of computerized information is the potential loss (revenue, ability to service) if the information was destroyed/corrupted or could not be delivered on time.

We can buy insurance to cover the loss or inability to deliver/process information. However, that does not replace the loss.

So, where do we go from here? We need to protect against the loss of information and information systems and implement measures to recover the information and the systems. We cannot devise and implement effective measures based on theoretical assumptions or guesswork or gut feel. How much is too much? How much is not enough?

Our first step is the Risk Analysis where:

We establish the "intrinsic" and "consequential" values.

We identify the threats and the risks.

We remove the threats and minimize the risks where possible.

Our next step is to devise and implement contingency measures to address scenarios where the preventative measures have failed. With a good Risk Analysis we have removed the theoretical assumptions and have a much better measure of how much to invest in our contingency plans.

CONTINGENCY PLANS and CONTINUITY

Contingency plans can be produced quickly based on theoretical assumptions and expert consultations. While presenting a logical/methodical solution and giving a warm feeling ("WE HAVE A PLAN"), such a plan is only worth the paper it is written on.

A documented plan that is effective is the END RESULT of a process that adopts practical and tested (proven) solutions.

The method of developing and proving a Contingency Plans must be logical and practical. The method must answer the needs, be cost effective and provide the vehicle for success.

As opposed to other systems geared to supporting the business functions, contingency plans are not going to improve the profit margin or improve productivity. It involves added costs and human resources from which direct and tangible benefits might never be realised. It is, however, a key component of the overall strategy for protecting assets and ensuring business continuity and survival.

CONTINGENCY PLANS - Developing and Implementing the Plan

The definition of an effective plan:

A good Contingency Plan is a comprehensive and consistent statement of actions, tasks, dependencies and milestones along with resources required to accomplish a required level of recovery for given functions at given locations within given time frames.

The key words or sentences to be extracted from this definition are: ACTIONS/TASKS, DEPENDENCIES, RESOURCES, LEVEL OF RECOVERY, FUNCTIONS, LOCATIONS and TIME FRAMES. A good plan should address all these key words or sentences. A good plan should be detailed but to the point. It should exclude any lengthy policies and theoretical information. It is primarily an action plan giving very specific instructions.

fundraising

Digital Signage Software As An Emergency Response Tool

2008-04-30T10:41:00.000-07:00

Digital signage is perfectly positioned to assist with the relaying of information to large crowds of people in the event of an emergency. Recent events such as the school and university massacres in the United States of America have highlighted the need for authorities to communicate and update people that are trapped in these situations.

Gone are the days when institutions and authorities had to rely on static and prearranged emergency plans hoped that word of mouth and speakerphones would transmit their instructions to an often frightened public. Instead they are now able to transmit up-to-date instructions which can be adjusted to meet a variety of situations and can be delivered as a consistent message to all affected people. This ultimately increases public safety and emergency response times and leads to saved lives.

Institutions and emergency services can use digital signage in a variety of ways:

Provide visual and dynamic demonstrations of current escape routes

Communicate with large crowds of people in a consistent and clear manner

Provide real-time information on the crisis as it unfolds

Allow for varied messages for people in different areas of the venues

Use the signage for a variety of other uses and communications during non-emergency times

Essentially digital signage can allow rescue, crowd management and crowd communication efforts to be infinitely more efficient and effective in a cost-effective manner, resulting in increased public safety. These are just some examples of the ways digital signage can be used to increase public safety in times of emergency.

Business online blog

Can You Remember What You Own? Forget It!

2008-04-30T09:57:00.000-07:00

All businesses face the possibility of a fire, tornado, theft or other disaster. The emotional stress you would experience is one other element few people think about. Without looking around, take a moment to list everything in your office. Now try to do that for all of your company's contents. Impossible! Even more would be forgotten if you were not in familiar surroundings and were under the stress of a disaster.

Compile an inventory. A personal property inventory provides detailed documentation of your assets and eases the claim process. Photograph the exterior and interior. Work room by room until you have captured all the contents. Take individual photos of collectables, fine art, etc. Remember to open closets, cupboards and drawers. Include model and serial numbers, cost and date purchased. Don't forget any storage buildings!

Save time and money. The importance of this documentation is evidenced at one of the worst times in one's life - when you are facing a disaster. It can take months to list everything you own, and you are in limbo while compiling this information. If you have an inventory, and a disaster does happen, you can submit the claim quickly because most of the work is already completed. If you take months to complete your claims filing, and the lack of funds prevents you from a quick recovery, you could face another issue. How long will your employees wait for a paycheck? How long will your customers wait before they seek another vendor?

And once funds are received, will your claim be sufficient enough to fully recover? Many disaster victims state that they forgot thousands of dollars worth of items. When they did remember them, their one-year time-allotment had expired. According to the National Insurance Industry, policy holders who have a thorough inventory not only receive faster results when filing a claim, they also receive greater settlements. If you don't remember what you own, you won't request replacement; thus, you won't fully recover. And for high-dollar items, you will most likely be required to show proof of ownership (i.e., big screen TV).

More than just disaster relief, a personal property inventory can serve a multitude of purposes for your business. Insurance agents, as well as many professionals such as lawyers, accountants, financial advisors and estate planners, encourage their clients to record their personal property. In addition to disasters, an inventory provides documentation needed for loss or damage in moving or storage, proper reporting of personal property taxes and when planning business mergers, purchases or dissolutions.

Seek assistance if you don't want to do it yourself. Most people agree it is important, but few have this documentation. Reasons business owners have cited for not maintaining a personal property inventory are that are they are too busy, it takes too long, they don't know how, or realize they will not keep it up to date if they do create one.

If you are in one of these categories, seek the assistance of a professional to provide the service for you. Verify they are bonded and insured. In addition to the inventory service, the provider should also include secure back-up of your records and a process in place to update your records annually. Without the updates, the report will be outdated very quickly. The cost of a professionally documented inventory is minor compared to the loss you could encounter!

careersemp loyment

Consider a Hosted IP PBX From a Disaster Recovery Point of View

2008-04-11T01:43:00.000-07:00

Unplanned downtime-Power Outage, Acts of God, Fire, you can name them small and large but all cost your company revenue. Preparing to recover your voice system can be intimidating and costly until hosted IP PBXs.

Here are some best practices to help your organization meet its Recovery Time Objectives (RTO) as it applies to your Voice applications.

1. Highly Reliable Telecommunication Carrier Infrastructure

Most providers will center their presentations around Disaster Recovery solutions based on what to put on premises for back up and redundancy. This is all in an effort to eliminate single points of failure. Before mitigating single points of failure at your location it is important to assess the resiliency and redundancy of your telecommunication provider's network. Is it redundant? Does it have single points of failure? How many soft switches do they maintain? Are their switches set-up to be geographically diverse? In a properly architected Hosted IP PBX model that is built for redundancy, (multiple switches at many locations with live failover) you can almost assure 100% inbound call capacity.

2. Where is the Call Control (Inside or Outside your building)

If the call control is maintained in the building than imagine the limitations; someone needs to be in the building, someone needs to call a PBX maintenance person. Next consider wait times and on hold times with the carrier to reroute your calls. Two hours would be fast during such times.

Lost time means lost revenue and added customer frustration. For many who have experienced this situation in the past, it is not too hard to imagine

The ability to maintain call control out of the building and using a network model as described above can immediately satisfy most of your telecommunications continuity needs. But the real value is giving the company or the IT department maximum control over the telephony infrastructure. With this added control you NEVER miss a call. Allow users to reroute their calls to cells phone, home office numbers, and recovery sites or wherever you choose and most importantly whenever you choose.

3. Component Redundancy.

Vendors will stress this point. While it is critical to have properly architected on-premise redundancy in regards to telephony, buying twice as much equipment still does not protect failures outside your building. In a well planned hosted model, with the right network architecture, as describe above, you will by design mitigate most single points of failure with NO NEED to buy extra hardware. Further, the customer is eliminated from the responsibility and the cost to secure their infrastructure.

4. Ability to Work Remotely.

If an event such weather, illness, family issues, or a regionalized disaster precludes workers from working in their usual offices. Remote Office features allow your employees to work from home comfortably while not incurring extra costs to your company. Your customers will not realize your employees are working from home since they will not change their calling patterns (dialing and receiving calls from the same numbers as they did prior to the event). Your managers will also have the ability to monitor what their employees are doing just as if the employee was working from the office (call stasus monitoring, call reporting, etc).

5. Consider This... Two plausible scenarios with Alteva's hosted service that will change the impact any disaster has on your business.

Scenario 1

Your sales team is the life blood of your company. The T1 goes down to your building and you are told it will take 4 hours to get back up. In a customer premise on-site PBX, the customers dialing your phone number will receive a fast busy signal. However with Alteva this is not the case. With Alteva, your sales team is still getting calls because the call control is not in the building. All calls can easily be routed to cell phones when a direct number or extension is dialed. Your customer does recognize an outage and your company does not recognize any revenue loss normally associated with a phone outage.

Scenario 2

Your building experiences a catastrophic fire. You have a lot of work to do to rebuild and get the company back on its feet. Because you have chosen Alteva service, during the fire your calls were still being answered by an auto attendant or voicemail. You decided to have your calls routed to another number and it happened instantly. Within two days you had your people working from home. Your voicemails were intact. Of all things you had to deal with, because you chose well by choosing Alteva, your communications were the least of your headaches.

fundraising

Business Disasters Avoided by Simple Planning

2008-04-11T01:07:00.000-07:00

Monday morning, I got a call from an auctioneer informing me of an Auction this week. Usually Auctions are fun places to be for business owners. You pickup equipments for fraction of their original costs and mingle with other business owners who usually are in the same type of industry. This Auction how ever was not easy to attend since it was taking place in a friend business. A local printer who was not only a smart and diligent businessman, but also very good at what he did," an artist". As we walked around his shop I was impressed by his top of the line Press equipment, best computer systems with the most up to date software. His walls were pasted with awards and samples of his award winning products. His now unemployed workers however, were walking around offering their help and time to anyone who was looking for help at a discount. I could not help but to ask my friend, what happened? He promised to explain the story to me after the auction was over.

Well I could not bring myself to buy anything that day, but waited until the end of the auction when everyone was gone, sat down with him and he told me the story. Printing business like any other, has become digital. More and more of the information which was in a form of a hard copied document of plates and negatives, filling many file cabinets are converted to a digital files, a folder in a file somewhere on a desktop. Like any smart business owner he had religiously backed up all his files which consisted of every thing from a simple business card to a hundred page book, magazines, posters, forms, contracts, etc. He would back up all the files, one disk this week another disk another week. He would also keep these removable disks elsewhere for safekeeping. Since this was the most valuable asset of his business and without these digital graphic files he simply had nothing to produce.

Now fast forward to 2 month ago. We got a big storm and the drain on his roof got clogged, at 1.00 am part of the roof collapsed, flooding the building and the computers. His business insurance would kick in to pay for repair of the presses but not recovery of his data. He was not worried since he had the backups. As he connected his backup disks to a new computer trying to recover the data, he realized that files that showed up on the screen could not be opened. All this time he was backing up his information to a corrupted backup system. He had not taken the time, opening the files and examining them for accuracy in years. All was lost.

This is a dangerous mistake that many business owners are committing every day, how many businesses actually take the time to create usable backups? How many know how to create a usable backup? Who actually check the accuracy of these backups once they are created? In this digital age, the information contained on those files are the most valuable assets of our business, We should protect them not just for our sake but for our clients sake, these are not just our assets, but theirs also and they have trusted us with their safe keep.

entrep

Take Control of Distributed Data - Manage Your Online Backup Solutions

2008-04-10T02:03:00.000-07:00

Did you know that about 60 percent of corporate data is out of your IT department's control? "Distributed data" lives at the edge of the network on remote servers and PCs - typically outside the layers of traditional security afforded to a data center. The challenge with distributed data is that it's easy to ignore up until a point of failure. Distributed data is vulnerable to a host of threats including inconsistent backup practices, hardware theft and loss, viruses and human error. Whenever a company's important or sensitive data is lost (or worse, exposed) the company can face serious consequences including loss of business, legal liability, and negative publicity.

So how does an organization best protect and manage its growing amounts of data in an increasingly distributed environment? Central IT control and automation are your keys to taming the distributed data beast, so begin with these three critical steps:

1. Secure PC/laptop data with a centrally-managed online backup solution

Traditional save-to-server practices are expensive, ineffective and burdensome for end users. Distributed data protection must be easy to deploy and manage, be seamless for end users and result in your organization saving money.

Thus, organizations should utilize automated online backup solutions that take the onus off the employee and give control back to the IT administrator. Choose licensed software or a managed service that gives employees access to their laptop/PC data at any time through a secure Internet connection, and the ability to retrieve their data even when the data becomes lost, damaged or corrupted. Recovery becomes a self-service activity, reducing the requirements for IT support - but at the same time ensuring the company always has control over its data. The automated functionality minimizes or outright eliminates the predominance of user compliance issues.

2. Protect PC/laptop data from falling into the wrong hands

Encrypting sensitive data on laptops is a good first step, but is often burdensome to implement and requires end-users to comply with good-intentioned policies. Consider more active technologies that ensure complete data security on PCs and laptops by monitoring for abnormal or threatening behavior and acting on those behaviors to destroy sensitive data before unauthorized parties have the opportunity to access it. This type of solution should be transparent to the end user and centrally implemented and managed by your IT organization.

3. Secure data on distributed servers with continuous online backup

Vast quantities of data now reside in remote offices and branch locations, making backup of distributed data an important but difficult task for IT groups. Although tape backup methods are still relevant in many instances, they are not always ideally suited to this challenge. Once-a-day backups can leave you vulnerable to data losses, and the lack of adequate IT staff can result in inconsistent procedures and failed backups. Automatic, online backup helps to mitigate or eliminate these problems because it alleviates the need for onsite backup support and gives central IT staff control and ease-of-mind.

In today's mobile and dynamic work environment, it is crucial for employees to have regular, reliable, and remote access to stored data. Equally paramount is an organization's ability to protect its data whether it resides on the central server or on employee laptops and remote servers. Various technology solutions exist, and the organizations that utilize them will better safeguard not only their data, but also their enterprise.

accounting payroll news

How to Master Disaster - A Lesson on Data Protection and Recovery

2008-04-10T01:24:00.000-07:00

Best practices for data protection and recovery

Hurricane Katrina will go down in history as one of the worst natural disasters to ravage U.S. soil. She hit the southeast coastline in August 2005 in a fury, leaving devastation in her wake and crippling New Orleans and other cities. Despite the rebuilding efforts, many businesses in the area continue to struggle. Sadly, some may never recover. Not because they lost their offices or even their inventory, but something much more valuable: their data.

The truth is that more than half of the companies that lose data in a disaster are out of business within two years. It's a sobering revelation that has many CIOs reevaluating their own disaster readiness.

Disaster Defined

So what constitutes a disaster?

"A disaster is anything from a catastrophic event like Katrina to a simple power outage," says Ben Tartaglia, founder and executive director for the International Disaster Recovery Association (IDRA), a group of users, researchers, educators and vendors with special interests in business continuity and disaster recovery.

But it is not just catastrophic events that can catch businesses off guard. Mundane incidents such as a power surge or failure, inadvertently deleting the wrong file from the server, having a hard drive fail, damaging a server by applying an untested patch or having a laptop stolen can wreak their own brand of havoc.

Best Practices for Mastering Disaster

1. "Have a plan in place and you'll be able to recover faster

2. Test and rejuvenate the plan regularly. "Plans degrade by as much as 2 percent per week," warns Tartaglia. He recommends running tests quarterly or, at the very least, annually. When testing, be sure to simulate real-life scenarios and time frames.

3. Calculate how long you can afford to be down, and plan accordingly.

4. Never rely on a single copy of business data. It is best practice to back up data every day. Test backup procedures to make sure they work and that policy is being followed.

5. Choose the right media. CIOs need to carefully choose the backup method-tape, disk-to-disk or online - that is best suited to their data infrastructure.

6. Move mission-critical data off-site. "Choose a location that is 20 to 50 miles away from your office," says Tartaglia. Make sure the facility is secure 24/7, environmentally safe and fully redundant.

7. Protect stored data. It is also advantageous to encrypt stored data, including during transmission to and from off-site storage locations, for enhanced security. Programs can also be used to delete data in the event that a laptop is stolen (just be sure that data is backed up).

8. Establish a failsafe communications plan. Invest in an email continuity solution with an "alert find" feature to guarantee communications during an emergency.

9. Make sure the basics are in place. Always have dual power support on the IT infrastructure to avoid ordinary outages. Build redundancy into everything from phone services to environmental controls.

10. Plan around employee access. "Have a telecommuter plan in place, so stranded employees can access data and be up and running as soon as possible," says Tartaglia.

Follow these best practices, and mastering disaster is completely attainable. "It's easy to design a system if you just think it through... before a disaster strikes," concludes Tartaglia.

change management

Pandemic Planning and Business Continuity

2008-04-05T23:21:00.000-07:00

There is little doubt that a natural disaster or a global pandemic could strike in the future. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has estimated that if there were a pandemic of the H5N1 Bird Flu, as much as 40 percent of the workforce could be out at any one time. Mitigation strategies such as voluntary or mandatory social distancing could last for days or even months and have disastrous financial implications for employees and organizations that did not have a readily available way to remotely access their corporate networks.

Governments and health agencies have been urging organizations to prepare for a pandemic or a natural disaster such as a hurricane or tornado. However, in a recent Deloitte survey of 163 large enterprises, 48 percent of respondents said their companies have not adequately prepared for such disasters.

Authorities are thus stressing the importance of developing pandemic plans that will allow organizations to keep functioning in the event of an emergency. An important part of such plans is ensuring adequate network capacity for all employees, contractors, and partners so they can work from home for weeks or possibly months. One of the most critical (and typically unknown) components of pandemic planning is determining whether or not your service providers - and carriers themselves - are ready for a global pandemic outbreak or unforeseen disaster. Capacity planning, redundancy of operations, security, and overall support need to be tightly integrated to truly create an infrastructure that can continue to operate in the face of a major emergency.

Outsourcing a pandemic readiness solution ensures end users are prepared ahead of time and resources are available if they need them. However, rapidly scaling a network can be an organization's greatest challenge if it has not done the appropriate due diligence. Service providers can offer economical, customized services that allow networks to scale up rapidly and support hundreds or even thousands of end users working remotely. These providers have developed solution platforms that allow organizations to host SSL VPN gateways, firewalls, and intrusion prevention equipment at regional centers, allowing customers to connect securely to application servers at their corporate data centers over an MPLS infrastructure.

Managed service providers that have access agreements with multiple MPLS service providers can provide another layer of resiliency by leveraging these carriers to intelligently route customer traffic. Simply stated, the ability to leverage and control the flow of traffic across multiple world-class backbones to provide last-mile access connectivity across a wide geographic area is essential to making any successful pandemic plan for multi-national organizations.

In the event a portion of an organization's network is incapacitated, preventing end users from getting to corporate data centers, managed service providers should be able to exploit multiple data centers for redundancy. Multi-layered connectivity in and out of regional centers provides the highest resiliency and offers the most protection to companies in the event of a pandemic. With a managed service provider managing the scalability of your network, you can have all key components already in place to not only change the volume of users on your network on a moment's notice but also how they access it.

Ramping Up Remote Access When deploying a pandemic plan, it is essential to put all of the pieces in place to allow employees to continue working from remote locations and to ensure your network is scalable. Emergency licensing, global load balancing, and security are key to this process.

Emergency licensing is a terrific insurance policy. Clients pay an upfront fee for pre-installed licenses; when emergency licensing is activated, the number of concurrent users per client gateway can immediately be increased to the maximum allowable on the existing hardware. Even better, emergency licensing fees are a fraction of the cost of permanent concurrent-user licenses. A company's existing gateway may be licensed for 200 concurrent users, but when emergency licensing is activated, the same gateway could accommodate 2,000 concurrent users.

In the event social distancing is necessary, excess load will occur on a regional scale as workers are forced to work remotely. Depending on how the pandemic spreads, different regions may experience different levels of adverse impact. Load balancing deals with this by dynamically allocating traffic across multiple data centers in the event remote-access capacity adjustments need to be made. Global load balancing dynamically adjusts the load between regional data centers so idle capacity can be used efficiently.

You must not overlook security when planning for a pandemic. Hackers are waiting for opportunities that will leave a network vulnerable and will likely launch attacks when they think they can do the most damage. Organizations will therefore need perimeter firewalls and intrusion prevention to block malicious activity. Security event correlation is another important feature to seek out from your MSP. For example, integrating the SSL VPN, firewall, and IPS with security event correlation enables service providers to make more informed decisions about what constitutes malicious activity and automatically take action to avert attacks.

Economic Benefits
When putting a pandemic plan into place, one of the greatest benefits of a managed approach is the ability to leverage the existing network infrastructure and existing support staff, without having to add capital expenses or additional headcount. Organizations do not want to build out a costly new infrastructure where capacity may sit idle. However, organizations should not do business without a safety net that will let them leverage the infrastructure in place today, assess where and how critical users can fail over, and support an increase in users.

Being prepared does not have to equal high cost. Take the example of a customer deployment that includes a fully redundant and scalable remote access infrastructure for a large manufacturing company with over 50,000 remote users around the world. The organization chose a hosted, cloud-based solution with six regional centers to host an array of dedicated network and security equipment, standardized around the world.

The regional centers are interconnected to multiple Tier 1-ISPs that vary region by region for maximum interconnectivity and diversity. Each center connects directly to the enterprise MPLS network, so each regional center acts and looks like a customer edge on the MPLS wide area network. All the provider's regional centers are integrated with one another via a multi-carrier MPLS core in the event of a customer circuit failure.

The manufacturer reaps a number of economic benefits from its managed pandemic planning solution:

The company avoided over 80 percent of "idle" pandemic-capacity license costs; A $2.1 million hardware capital investment was rolled into operational expenses; The entire rollout, plus management for three years, required zero additional headcount; The solution required zero footprint on customer premises and data centers.

Organizations can achieve pandemic readiness for as little as 15 percent of the cost of a baseline solution for standard remote access should an epidemic or natural disaster impair a large portion of the workforce. Secure and scalable solutions that allow organizations to build a contingency plan that fits their specific needs can be turned on and off as needed. The benefits of pandemic planning could be vast for organizations that take the time to put plans in place today to avoid a cessation of workforce productivity in the face of a pandemic in the future.

Organizations tasked with this vital responsibility must be prepared in every way possible to prevent, respond to, and recover from large-scale emergencies, and effective communications are essential to this effort. To ensure continuity of operations and enhance recovery efforts, partnering with trusted specialists who can offer relevant expertise, equipment, infrastructure, and services can make the difference when it comes to sustaining business operations in the face of a pandemic.

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Pandemic-Planning-and-Business-Continuity&id=1080616
accounting blog news

Business Continuity Planning (Heating Boiler Plant Failure Happens At Inconvenient Times)

2008-04-05T22:42:00.000-07:00

Many business organisations plan for business continuity after terror attacks, power loss, IT failures, communications and office space-- and overlook the potential problems of heating boiler plant failure.

One problem disrupts organisations on a regular basis, yet rarely forms part of the contingency planning to avoid loss of production, or a useable workspace environment.

The problem of boiler failure hits every business at some time: there are no exceptions. Listing a few that have experienced steam or heating boiler failure in the last few weeks that have been resolved by Hire companies: these include abattoirs, banks, breweries, chemical refineries, contract energy management, dairy, defence, distillers, embassies, facility management, food manufacturers, glass manufacturers, growers, government departments, hospitals, laboratories, laundries, motor industry, moulding, nuclear, oil refineries, process companies, paper mills, power stations, plastics, pharmaceuticals, retailers, rubber production, schools, steel producers, textile, universities, utilities companies.

There are specialist heating boiler hire and steam boiler rental companies operating throughout the UK, the services provided are emergency heating boilers for PFI/PPP contracts, hospitals, prisons, military bases, schools, universities, swimming pools, libraries district heating systems and many other local government buildings.

Some council authorities who have recently utilised the services of heating boiler hire emergency heat for hire include, Kent County, Manchester City, Walsall, Newcastle County, Newcastle County, London Boroughs Islington, Brent and Chelsea, Slough Borough, Brighton Hove, Rotherham Metro and Nottingham Councils

Emergency Heating

When your installed heating system breaks down, you need a boiler rental company who stands accountable for equipment and services that will get you up and running. Many have extensive experience with critical cooling and heating systems, so can deliver a chiller or heating boiler rental solution to minimize your downtime.

Need heating fast? Call a heating boiler hire company.

Remember - Plant failure never happens at convenient times contingency planning is the key.

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Business-Continuity-Planning-(Heating-Boiler-Plant-Failure-Happens-At-Inconvenient-Times)&id=1076470
accounting blog news

How A Small Business Can Spot Big Risks

2008-03-28T13:54:00.000-07:00

There are a hundred and one things that can give your business nightmares. So it's important to spot threats before they turn into major problems. Here are a few tips on how to sleep soundly.

1. Don't sweat the small stuff

Your business is like a body. Everything is important but some bits are vital. Prioritise the people, equipment and information that are crucial. By thinking about which things matter most you can focus your time (and money) on protecting them. E.g. instead of filing away documents you will never really need why not back up your mobile phone SIM card, since it contains all the phone numbers of your key customers and suppliers.

2. Keep your finger on the pulse

If something is important to a business, there's likely to be a product or service out there to watch over it. There are services which can alert you when your website goes down, detectors for water leaks, lone worker monitors and even alarms which can switch on webcams for you to have a look at your premises. (So you can watch the disaster unfolding even while you are on holiday!)

3. Keep your eyes on the horizon

New laws and regulations can seriously affect your business. Yet you don't have time to monitor bills going through parliament or follow the progress of a new directive taking shape in Brussels. Join a trade association who will keeps abreast of things or sign up for news alerts from other sources. E.g. the Business Link regulation alerts or the BAD News current awareness bulletin from www.cobwebinfo.com.

4. Let other people be your eyes and ears

Your staff, suppliers and customers are a large network of potential information. Ensure they know what things matter to you and how to contact you if they learn something important. E.g. an acquaintance calls your mobile straightaway when he learns about a lawsuit involving your biggest customer.

5. Know thy neighbour

Getting to know your neighbours can produce a range of useful information that may help protect your business. You could learn that they are a qualified first aider or that they are keen to share the cost of anti-vandal paint or cctv cameras. Alternatively you may notice that they have no fire extinguishers and a leaky sink located directly above your computer!

6. Do a risk assessment

Risk assessments are often used for health and safety issues. However you should be alert to any hazard that might damage your business. Try the following exercise - imagine if you wanted to sabotage your own business! You will realise how easy would it be to;

break in.

overload that shelf which is above your computer.

block that drain cover in the warehouse.

ring the health and safety executive about your staff using the wrong ladders.

7. Single points of failure

Try to spot the single points of failure in your business. This can be the one piece of equipment which could bring your entire operation to a halt. Though it may not be just equipment you are overly reliant on. It could be a person, a customer or a supplier.

8. Damage limitation

Things will no doubt go wrong at some point. How you react can avoid calamity and will also be seen as a measure of your professionalism. Therefore a business continuity plan is essential. It details how you plan to cope when things go wrong. So when the customer calls you in a panic you can reply - " Yes we had a fire over the weekend. But we have arrangements to work elsewhere and alternate stock supplies. Your deliveries will happen as normal. We won't let you down. "

9. Get some outside perspective

There is a reason why we don't let our children mark their own exams! It is too easy to be complacent and think we have solved all the problems. It can be really useful to get some outside perspective on where your business might be vulnerable. There are a variety of sources who can offer opinions on your security, business continuity or emergency plans - local crime prevention officers, health and safety officers, fire brigade, suppliers/customers, insurers etc

10. Here today gone tomorrow

Things change. Your business environment is in a constant state of flux. The person or problem that was a threat yesterday may be gone today. Alternatively you may be faced with a whole set of new risks when you move offices, install new equipment, downsize or grow. Schedule some time every few months to re-assess your business risks, so that you are here today AND here tomorrow.

Simple Steps to Ensure Your Server Protected

2008-03-23T05:40:00.001-07:00

IT support is one of the most critical aspects in running a business. If a company does not have use of its computer systems it means that they are basically closed for business.

Generally small business owners work hard to build up there intellectual knowledge and processes and this is often stored on their computer systems. It is generally not until it is to late that companies find out that there data has not been backup correctly or the right length of time.

Data backups are like critical insurance for a SME to ensure that in the event of a disaster their mission critical information is recoverable in a timely manner to ensure that they can get back to business as soon as possible Ensuring that Backup management it is part of the IT Support process and that backups are checked is critical to a successful restoration of normal business in the event of a disaster most SME fail to achieve this and as result are at great risk of incurring data lose.

There are some measures that can be taken to ensure that the risk is reduced.

Know what you're backing up on your computer systems

Ensure you test your backup regularly with different files being restored

Know long you keep a backup of your data for. If you need a file from 2 months ago can you get it?

Regularly clean tape drives and replace media

Look at multiple backups for redundancy. Eg Disk Imaging online internet based backups

If your using Window 2003 ensure shadow folders are turned on and enough space is allocated to them

Ensure that multiple copies of data are keep offsite

Look at having a written disaster recovery plan not only for the data but the entire system

Train users to store important information in certain locations that are backup There are many measures that can be taken to ensure data is backup and tested. Companies need to ensure that they reduce their risk profile or risk data being lost.

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Simple-Steps-to-Ensure-Your-Server-Protected&id=1008660

Emergency Planning for the Future

2008-03-07T10:55:00.000-08:00

WHEN A BOEING 777 AIRCRAFT carrying 136 passengers and 16 crew members crash-landed at Heathrow Airport in January, it was regarded as being exceptionally lucky that everyone escaped alive and with only relatively minor injuries.

The escape seemed even more remarkable following eye witnesses' claims that the British Airways flight BA038 from Beijing just managed to clear the airport perimeter fence before landing short of the runway with sufficient force to remove the landing gear from the plane.

The images of the damaged plane with its emergency escape chutes fully extended are still very fresh, and it has been routinely reported that the passengers and crew had a lucky escape. Certainly, luck did play a part but I think there was more to it than just luck.

The cockpit and cabin crew on the Boeing777 did their job professionally and this probably helped reduce the severity of the incident and contributed to a relatively positive outcome.

The response of Heathrow Airport Fire and Rescue Service and London Fire Brigade was effective and professional, and this may also have helped contribute to the positive outcome. The fact that they performed so well was probably due to the close liaison between the two services who regularly plan and train together for such emergencies.

An eye-witness reported that fire crews arrived "within minutes and evacuated all the passengers." John Trew, Airport Fire Manager at Heathrow Fire Station, is reported to have commented that apart from the colour of staff uniforms it was difficult to differentiate between the ARRFS and local authority fire personnel; they worked so well together. Such performance does not come easily! Time, effort and considerable cost are involved in perfecting a collaborative response to an emergency. Safety management and emergency planning have been key themes at two conferences I have recently attended. These were the IAFPA (Far East) Conference in Singapore in October 2007, and the more recent AFOA Conference in Dublin in January 2008. It is likely that at least one of these themes will be re-emphasised at the forthcoming IAFPA (Middle East) Conference in Abu Dhabi this month.

As many major aerodrome incidents demonstrate, emergency planning is not just an airport issue. The ARRFS do spend a significant amount of their time simulating probable scenarios and emergencies - fortunately, and in the main, this is the only mechanism open to them to practise the possible emergencies they may encounter on an aerodrome.

The ARRFS environment is geared to training and simulation and yet, even in this environment, full-scale exercises are not easy to facilitate. Full-scale multi-agency exercises ar even more difficult to organise and resource andhave to be undertaken to reduce the impact on the community and the economy. It s worth noting that in the recent incident at Heathrow21 flights were cancelled and many long-haul flights departed and arrived late, with 24 incoming flights being diverted to nearby Gatwick, Luton and Stansted. Despite the cost and the other inherent difficulties I think we would all agree that such exercises are needed if emergency services are to respond and work together in a co-ordinated way when major incidents occur.

Establishing a plan is one thing; testing it is another. Heathrow Airport, in close liaison with its emergency planning stakeholders, frequently tests the plan as do other CAA licensed aerodromes. As a result of good liaison and the regular testing of the Heathrow plan it appears that all stakeholders were able to work well together during this incident.

How do you test your emergency plan? Redkite Systems already supply airports and local authority fire and rescue services with safety management systems; to record staff competence and to record equipment safety inspections and tests. In addition, and having been made aware of the problem, we have developed a prototype 'Emergency Planning' system that can help emergency agencies develop and assess staff performance in line with the requirements of their emergency plans.

In 'Emergency Planner', a scenario is defined and the participating agencies identified, with staff being allocated to specific roles and functions. The scenario can be modularised to concentrate on different elements of the plan, culminating in a full-scale test to meet UK CAA Aerodrome licensing and International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) requirements.

Breaking an emergency into composite modules has been broached by airport safety regulators, and Redkite Systems have already provided a basic system to accommodate this methodology.

Another advantage of the Redkite Emergency Planning System is that many ARRFS and, increasingly, local authority fire personnel are familiar with the Redkite system and we have made every effort to keep this familiarity to reduce training requirements.

Business online blog

Business Continuity Planning

2008-03-06T22:04:00.000-08:00

Business continuity planning is one subject that is often left to the last minute but is one of great importance.

If you wait until 'something' happens, it could be too late. I have seen people wading in calf deep water looking for the stopcock; others reading the instructions on a fire extinguisher in the middle of a fire.

In reality we should all know what to do in an emergency well before the emergency happens and be prepared for most eventualities.

We have read about the terrorist attack, the dirty bomb and other major catastrophes but it is often the 'soft' disasters which can cause irreparable damage to a company.

One such problem occurred recently; the company uses a card entry system to gain access to the building. The server housing the operating system failed and prevented anyone entering the building. It was apparent that there was no manual override; people milled around outside the building, not really knowing what to do. Eventually someone broke a window to gain entry. Of course the alarm went off and before it could be turned off the police were on site; embarrassment all round.

The company has now put a system in place to override the card system if it fails in the future.

The winter season also means that illness will increase; how many companies have prepared for a flu epidemic? Sadly very few.

Companies that have incorporated ISO27001 (Information Security Management System) will have an emergency plan in place, regularly tested and validated. This together with an IT disaster Recovery Plan will be able to deal with most eventualities. The old saying that 'if you hope for the best but prepare for the worst' is a good mantra to use.

Companies that have suffered major disaster, like being in the vicinity of the Buncefield fuel depot fire, and did not have any business continuity plan have disappeared without trace. Insurance cover just didn't mitigate all the problems. Those companies that did have a plan in place, had difficulties but managed to survive.

It is a pity that, as of December 2007, there are only 363 companies in the UK certificated to ISO27001. It is a very big standard to achieve but the benefits are huge.

Franchising

How Safe Is Your Computer Data?

2008-03-05T12:25:00.000-08:00

As recently as December 2007, a New Zealander was subject to an FBI investigation on world-wide cyber crime which also resulted in Dutch authorities imposing strong penalties on companies using his malicious software.

Managing data security is unavoidable in today's business environment and is a critical task for many. But what has all of this got to do with the small business owner?

Perhaps the cost of your laptop or your office personal computers does not amount to that much in the grand scheme of things. Have you ever stopped and wondered how long it would take to replace the data that you stored on them; or what damage losing customers' sensitive data would have on your business.

I recall an ex-colleague at a large, international accounting and consulting firm whose laptop was stolen from his car. He stored valuable information about several blue-chip clients' projects he was working on his hard drive. Not only did he lose the only copies that the firm had (which meant that weeks of work was lost) but he potentially put the firm at serious risk of bad publicity and losing major clients.

How well do you protect your computer hardware and data? How much would it cost to replace them? The following are just a few tips to help protect you.

Use Anti-Virus software and keep it software up-to-date. Hundreds of new viruses are discovered each month. You are not just protecting yourself when using virus software, but also others you communicate with.

Always use a Firewall - A firewall is an "internal lock" for information on your computer. Many computer operating systems already have firewalls installed and you must activate them. There are many other firewalls available to download or buy that help you secure your computer.

Learn the risks & rules associated with sharing files or your internet connection. You can be exposed to danger via e-mail, file-sharing, a broadband connection or a wireless connection

Disconnect from the net when idle. If you're not using your net connection, (when you go to bed as an example) turn it off. It's much harder to hack your computer when it is not connected. This is especially important if you have a high-speed connection.

Use strong, unique passwords and don't share them with anyone & back up your data frequently

Take immediate action if you think you have been hacked or infected by a virus and contact your ISP

Protecting your information can be a major deal for a small business owner but using the proper tools can ease the burden significantly. Such efforts will dramatically reduce the chance of a major security breach and also the costs and damage to your company's reputation that such an event causes.

Business Continuity Planning BS25999-2-2007

2008-03-05T11:46:00.000-08:00

I wonder how many companies were faced with the same problem that I faced following the Christmas and New Year shutdown: my office landlord decided that he would turn off the heating during this period in order to save money. The net result was that the office, and more importantly the computer equipment, became very cold. Upon turning the heating back on, condensation formed and this caused the equipment to short out.

The resulting bang not only did my constitution no good, it meant that the computer equipment had to be repaired. Fortunately our company has a business continuity plan which was put into action and none of our clients were put to any inconvenience.

At the end of 2007 The British Standards Institute produced an new standard BS 25999-2 Business Continuity Management and its code of practice BS25999-1. This can be either a stand-alone system or as part of ISO27001 (Information Security Management Standard).

BS25999-2 sets out the requirements for BCM (business continuity management) and how any organisation can reduce or mitigate any incident which interrupts or degrades the company or its operations.

The main areas are:

Identify what potential risks could affect the company; Know what equipment would be needed in the event of a loss of building/facility; Keep copies of staff information off-site to be able to contact key personnel if required; Plan who will do what and when; Make contingency plans for staff if buildings are unavailable; Keep copies of important information off-site; Review and train everyone in the continuity plan and IT disaster recovery routine; Test the plan regularly; Learn lessons from any tests; Ensure the plan is kept up to date.

Having a business continuity plan in place will not stop a disaster happening, but it certainly will ensure that its effect can be mitigated and will ensure that the company can be up and running in the shortest possible time.

It is important to note that many companies that have been subject to a major disaster and do not have a business continuity plan have gone out of business.

Be prepared. It is not only for boy scouts.

Is Your Organization Prepared to Sustain Business and Respond to a Disaster?

2008-03-04T22:36:00.000-08:00

If you are in the market for a global commercial satellite service provider of voice, video and data connectivity solutions, you're not alone. Businesses, government entities, humanitarian groups and public service departments such as fire, police and emergency responders are increasingly in the need for fixed and mobile satellite communications. Whether for backup, emergency or occasional use, satellite services provide the flexibility and reliability that traditional terrestrial communications can't compete with. As communities expand and businesses reach across physical boundaries the need for voice, internet, video and data to continue despite location or cause for disruption grows with demand and intensity.

When it comes to safety, emergency services and communications, preparation and taking count of necessary precautionary measures is critical to the lively hood of community members. When disaster strikes, preparation has and will continue to be the best method of protection. With any disaster preparedness plan, a solid communications method is imperative. While many organizations have taken head to recent natural or man made disasters and secured commercial satellite services - others have yet to deploy the necessary steps to ensuring communications and basic communications services remain intact.

Municipalities and organizations worldwide need to incorporate superior satellite technology into their response action plans. There are a number of providers that offer a range of services from high speed internet via satellite, mobile satellite, business satellite internet to voice, fax, data and video over satellite services. Many government entities and public service organizations rely on the ability to quickly respond to situations, communicate between the personnel on the ground or at the scene seamlessly with the command center. In areas where infrastructure is limited or not accessible, having the agility of a mobile satellite communications network can literally change the outcome of a crisis situation. Being able to rely on automatic satellite, modem and networking services in command or responder vehicles is realistic if the provider is reputable and has the bandwidth to support commercial satellite services worldwide.

Mobile satellite services can be installed in command vehicles with communication devices between the internal computers and VoIP phones, wireless devices such as PDAs and laptops, featuring mobile satellite internet and networking services, capable of uplink and downlinks operability. The satellite connectivity capability is tremendous, especially in mobile and first-responder environments. With the right services, support and mobile infrastructure, organizations and agencies can be confident in their connections.

There are many options in fixed and mobile satellite services, first responder and emergency satellite communications. Organizations can deploy high performance multi-network communications through a single source, thereby ensuring the quality and operability of mission critical procedures. In conclusion, search for a provider that can provide quality connections and reliable support staff to ensure that when disaster strikes, your organization can respond without delay.

Offsite Data Backup Plan - What Online Backup Services Vendors Must Have

2008-03-04T21:58:00.000-08:00

Having an offsite data backup plan is a necessity to support your business continuity and disaster recovery needs. To support these objectives, you may also have ascertained that using an online backup services provider to be viable but find it a challenge to identify suitable vendors.

If so, here's a two-stage methodology that can make life easier for you:

- Stage 1: We will use an initial set of criteria is used to identify a short list of candidates that are able to provide a minimum standard of service for immediate and longer term.

- Stage 2: We will determine your provider of choice by assessing the short-listed candidates against a final set of criteria.

Today, we will discuss the details of Stage 1 and outline key requirements that must be fulfilled by all short listed candidates.

I. Established operations

In the past, many impressive start-ups have gone bust. Based on experience, vendors who have been in business for 5 years or more are more likely to be able to support in the long haul.

II. Large customer base comprising of business clients

A sizeable business clientele usually co-relate with the vendor's proven ability to provide a satisfactory level of service for business requirements that are usually more stringent by nature.

III. Premise that is secured

As a rule of thumb, consider candidates who use world class data centres for their operations. This is because data centres often have good physical security equipment and measures to prevent unauthorised access. Data centres also have built-in protective measures against natural disasters that include earthquake and fire.

IV. Scalable offerings

Data storage requirements will increase along with the growth of your business. While your immediate need is the priority, the short-listed vendors must have expandable data backup plan offerings to accommodate additional storage when the need arises.

V. Affordable plans

Vendors who offer "too good to be true" free storage for life are hard pressed to survive in the long run and therefore should be excluded from the short list. Instead, identify candidates who can provide the required service at prices that are affordable, based on a budgeted price range.

By evaluating using the five criteria above, you will have a short list of candidates that can offer the minimum level of online backup services to support your offsite data backup plan objectives.

Does Your Small Business Have a Disaster Continuity Plan? You Need One!

2008-02-28T12:52:00.000-08:00

Your small business must make income or you will go out of business and be on the hook for all those loans, bills and employee costs. Have you ever lived through a natural disaster? I have and as a Franchisor for a number of years, I watched what happened when our franchisees where occasionally faced with a natural disaster. During my time at the helm as CEO of the Franchising Company that I founded, I remember our franchisees going through all sorts of things. There were Hurricanes, Tornados, Power Outages, Floods, Earthquakes and Droughts - serious for our company, as we are in the car and truck washing sector.

Needless to say, we did have specific plans when events like this occurred and we wasted NO Time in implementing them. In fact, we often made plans for other things, things that thankfully never occurred. Remember Y2K, yep, we were ready and the whole world could have collapsed and civilization reduced to fighting in the streets and riots for what was left of the food and water supply - we had a plan, I kid you not. Sounds crazy? It shouldn't, before my retirement, I worked on a plan for Bird Flu as well. We planned for every possible contingency.

We even planned for computer back-ups from Internet wide viruses, we had a plan, a back up and although it was rare to actually go to war so to speak and be forced to implement these plans, I can tell you it happened, it happened somewhere in one of our markets at least once every three months, somewhere in the US. It is time you think about it, because you never know and insurance just isn't enough, you need a plan!

Franchising

Managing Risk

2008-02-25T12:26:00.000-08:00

Risk management has historically been viewed by many organisations as something of a "chore". However, with an increasing number of high profile project failures, more and more companies and government agencies are realising the importance of risk management. By managing risk more effectively organisations can gain a competitive advantage through such things as:

Improved product quality
Increased ability to deliver on time
Improved Asset Efficiency due to fewer breakdowns
Reduced costs by limiting legal action or preventing breakages
Improved reliability leading to an enhanced reputation

Risk Management Techniques

The key to effective risk management is the application of best practice techniques to a specific situation. The principles of effective risk management remain constant, but they must be flexed to take account of the size, shape and complexity of the project. A formal risk committee reporting once a month would not be appropriate for a DIY project at home but may be necessary for a project as large and complicated as rebuilding Wembley.

Step 1: Set up Risk Management Structure
Determine Risk Appetite: Understand the acceptable level of risk that can be absorbed by the organisation, department, project or programme. The costs of avoiding risks beyond this risk appetite (often called risk tolerance) mean that it is no longer beneficial to attempt to avoid them.

Develop Risk Language: From a change management perspective, it is imperative that people within the organisation understand each other. Developing a common risk language or "risk glossary" is a vital step to avoid misunderstanding and to ensure a consistent approach.

Implement Organisational Structure: In order to manage risk effectively, the organisation or project must set up an appropriate organisational structure. Individuals and groups should be set up with clearly defined roles and responsibilities, together with an appropriate reporting structure and meeting schedule.

The structure clearly varies according to the size and complexity of an organisation or project, ranging from a series of overlapping risk sub-committees through to no more than a part-time risk manager. In all cases, however, the objectives, responsibilities and respective authority of each group and individual should be clearly demarcated.

Step 2: Identify Risks & Issues
Using experienced risk managers and a structured approach can save a fortune in downstream costs for a project. Regardless of whether such specialist resources are available, it is important to first understand and validate the objectives and success criteria of the project to determine what is at risk.

During the risk identification process, each of the various types of risks (Strategic Risk, Operational Risk, Legal Risk, etc) that the project is exposed to must be reviewed. Specific risk areas, such as the risk to the environment, to the technology infrastructure, to the workforce and supplier reliability must be considered. The potential impact of each risk on the timescales, cost and performance or quality of the project is evaluated, along with the probability of the risk manifesting itself

All key stakeholders involved in the project should be involved at the identification stage, not only to increase the number of risks identified but also to ensure responsibility can be assigned and buy-in is generated throughout.

Step 3: Evaluate & Plan
First of all an overall risk reduction strategy and approach should be developed that is appropriate for the size and complexity of the project and the overall risk appetite (See above).

For each risk that has been identified, a decision should be made as to whether to transfer the risk (e.g. through insurance, to a sub-contractor etc.), mitigate it through specific actions to reduce its probability and impact, monitor the risk more closely or ignore it entirely due to a small impact or low probability of occurrence.

All risks should be assigned an owner, a trigger date and the frequency it needs to be reviewed. Specific action steps should be determined in order to reduce the probability or impact of the risks where appropriate and contingency plans developed to come into force once a risk has crystallised. These reduce the impact of the risk or return to business as usual at the earliest opportunity (e.g. Disaster Recovery Plans). Of course, all risk actions should have an owner and be integrated within the overall Project Management Plans

Step 4: Management & Control
During the Management and Control phase, the mitigating actions to reduce the probability and impact of each risk must be initiated and managed together with the wider project action steps.

Exposure to avoidable risks should be reduced at the earliest opportunity, but some risk can never be avoided entirely. Hence the contingency plans developed above may need to be deployed when a risk does materialise.

A risk register or risk matrix should be populated and updated regularly throughout the duration of the project. A risk management software tool can often be a cost effective way of maintaining your risk register as it can reduce the manual workload and help prioritise risk management activity.

More advanced tools can also quantify risk exposure using techniques such as Monte Carlo analysis. In this way, the relative benefit of reducing the exposure of the project to the residual risks it faces can be weighed against the cost of the risk mitigating actions that are required.

Step 5: Management Reporting:
Once risks have been identified and plans to reduce them put in place, it is imperative that they are reviewed regularly. The internal and external project environment is continually changing (e.g. in the case of Wembley the rising price of steel, or the changing attitude of the FA). Some risks will fall away, others will arise that could never have been envisaged at the outset.

The risk register must therefore be continually updated and reports generated at regular and frequent intervals. Management reports should provide clear visibility on the risks faced, enable prioritisation of the activity and facilitate decision making.

A risk aware culture should be embedded throughout the organisation,. This will increase sensitivity to warning signals and ensures continual improvement in the identification, assessment and management of risk.

Using this framework, organisations can plan appropriate strategies well in advance of any risk occurring. The probability of a risk occurring is therefore reduced, or its impact minimised should it manifest itself. Through increased awareness of problems across the organisation or project, companies and government agencies can generate enormous value and process improvements through effective risk management.

customer services

Business Resilience Planning

2008-02-22T12:23:00.000-08:00

In the context of today's fast globalizing business landscape and the unpredictable terrorism happening around us, a Business Resilience Plan is a critical business requirement to preserve your critical business processes in order to maintain functionality and ensured continued profitability.

The Business Resilience Planning in simplified terms, must minimally fulfill two major objectives, namely to enable data integrity & data restoration (to ensure continuance of business) as well as avoid or reduces the loss of human lives.

The following outlines the three phases of Business Resilience Plan. This is a framework which is not exhaustive and the scope of which may be adapted to suit your business model.

There are three phases in the recovery process, namely the Emergency Response phase, Crisis Management phase as well as Business Continuity Planning.

Emergency Response Plan addresses the procedures required to respond immediately to any incident that may jeopardise the safety of our colleagues, disrupt daily operations or bring unwarranted external scrutiny to the company. The onus lies on the company to conduct itself with the highest regard for the safety and health of its colleagues and to protect and preserve its property. The purpose of the Emergency Response phase is to provide guidelines to:

" Ensure the safety and health of colleagues
" Quickly identify and respond to incidents that may arise at or near the office
" Help evacuate the building in an orderly manner, if necessary
" Assess any damage or impact of a situation
" Ascertain the level of containment required to limit damage to facilities and equipment
" Identify and apply the necessary emergency activities
" Coordinate with local emergency services and authorities

Crisis Management allows you to have a process for assessing crisis incidents and managing them as well as initiating the business continuity process. It is important to note that emergencies may involve both physical and non-physical threats to business operations. The purpose of the Crisis Management phase is to ensure:

" Steps necessary to safeguard the welfare of the colleagues are taken
" Determination of the extent of the incident is accurate
" Appropriate individuals are assembled into response teams to carry out the required actions
" Effective communication is made to colleagues
" External communications are properly controlled
" Appropriate operating strategies are implemented

Business Continuity plan provides each functional and line-of-business department with a framework on which to resume critical business processes if an incident disrupts their normal work location and the resources in it are not accessible. The respective department's business continuity plans are closely coordinated and supported by the local management support staff for such areas as technology and office administrative assistance in establishing a continuous working environment.

This phase addresses the inaccessibility of the normal work location and its contents. These plans should provide for a worst-case loss scenario. Incidents that result in lesser consequences will be managed by scaling down the relevant parts of the plans.

The purpose of this phase is to ensure that necessary business conducted at a particular location can be recovered within reasonable timeframes and to acceptable levels, to ensure our ability to support our clients in an appropriate manner.

These efforts must be performed in conjunction with the local office's Infrastructure Recovery teams which will include facilities and technology. Once space has been identified and secured, the fitting out process will take place (i.e. furniture, telephony, network, LAN infrastructure, etc.).

Franchising

Offsite Data Backup Plan - How to Select Your Online Backup Services Provider of Choice

2008-02-18T10:49:00.000-08:00

When searching for a suitable offsite data backup plan to support your business continuity or disaster recovery requirements, you may find that using an online backup services vendor to be a feasible option. If so, the first stage is to identify a short list of candidates comprising of established vendors that fulfill some fundamental requirements.

Once this has been done, we can select your provider of choice by evaluating which short-listed vendor best meets the final set of criteria, listed below in the order of importance.

I. Around-The-Clock Phone Support

People often forget that while backing up data is done regularly, the same cannot be said for data restoration / recovery activities which unfortunately have to be performed accurately and quickly when the need arises.

Having your vendor to provide guidance over the phone will go a long way to help calm one's nerves and smoothen the "less familiar" data restoration process. Additionally, having a single number to call irrespective of the time of the day makes life easier for you.

II. Enhanced Restore Feature

Many leading offsite data backup plan providers incorporate enhanced restoration capabilities / features to reduce the restoration duration hence cutting down further the downtime / disruptions to your business systems.

III. Optimised Backup Feature

Since data backups are on-going activities that can take up much time and storage resources, you will want to evaluate the additional optimisation features offered by the vendor.

IV. Service Provider Redundancy

Do check that the vendor's data centre premise has incorporated redundancy in various key aspects such as network connection / bandwidth, power supply, hardware equipment etc.

Additionally, leading services providers even have mirrored data centres, each with a separate set of redundant facilities which preferably should be as far apart as possible for the highest level of protection.

V. Easy To Use Online Resources

Such resources will make you as self-sufficient as possible. In fact, it is possible to learn how to carry out restoration tasks efficiently without the need to call the vendor's support centre.

By using the above final set of criteria, you will be able to identify the offsite data backup plan provider that best meets your business continuity and disaster recovery requirements.

Business online blog

Two Way Radios - How to Maintain Business Communication During an Emergency

2008-02-17T01:27:00.000-08:00

Doesn't it seem like hurricane season lasts longer and does more damage every year? Summertime heat waves and winter ice storms appear more severe than ever?

Natural and man-made catastrophes, can result in emergencies and power outages that last a few hours, a few days or, in the most severe cases, a week or longer. This can cost your business thousands of dollars.

Emergency and public safety organizations like police and fire departments, medical teams and college campus security depend on commercial two way radios. Your business can also turn to commercial two way radios in natural disasters and other emergencies. Two way radios are an economical resource in emergency situations that can possible save your business money!

Why Two Way Radios Are an Excellent Way to Maintain Communication & Keep Your Business Operating During an Emergency.

1. Two way radios do not rely on cell towers like cell phones do. They operate radio to radio independently from any other system. If the power to a cell tower goes out, or the tower is knocked down, you lose cell phone service. Be prepared and use 2 way radios to avoid overloaded cell phone systems in an emergency.

2. Two way radios do not rely on telephone lines. Phone systems can be knocked out just like cell phone towers. If the power goes out to a phone system, or there is a line in the system that is damaged, you lose phone service. Being prepared with 2 way radios will overcome this potential communications issue.

3. If you apply the tips below and use commercial 2 way radios your team can maintain radio communication around a fixed location or campus of buildings without electricity for hours, even days, in an emergency.

So the question becomes: How can you charge your commercial two-way radio batteries when there's no power to draw from?

How to Keep Your Two Way Radio Battery Up and Running During a Power Outage, Crises or Emergency:

1. Be Prepared: Even if you do not use two way radios as part of your regular day to day operation you should keep the batteries for your emergency radios charged and conduct a radio check once a week. The weekly radio check will reinforce how to use the radios and instill good radio habits. A weekly radio check will reveal if there are any equipment or personnel issues. During an emergency having to train personnel will consume rather than conserve battery power.

2. Have Spare Two Way Radio Battery Equipment Available & Handy. Many commercial two way radio chargers have a slot for an additional battery. By keeping two batteries charged you effectively double the useful life of radios in an emergency. Additionally some commercial two way radios can be equipped with standard sized alkaline batteries. These alkaline batteries have a long shelf life and can come in handy if the power outage is lengthy.

PLEASE NOTE: Not all commercial two-way radios can take alkaline batteries. In fact, most can't and only a few have a special "AA" battery holder that fits the radio. Nearly all FRS radios or "Family Radio Service" radios do take alkaline batteries but they do not provide a signal of significant strength and are not recommended for industrial or business users.

3. Charge Your Two Way Radio Battery with Your Computer If you have an uninterrupted power supply (UPS) battery backup for your computer, it can keep your two way radio working during an emergency crisis or power outage as well. Just plug it in, and you'll have enough power to re-charge your radio battery to last at least a full day, and maybe even more.

We recently tested this process with a common computer battery back up/surge protector unit with Output Power Capacity of 780 Watts / 1300 VA. We charged three full-powered commercial two way radios with the batteries attached along with three extra batteries in the backup slots of three charger cups.

Tip: Make sure to shut down your computer at the first sign of a power outage. It increases the UPS power that you can draw on to charge your 2 way radio battery.

4. Charge Two Way Radio Batteries with your Car or Truck If it's safe to go outside, you can recharge your two way radio battery in your car or truck by using a re-charger that plugs into the vehicle's cigarette lighter. If the power outage lasts a short while, this can provide enough juice to keep things going during the crisis. But if it looks like the power is going to be out for several days then keep in mind that this is also using your vehicle's fuel and battery.

Tip: Keep the car re-charger for your 2 way radio battery in your vehicle's emergency kit, so it'll be there when you need it!

5. Use the Two Way Radio Solar Rechargeable Battery Option You can use your two-way radio during a power outage emergency if you have a solar rechargeable battery pack. Solar power is becoming increasingly popular as a source of alternative energy. It doesn't even have to be a bright and sunny day for it to work effectively. Solar power battery recharging kits can service your two way radio batteries.

Tip: Don't wait for an emergency to use your solar re-charger. You should conduct a weekly radio and charger check to detect any problems and fix them before they become problems during an emergency.

advertising blog news

Office Manual Handling

2008-02-10T06:08:00.000-08:00

It is probably fair to say that compared with a Chemical Plant, Metal Finishing Company or Tree Surgery, Offices are normally relatively safe places to work!

What we must remember is that they can become more dangerous under unusual circumstances. From time to time though we have tasks that are far from routine, which introduces hazards that the average office is not well-equipped to properly assess and deal with.

The example we are examining is that of the Office move around, where furniture like everything else is likely to be adjusted or lifted and moved completely.

So when do we have to address this issue? Normally we only consider the risks of normal activities, such as Computer Use or Fire. So at most, the office management has considered the heaviest item that is normally moved - often a box of paper.

When it comes to furniture moving for redecorating, replacement furniture or a simple office move around, we have not assessed the hazards and the possible injuries that may occur. As a result, a move is not normally assessed at all and so injuries result. Some are simple splinters in fingers, whilst others are more serious, blows to the head, concussion or fractures.

So how do we prevent the injuries? Always consider 'unusual activities' as those that need some extra thought. Now of course a Health & Safety Consultant will suggest that you document a Risk Assessment. Whatever you call it, consider the potential hazards and how best to minimise the chances of injuries.

Maybe, buy some High Grip Gloves for those who will be picking up items of furniture, since smooth surfaces on a desk or a filing cabinet can be difficult to grip with bare hands.

Ensure that only those involved in moving items are in the space at the time. This may mean planning for other members of staff to be located elsewhere during the day of the move and so some negotiating with other offices.

So in conclusion, make a plan and communicate it. Accept that there may be suggestions from other staff and that they may be better than your original plan! Be open to these suggestions and you will get both co-operation of the staff and there commitment to making it work.

Online Document Imaging Mitigates Corporate Disaster and Data Loss - Pay Attention!

2008-02-08T23:05:00.000-08:00

You are better off decommissioning and destroying your records than having it and not being able to find it. Thats the bottom line of compliance regulatory requirements. While some companies have found themselves in the uncomfortable position overable data, others have to deal with staff spending half the workday looking for information. Research has shown that employees spend at least 40% of the work day looking for information relating directly or indirectly to their jobs. From Google, to the windows search (under Program Files), some have even downloading the Google desktop search facility.

While this may be a stop gap approach, having a compliant, fully configured document management and work flow solution is key to ensuring the security, auditability, availability, and manageability of records. Including documents and email.

Notwithstanding, most companies are very hesitant to shell out $200,000 for a new enterprise class system. Those who do spend $200,000 or more usually put the vendors through a frustratingly long sales cycle, validation process, procurement process and final approval process before the project is even undertaken. Once the project commences, turnover, staff departure, layoffs, project implementation snags usually further convolute the process.

In comes Saas (software as a Service)! For a fraction of the cost, any company can implement an enterprise class version of an ECM / Workflow / Document management system at a fraction of the cost. This is the same software, but now over a secure internet connection, and usually browser based. That is the difference between financing a $200,000 system upfront, and paying $2,000 monthly for the very same product, same SLA (service level agreement), better support infrastructure, automatic upgrades and additional value added services.

This is where companies can really negotiate their SLA (service Level Agreement). Most companies tend to forget that thick enterprise class systems installed on site come with a "checklist" of SLA options, but in the Saas world, you can really negotiate the language of the SLA.

A web based system will ensure auditability and tight user access controls over a reliable connection. This is because the Vendors, fully understanding the implications of loosing clients data will utilize the best, most secure and advanced data centers, coupled with Department of Defense grade security and backups.

This automatically eliminates the pressure on the client to maintain, staff, upgrade, train, retrain and manage an in - house system. Which usually runs at an additional 85% of the system cost itself, plus overhead.

How to Define A Business Emergency Strategy Before It Is Too Late

2008-02-05T11:44:00.000-08:00

We all remember how New Orleans, LA looked after it was ravaged by hurricane Katrina. How can anyone forget? The sites of homes flooded up to the rooftops, people sitting by the Superdome with what seemed like no hope in sight.

Take into account the many businesses that were up and running before Katrina hit, and how many have disappeared because of it.

Imagine for a moment you are building your business. You sell widgets, you are buying, selling, tracking orders, doing account, and the many other facets of tasks that go into your business`s daily operation. In a moment`s notice, your business is wiped out. Not by bad financial planning, not by some bad accountant you hired or a lost account, but because of a natural disaster.

Is your business prepared to rebuild after a disaster? Is ready to pick up where it left off, as if nothing happened? If you answered no to both those questions then you need to get an emergency plan in place.

Backup your data. Believe it or not, even in today`s high tech world, a lot of businesses do not back up data properly. Some do it once a night and then the backup is in the same location as their main data centers. This makes no sense. If your building is wiped out, all of your data and all of your backup data is in the same place. You need to separate the two. You should do a backup of your system every night. There are many services out there that offer this at a nominal cost. When compared to what the cost will be when you lose all that data, hiring a firm that specializes in data backup and recovery will be well worth it.

Team organization. Even if you are able to rebuild your data center from your backups, if you and your team, meaning your employees, are not on the same page, and have no idea what the next steps are, or what their roles in the recovery are, you and your team will look like a bunch of chickens with their heads cut off. You should have a written plan in place as to what the efforts of each team member will be after a disaster occurs. Keeping everyone involved, and informed as to what they are responsible for, will make a transition to getting your business up and running again, a smooth one. This plan must be updated periodically, especially as employees come and go.

Write it all down. Finally, get the entire plan in writing. This plan, must be a detailed outline of steps and procedures as to exactly how to get the business up and running. It should also outline what each person is responsible for, how to get the data backup and running, who handles acquiring a temporary space to run the business and so on. This document, will be the most important item of your emergency plan, because it is the actual plan. Make sure each employee has a copy, as well as a saved version on your computer system so it gets backed up with all of your other data. Since you now have a separate vendor handling backup and recovery, your plan is safe. You may want to consider using document version control software such as Documentum. This type of software versions your plan with the ability of people making the changes of checking the document in and out, just the way a library works. When someone has it checked out, no one can make changes to it until they check it back in.

Get your emergency plan in place. You never know when a natural disaster is going to hit, and for that reason, you do not want to be unprepared when it does.

By: Bruce A. Tucker

CRM History - The Evolution of Better Customer Service

2008-01-26T01:34:00.000-08:00

There was a time when frequent flyer miles, loyalty award systems and credit card points were virtually unknown to businesses and consumers alike. CRM history shows that customer relationship management is the system that popularized consumer benefits such as this.

CRM history is indeed a brief one when it comes to the technological aspect of customer service. Although marketing campaigns and strategies go back a long way, most entrepreneurs used to rely on generic means to attract potential customers and gain loyal ones. Before the dawn of CRM, most companies were not ingenious when it came to having personalized customer relationships.

The Dawn of CRM

CRM emerged in the 1980's and this early version was called database marketing. Database marketing wasn't as intricate as the well-developed CRM of today. It mainly comprises of an organizations' customer service staff interacting with a company's clients. Although helpful, it wasn't exactly a seamless process and information on the existing database tended to be unorganized, hard to track, update and retrieve.

The Rise of CRM

CRM history shows that the 90's saw great improvement in terms of Customer Relationship Management. Companies began to see the benefits of offering perks to customers and potential ones in exchange for relevant customer information or for repeat purchases. Companies also began to regard customer service as a continuously evolving skill rather than a stagnant service to be picked up and used whenever necessary.

A Fully-developed CRM

Today, CRM has reached its full potential, allowing businesses to maximize their own potentials as well, to achieve superior customer service. More advanced tools are made available and innovation allows customization of software to fit a particular business or industry. Benefits enjoyed by customers such as bonus points and loyalty rewards are also advantageous to the companies that award these benefits: now they can easily track the behavior, spending history and patterns of their customers.

With CRM's online capabilities, storage issues for huge databases can now be resolved, especially for big corporations. CRM software developers are now offering offsite storage of data and opening secure Internet mediums for staging CRM.

CRM is most useful for organizations whose success depend vastly on technology or customer service. That's why a lot of CRM-based tools and software are utilized by credit card companies, the telecommunications industry and even the computer hardware and software sectors. From customer acquisition, to trouble shooting and encouraging customer loyalty, CRM will be a useful system to achieve these goals.

CRM history has indeed shown that something truly useful and effective can come a long way in such a short time. As long as businesses continue to thrive on effective management of customer relationships and as long as there are customers to satisfy, then CRM will also continue to develop and evolve to greater heights.

As shown by CRM history, customer relation management has indeed empowered consumers to choose the companies worth patronizing. CRM has made customer service a global interaction so consumers can now easily switch to better services if unsatisfied with current one.

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?CRM-History-The-Evolution-of-Better-Customer-Service&id=948303
careersemp loyment

Does Your Web Hosting Service Have a Business Continuation Plan?

2008-01-20T02:54:00.000-08:00

One of our customers was located in the World Trade Center. Fortunately, they had a Business Continuation plan, and were able to resume operations almost immediately from another location after 9/11. There are blackouts, there are natural disasters, there are catastrophes - do you want your website to still be available?

Ask your potential provider what their business continuation plan is. Having UPS (Uninterrupted Power Source) is great - but if a disaster hits the building, the UPS may not be helpful enough. A real Business Continuation plan must include off-site servers that will kick in when the main servers are down. The service should have regular exercises where they simulate a disruption of service at the main location and pick up from the remote location.

Have you read stories of New Orleans companies that managed well after the hurricane in 2005? The ones that managed well had a Business Continuation plan in place.

There may be stages involved in Business Continuation. There may be a minimum level of service that will kick in immediately, and full service only after a certain amount of time has passed and resources have been redeployed. The purpose of the exercises is to make sure the personnel responsible for keeping the remote site running are trained in their duties and confident in their ability to carry out their duties.

The phrase "Business Continuation" implies a more proactive approach than the term "Disaster Recovery". It implies making a plan, having resources in place, having personnel trained, running mock disasters to see how it works, and updating the plan as necessary.

If your service does not have an effective Business Continuation plan, you may suffer much down-time and loss of business as a result.

change management

Business Continuity Planning - Reactive and Proactive

2008-01-20T02:26:00.000-08:00

What is business continuity? It is about making plans to help your business return to normal following an interruption, crisis or even disaster. It is not just about dealing with disasters when they occur but also about planning procedures and systems to avoid any foreseeable crisis.

If you watch the news you will notice that disasters are happening on a daily basis around the globe. The biggest harbinger of trouble is Mother Nature with her volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunami, floods and droughts. Have I missed anything?

Mother Nature is closely followed by man made disasters. Wherever man is around you can be sure that some sort of crisis is getting ready to erupt. Man specialises in eroding the environment, starting a war, oppressing the weak, bombing innocent civilians and creating environments where fire spreads quickly!

In both man made and natural disasters the first thing to often get affected is the internet and our ability to communicate effectively. So therefore this is the first item on the agenda in a decent business continuity plan. What proactive measures can the business can to have as many channels of communication open and how can it establish communication as soon as possible once it has gone down?

Data is another important factor to consider. What proactive plans does the business have to ensure that a backup of data is kept at a separate location? How can this data be used effectively if the infrastructure is damaged or in a worst case scenario - destroyed?

Having clear plans in place to cope with injury and in worst cases a loss of life can often help to reduce any potential losses. Bear in mind that it is not only business that you have to think about but also the family members of the victims of the disaster.

How will your customers cope if you can not meet their requirements in time? Do you have alternative suppliers available to keep your customers ticking over until your business is ready to supply them again?

Finally do not forget to consider your suppliers. They will also suffer and some could even close down if you are their largest customer.

By creating a business continuity plan the manager of a business can get a deeper understanding of the critical parts of the business. By having both proactive and reactive plans and procedures in place, it makes it far easier to avoid some foreseeable crisis and being able to deal quickly with a disaster when it does occur.

careersemp loyment

Data Management and Disaster Recovery - Necessary for Today's Businesses

2008-01-20T01:52:00.000-08:00

London Sightseeing: See the best sights of London with a London Pass!

From the Shakespeare to the shopping, the royalty to the restaurants, London blends old world magic with cutting edge modernism like no other city in the world.

Steeped in history and boasting a melting pot of cultures, you can visit the scene of a beheading, indulge in a curry to die for and shop your way through a world renowned fashion scene, all on one quiet London back street! With so much to see and do.

Introduction

Data management and disaster recovery are two very important issues in the field of Information Technology. Without either of these, a company will not make it very far in an age when large organizations store data on every transaction and have redundant facilities built in case of natural or man-made disaster. Indeed, such recovery of data would be nearly useless if there was no data management scheme in place.

Data Management

Mearin, in his Computer World article entitled, "ILM: Putting the Pieces Together", talks about Information Life-cycle Management. Information has different uses, and those uses can change over time. At the beginning of their life-cycle, there may be the need for immediate retrieval of data. As time goes by, the use of that data may be minute, and it is moved to long-term storage where access times are not important (2004).

Mearin gives the example of Visa, who needed to keep track of 300 million transactions a day (2004). There is the need, in this situation, to have very rapid response times when querying data. With this many transactions, and the need for reliable and speedy hardware, custom-built, top of the line systems are necessary. An array of tape backup drives would not be sufficient here, at the beginning of the data's life-cycle. However, through the years, the need to look at a group of data will dwindle, and it can be moved to long-term storage, where slower tape drives may be the most economical solution.

What I learned from this article is that the tool must not only fit the immediate job, but also fit in the future. This may involve the use of multiple systems, each with its own purpose. The costs of purchasing these systems may be a great sum of money now, but having the right tools for the job throughout the lifetime of data is very important.

Disaster Recovery

Disasters can happen at any time, in any place, with or without warning. The recent Tsunami that struck Asia is a recent example of nature's fury. It came without warning and many, many people died. Another example is the 2004 hurricane season that rocked Florida and the Gulf states.

Is there a difference in these two situations when thinking in terms of preserving data? I think not, as long as adequate precautions are made. In the article, "Beating Back 'Ivan the Terrible'", Michael Sisk talks about the 2004 hurricanes and what an area bank did to protect its data (2005). United Bank, based in Atmore, Alabama, had a plan for disaster and, despite damage to some of its operations, their data was safe.

This bank had contracted with a consulting company to manage a disaster contingency plan and allocate resources for operations. Offsite technology resources were arranged for and, as hurricane Ivan approached, preparations were made to use the temporary facilities for data operations (Sisk, 2005). By chance, the data operations center was not hit by the hurricane, and it was not necessary to use the rented backup site. Even though the backup location was not used, think of what would have happened to this bank's data if there was no contingency plan for disaster and disaster struck.

One must always plan for disaster. It is not so hard to look into very recent history and see instances of extraordinary loss of life and property. Whether this loss is caused by war, nature, or a criminal attack, disaster is real. The loss to a business can be so drastic that it can no longer operate. IT managers must take disaster into account and plan accordingly.

Conclusion

Data is the lifeblood of today's business. Without it, there will be no sales projections, no statistical marketing analysis, and no accounting books. Data must be managed both matching the scope of the business and the life-cycle of the data itself. Likewise, disaster must be accepted as a fact of life on this planet, and precautions must be taken. It is not the question of "if" that matters, but the question of "when". That is the time that data management and disaster contingency plans will matter most.

The best way to get the most from London is with the London Sightseeing Pass. A veritable passport for London, the London Pass is a ticket which gets you into not one, not two but more than 55 of London's top sights and tourist attractions. It saves you loads of money, plus at many attractions it allows you to skip long and frustrating queues - so it saves you time as well.

You can buy the pass on its own or, if you plan to cover a lot of ground, you can opt for public transport to be included. The London Pass comes with its own guidebook which details all the attractions you can visit, plus gives you loads of extra discounts and freebies at restaurants, shops and entertainment centres all around London.

Depending on how much time you have in London, you can choose a 1, 2, 3 or 6 day London Pass, and then make your way at your leisure around the cities best sights. Some of the most popular tourist attractions covered by the London Pass include the Tower of London, St Paul's Cathedral, Kensington Palace, Windsor Castle and London Zoo, to name but a few.

Reference:

Mearin, L. (Dec. 2004). "ILM: Putting the Pieces Together". Computer World. Vol. 38, Issue 50, p. 21, 2 pgs.

Sisk, M. (Jan. 2005). "Beating Back 'Ivan the Terrible'". US Banker. Vol. 115, Issue 1, p. 26, 2 pgs. it's no wonder that London continues to be one of the most visited cities in the world. But with so much to see and do, how do visitors to this buzzing metropolis ensure they see the best that London has to offer?

Business online blog

Business Lies for Survival

2008-01-20T00:38:00.000-08:00

Today everybody knows me as a biggest lier in town, not only in town but accross the world. I have lost a lot in business, more than many people could have thought, a man who was blessed with money from his father's and mother's hard work, but lost all of them in few years, all because of miss management, experience, and over confidence. When lots of money are roaming in front of your eyes your mouth speaks loud, that always happens.

When all was finished I had to lie a lot to keep my business running, its completely wrong on what I am doing but no other choice. When I woke up, its already late. It took a lots of guts and heart to stand up again and say to my self, "ONE MORE ROUND. AS A BOXER ALWAYS WANTS IN THE RING, I HEAR NO BELL GIVE ME ONE MORE ROUND" and that is how I stood up again, and would like to share this experience with all of you.

Today with nearly 2.8 million usd in debt I am still running my business with the hope that one day I could over come all these debt. I nearly decided to jump from building where I lived, but then on the other hand I thought, it was me who made all these mess, and if I give up my life what about the others left behind , how will they go on, I will never be able to die in peace and they would go through hell. So I got up again, put myself together, sat down looked in every details and made up my mind that I will fight this battle myself, and if my heart is clean I will win this battle.

I was so scared, going to police stations, court, going through threatening phone calls, I nearly collapsed, could not eat, could not sleep, I thought about God, I never thought about him during my good days, as they always say better late than never.

Today whatever I am doing I think it is like an open university of life, where I am doing my PHD. I hate accounting, I hate maths, I never took interest in studies, and I was always dreaming of becoming big. I always say to myself that one day I would be on the cover page of Times Magaznie. That dream is far aways from being true, what I have in front of me is a challenge for me. But in one conner I know that I will be able to do it.

I am writing a book on this "BUSINESS LIES FOR SURVIVAL"

There are lots of things that I would love to share with people that are going through all these problems like me.

My motto of life

NEVER GIVE UP, AS WE ALL ARE BORN ONLY ONCE.

accounting blog news

What if You Didn't Have a Data Center Disaster Recovery Plan?

2008-01-18T02:34:00.000-08:00

How many times have you asked yourself the question, "What if?" If you do not already have plans in the works for your data center disaster recovery plan, then is it time you start asking this question about a disaster hitting your data center.

If you are stuck and unsure about how to get started, allow me a few moments to explain it to you.

Imagine for a moment you are running your own business, not a huge multinational corporation, but a young a company, one that is doing surprisingly well. A few months back your company secured a deal with a major client, and your employees have been steadily working on it ever since and are only two weeks away from the deadline. Everything is going according to schedule right now, but you know even the smallest delay could set you off path to miss your deadline. This is not something you want; as your client expressed their need for you to meet the deadlines outlined otherwise he would have to find another company that could.

You suddenly hear a scream coming from the office floor, you rush over to find one of your employees starring teary eyed at a blank computer screen. She turns to tell you she accidentally deleted a months worth of work that was stored in the companies database. You can hear the voices in the back of your mind reminding you of the plan and the computer backup system you always meant to, but never got started on. You realize there is now no possible way to meet your client's deadline.

In a similar scenario, envision a virus finding its way into your data base and corrupting every last file. The virus has managed to spread to every single computer in the office; every important file keeping your business running is suddenly deleted. Your head is starting to get sore from the vivid image of you banging it off a wall asking yourself why you never took the time to protect your business by making online computer backups.

Even worse, what if your office were hit by a natural disaster, say a fire, earthquake, tornado or any other unpredictable and unstoppable force and it completely destroyed the building. Your office has been stripped of all its computers, in fact, if you didn't know any better, you would never suspect that there had even been a flourishing office once standing here.

You break down and burst into tears knowing that the destruction of your entire business could have been prevented if only you had taken the time to draft a plan. A simple computer backup system and a few online computer backups and you could have been back to business in only a few short days. But, now it is too late.

I am sure by now you have gotten the point, so I will end of here with the nightmare scenarios. Just remember there is no need to think twice when it comes to getting started on your company's data center disaster recovery plan. It is an essential part to the safety of all companies, and if you do not start as soon as possible you may end up being the poor chap asking, "What if?"

accounting blog news

When Do I Need A Disaster Recovery Plan For My Company?

2008-01-18T02:18:00.000-08:00

There are many questions that may arise when an individual embarks on a new business venture. Whether the individual is starting a new business or revamping an old business, there are certain steps that should be taken to protect the individual's investment in their company and ensure that business can continue as usual in the event that something adverse happens to affect the business. Many individuals have turned to using a disaster recovery plan to ensure the fast implementation of procedures that will help a business recover and continue to satisfy clients if anything happens to affect the business. So when is a disaster recovery plan needed for a company? Preferably, the company should have a disaster recovery plan in place before a disaster strikes.

A disaster recovery plan is an outline created by the principals of a company, or those they choose to hire, to detail how a business will deal with any potential disaster that may occur. This may include any adverse events from server failure to an earthquake leveling the building. Because a true disaster is typically unforeseen, it is best for the company to have a disaster recovery plan in place prior to a disaster occurring within the company. The disaster recovery plan will outline the steps that need to be taken to ensure that the customers will be taken care of in a timely manner and return the business to operation as quickly as possible.

A proper disaster recovery plan will need to be formed only after an intense review of business practices has been conducted. Any business procedures that are found to be ineffective or unneeded can be corrected at this time. By focusing on the business methods that bring results and including them in the disaster recovery plan, the business will be focused on completing the steps that will bring the best results if any type of adverse event affects the course of business. The disaster recovery plan may cover several different types of disasters and the steps that may be needed to recover from each.

There are many types of businesses that could benefit from having a disaster recovery plan, but many business owners either believe that a disaster recovery plan is not necessary or they put off creating, implementing, and testing a plan for so long that a disaster strikes and disrupts their business before they have a plan put into place. This is the catalyst that many business owners need before they decide to create a disaster recovery plan, but unfortunately much damage could be done and much revenue lost because a disaster recovery plan was not in place before the disaster occurred.

change management

Data Recovery After a Disaster

2008-01-18T02:01:00.000-08:00

It is easy to see that data is the foundation of a successful business. While most businesses back up their data to removable media, tapes or USB drives being the most common, many businesses leave the backup tapes right next to the server. The risk they fail to foresee is destruction of the office by fire or flood.

Both the server and the backup will be useless if the room no longer exists. Unfortunately, some owners discover that getting back up and running is beyond their cash reserves.

A data recovery plan should include creating backup tapes and then storing them in an offsite storage location. The tapes should be rotated regularly, handled properly, and stored in a secure, climate controlled facility. This provides insurance and gives the business continuity after a disaster.

While this may seem like an easy process, the pitfalls for not doing it properly are deep. Tapes not securely transported and inventoried may come up missing or be stolen. Unaccounted for backup tapes is a data breach. This breach must be disclosed to those affected by laws in thirty-six states. This bad press can be as damaging as losing the data.

A second pitfall is how the tapes are stored. Without the proper environmental controls of a media vault, moisture and temperature fluctuations will degrade tapes and leave them un-readable. A worst case scenario is counting on a tape that can't be read after a server fails. Tapes must be stored properly and changed out occasionally.

A third pitfall that may seem trivial but is also crucial is the ability to physically access the tapes. Backup tapes are useless if they can't be found or returned. A vacation or the inability to reach the employee who stores the tapes can leave the company in a lurch until they are located.

With attention to detail and good communication two of these pitfalls can be eliminated. It is setting up a climate controlled media vault that poses the biggest expense for a small business. They are expensive to build because they are not designed for the limited space that a small business would require.

To avoid these problems, many businesses outsource their tape rotation to an offsite tape storage provider. On a regular schedule a uniformed employee rotates the backup tapes from the business location. Once the tape is picked up it is scanned into a tracking system just like an overnight delivery service uses. The tapes are transported in un-marked vans and stored in secured, climate controlled vaults. A tape rotation service also offers twenty four hour access to the tapes and delivery to a recovery location of the business' choosing.

A second solution is to use an online storage service. The data is backed up, encrypted, and then sent via the internet to a secure location. The issues with transportation are eliminated as long as the data is properly encrypted. With small amounts of data this is a good solution but loses it economic benefits as the volume of information grows. The business just needs to make sure there is large bandwidth at the recovery location.

Even more important for the small business owner can be the consulting a service will offer. How to set up backup software and hardware can be a mystery to the uninitiated. This disaster recovery expertise helps assure that the data is saved correctly and when needed will be easily loaded onto a replacement server.

No matter what solution you choose, make sure your business data is backed up periodically and stored in a secure offsite location.

Business online blog

Versatility Is Crucial In Every Data Center Disaster Recovery Plan

2008-01-17T00:34:00.000-08:00

Having the ability to determine a quality computer backup system is the key difference between drafting a prize or a terrible data center disaster recovery plan. Though several aspects come into play, one of the most important pieces of the puzzle is the system's versatility. In simpler terms, you must understand the system's effectiveness in an assortment of different areas. Especially in your data center disaster recovery plan's ability to recover from a wide range of disasters.

And not all disasters are what you think. They could be as simple as an employee tripping over, and pulling out the plug of a PC, crashing the CPU and effectively destroying a year's worth of important files and data. It could also present itself as a virus that infiltrates and corrupts your data center just as your company is about to secure a major project. Or, even as a natural disaster, or your office catching fire and destroying all of your companies in office hardware. What I am trying to say, is that disasters, just like computer backup systems, come in all shapes and sizes themselves. Some are just minor glitches; some can deliver a devastating blow that if unprepared, your company may not be able to recover from.

So how does one determine a computer's backup systems versatility? It's actually quite simple. You should start with checking the systems data storage capabilities. Does the system relying on just a single form of medium to store data, or does it accommodate pretty much every medium going? Does the computer backup system include online backups as part of the package? Are there feature in the system that will allow you to easily keep track of all your files, or will it be a difficult task in locating them every time?

Since there is no way to tell what, if any disasters your company may encounter, nor when they will come, you and your system must be prepared at all times. The best way to do this is to have as much backup media as possible. This will ensure that even if one form of media fails, there will be others in which your company can recover from and move on with.

In the end, by having a computer backup system that can stand up to variety of disaster, you can rest assured that your data center disaster recovery plan will not end turning into a disaster of its self.

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Versatility-Is-Crucial-In-Every-Data-Center-Disaster-Recovery-Plan&id=780203
accounting blog news

Why a Data Center Disaster Recovery Plan Is Essential To Every Business

2008-01-17T00:17:00.000-08:00

Let me start this with a simple piece of advice; never think that a data center disaster recovery plan is something that can be readily dismissed. A data recovery plan is not something that should be pushed aside until you have the time, when you earn a certain amount of money, or for when it is convenient for you. Your company's data disaster recovery plan is something that should be atop your company's priority list.

The sad fact is that way too many companies are making this mistake, and even sadder, quite of few have already dearly paid for this mistake. These companies choose to busy themselves with the now and here and focus on meetings, proposals, and deadlines instead of worrying about "what if" scenarios.

Though thought of as a "what if" scenario, the deadline for having your plan completed could come at absolutely anytime. Of course, with the odds being in your favour it remains a small possibility, but what will you do if you happen to the "unlucky one" in one of these "what if" scenarios?

By not having a data center disaster recovery plan, you are quite simply, leaving the success of your business up to chance; the chance that you won't be the unlucky one. Would you leave any other aspect of your business to chance? I think not. The reality is that there is a real need to be prepared for a disaster, even if it encompasses looking at those nasty "what if" scenarios.

Besides being protected from the "what if"'s, there are also other perks to having a data backup plan. Your company will benefit from data security, organized documents, as well as file restoration in case of any unforeseen accidents. When it all boils down, a plan ensures your companies quality and efficiency will not suffer from the loss of or damage to any of your important files and programs.

A lot of companies claim they are put out by the time and money needed to set up a plan. Little do they know that choosing the right computer backup system will pay for itself time and time again. Not only will your company benefit from the security of being protected from a catastrophe, the right computer backup system will also save your company money by quickly addressing minor data management issues, allowing your business to continue running smoothly.

In then end, putting off your company's If your business relies on data, you need a data disaster recovery plan. Find Out More About data center disaster recovery plan may very well eliminate your companies last life line; putting it as your top priority may very well invigorate some much needed new life into the mix.

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Why-a-Data-Center-Disaster-Recovery-Plan-Is-Essential-To-Every-Business&id=779863
careersemp loyment

An Essential Component To Every Business Is A Data Center Disaster Recovery Plan

2008-01-16T01:28:00.000-08:00

Even though it may seem like a time intensive operation, implementing a data center disaster recovery plan is something you absolutely must consider right now. Don't wait for the next big order; don't wait for the next slow period. Get one now.

The phrase, "it cost them dearly" doesn't have enough weight when you read about someone else's mistake. But, how much will it cost you to not have data center disaster recovery plans in effect when the unexpected occurs? Put everything else down. All of your deadlines, your meetings, and your RFPs won't mean anything if you lose the guts of your company, your data.

In fact, you should consider that the deadline for your data center disaster recovery plan is coming up this week. Why? Because you don't know when the unexpected SNAFU will occur. That's when it can become a disaster. We're talking about an ounce of prevention here. Odds may be in your favor, but are you really willing to bet your entire business on the odds? I'm just asking...

I'll say it nicer. Do you want to leave the success of your business up to chance? By remaining unprepared; without a data center disaster recovery plan; you might be thinking, "what if's are for sissies," but at the risk of repetition, I say, are you ok with losing all of your invaluable data?

Ultimately, any decent data recovery plan will offer you more than just disaster insurance. A computer backup system offers much more than that. Order amongst the potential chaos of your documentation, data security, and file restoration are also benefits of a good computer backup system. Ensuring the quality and efficiency of your business are, simply put, intelligent design elements for ongoing success.

The right data center disaster recovery plan will cost you less over time than the time and money spent. In fact, when you choose the right computer backup system, your ROI will far outweigh your initial investment. Your business will run smoothly as you have all your minor data management issues handled and you'll be assured that any major catastrophes can be averted.

Be smart. Implement a data center disaster recovery plan without delay and give your business extra life... or ignore this message and risk the potential of a complete melt down. The choice is yours.

accounting payroll news

Disaster Recovery From Computer Support of San Diego

2008-01-16T01:12:00.000-08:00

In the current business operations landscape, most companies are spending too much budget in making sure their information technology requirements are met and are maintained. Moreover, a significant number of those firms are making sure their computer systems have backups that would be able to help operations resolve data loss problems.

A latest analysis and study of global businesses indicate that disaster recovery in firms' information technology divisions are taking is much of the companies' budgets. That is because such data are important and are considered pertinent to operations. Thus, losing company important information is costing much more. And businesses want to prevent that from happening. As the proverb says, an ounce of prevention is way more effective than pounds of cure.

As of latest projections, most companies that encounter major setbacks and problems over data losses end up in peril. About 43% of the companies that experiences such problems shut down and are not able to resume business. About 51% of those same companies are shutting down within two years after the data loss incident, while a very minimal 6% are able to survive and flourish on the long term.

From Computer Support of San Diego comes disaster recovery solutions that are aimed at helping clients manage data recovery in their computer systems. With the increasing popularity of information technology, companies are starting to rely more on effective and necessary business-critical data. However, as part of the virtual transactions, such business sensitive information are always subjected to risks of becoming lost.

Protecting irreplaceable data has become an important task and goal in almost all modern companies. This trend is highly evident in the rise and boom of the information technology sector. Nowadays, huge computer systems are bragging about backup systems to regulate digital information and reduce the occurrence and possibility of data loss. Data recovery is also made as important.

Computer Support of San Diego makes sure clients will be covered of such services. The company offers the most reliable and accurate disaster recovery solutions. The services are aimed at all companies. However, many startups and small enterprises are more welcome because of the very reasonable costs. It is our commitment to provide San Diego disaster recovery solutions that can be easily and comfortably afforded by just every business.

While it is true that in the current scenario, major and small companies are forced to allocate about 25% of their total operations costs into disaster recovery efforts and planning, Computer Support of San Diego wants to make sure that allocation of resources could be minimized. The company recognizes the fact that there are still many other factors and business areas that need resources allocation. We would help firms do that.

By subscribing and getting our data recovery solutions, we at Computer Support pledges and assures that disaster recovery would be made easier and more accurate. That is on top of minimized and trimmed costs. We value business relationships with clients. That is why we guarantee to provide the most reliable and most effective data recovery services.

Computer Support of San Diego has a pool of qualified experts and several San Diego outsourced IT personnel to help make sure the disaster recovery products and services are well taken care of. Our company is focused at this area of service, aside from providing greater focus at San Diego network support and other IT requirements by clients.

Our existing clients could attest to the efficiency and effectiveness of our business solutions. Most of them are very satisfied with the way we handle and manage their data loss and recovery problems. We at Computer Support are proud to claim that our IT solutions are indeed very helpful in all means.

accounting payroll news

Data Recovery - Why Should You Have a Data Center Disaster Recovery Plan?

2008-01-16T00:55:00.000-08:00

The changing paradigms of business have left many established businesses at a loss. Often businesses do not even consider establishing a data center disaster recovery plan. For both new and old businesses, it is not just an optional convenience, a computer backup system is a necessity. To demonstrate both the convenience and the need for a data recovery plan, let us discuss several of 'today's' business perspectives: Security, Confidence, Efficiency and Profitability.

1) Security:

The computer age is not only upon us, it is dominating every business. All businesses store data. It could be something as simple as the accounting records. It could be complex sub-routines which control robotic manufacturing. From a security viewpoint there are three main concerns: loss from a system crash, virus corruption, and theft. Theft is outside the scope of this topic. However, an online computer backup system certainly addresses the first two concerns. The ability to replace data and programming after either a crash or virus attack is very important. But the ability to replace it simply from your own computer backup system, that is priceless.

2) Confidence:

A business strives to instill confidence in two groups: customers and employees. When the threat of data and programming loss is eliminating because a company has a data center disaster recovery plan in place, then employees can operate in a much less stressful environment. The knowledge that human error is now a minor inconvenience instead of a potential disaster makes for a more productive workplace. Furthermore, customer confidence will soar when the additional benefit to them is revealed: their customer records and data will be stored in a secure computer backup system. This allows for uninterrupted customer service in spite of main system disruption from a disaster, viruses or human error. Another aspect of a disaster recovery plan is the confidence it instills in both clients and employees as it demonstrates the desire of the corporation to plan ahead putting priorities on security and efficiency.

3) Efficiency:

Disruption of the normal business activities results in significant losses in efficiency. When data and programming can be restored quickly and fully, this potential loss is minimized. Attacks by viruses are common in today's marketplace either through purposeful attacks or pranks. Human error can crash systems. To avoid the major time delays required to clean and/or restore a system (if possible), computer backup not only is necessary but also becomes a major factor in an efficient business operation. Something as simple as a misplaced file can cause major production delays, now it can be retrieved simply and quickly.

4. Profitability:

There are many ways that computer issues can effect the profitability of a business. Most of these issues can be resolved by using a computer backup system.

-file corruption - efficient replacement from backup, eliminating slow operation due to corruption

-loss files due to misnaming or misfiling - efficient replacement from backup

-minor problems no longer cause significant delays as file restoration is simple and efficient

-employee productivity - working in a less stressful environment

-client confidence - 100% continuity without significant delay or disruption

-total loss due to disaster - restore all files from backup

When considering virus corruption and slow downs due to human error and file corruption, what is the balance between losses and the expense of data centre disaster recovery plan? When considering the likelihood of a complete computer disaster, how much would a company pay for complete system restoration? What is the cost of rebuilding the computer system from zero?

Business online blog

A Data Disaster Can Occur Anywhere, Anytime

2008-01-15T04:08:00.000-08:00

When the subject of natural or man-made disasters comes up, a common and very human reaction is to assume, "It won't happen to me."

Unfortunately for many small business owners and IT managers, this is an assumption they've lived to regret. Each year, according to the Business Continuity Institute, about one in five businesses faces a major disruption such as data loss due to power outage or a natural disaster that destroys an office.

Yes, the consequences can be devastating. And, at a time when IT systems and networks have become indispensable to nearly every small business, a major IT disruption can result in a crippling revenue loss, an array of additional expenses, a major productivity drop, delayed collections, and even a damaged reputation that weakens vital relationships with customers, suppliers, partners, creditors, and others.

The solution is proper planning: a disaster preparedness and data recovery strategy with an implementation plan that ensures that the business survives and recovers from even the most severe occurrence. Four key issues deserve special attention.

Performing a Business Impact Analysis

A business impact analysis allows you to identify both tangible and intangible effects on business processes, functions, or departments over time. The analysis allows management to identify recovery priorities and develop an effective recovery strategy. The result of the process also supplies the data to help define an appropriate disaster recovery program budget.

For IT systems and networks, a business impact analysis is invaluable in two ways.

1. It identifies business-critical applications and the systems they run on.

2. It finds areas of vulnerability within the environment to address.

Never Underestimate the Importance of Backup

It doesn't take an earthquake, hurricane, or fire to destroy data critical to your business' success: a new virus, a leaky roof, or employee mistake can do the job. A comprehensive strategy for backing up critical data is a must for today's small businesses.

The most effective strategies address:

1. Data Prioritization: identifying and deciding which data cannot be lost under any circumstances

2. Testing: Regular checks to make sure backup and restoration will work properly

3. Off-site Storage: storing tapes off-site and taking other steps to quarantine disaster before it happens

Work on the Plan as a "Living Document"

Once a disaster preparedness and recovery plan has been researched, designed, developed, implemented, and tested there is a common desire to declare the job done. However, as your business evolves, your IT environment must also evolve. Your IT team should continually develop new strategies to grow your disaster recovery plan.

Seeking Outside Help

It makes sense for small businesses to turn to outside IT service providers to help address disaster recovery requirements.

1. Most small businesses don't have the in-house staff to conduct a thorough assessment, select the right solutions or continuously upgrade them to keep pace with their business requirements.

2. An outside firm can evaluate business practices without bias.

3. As specialists, they have experience with a variety of approaches and effective solutions.

Look for an organization with:

- A strategic perspective that considers your company's key business goals
- A comprehensive assessment and solution development methodology
- Sufficient experience working with your industry
- The ability to provide remote managed services
- Proven expertise both in disaster preparedness and disaster recovery

advertising blog news

Backup Your Data! It Could Mean The Difference Between Business Success And Business Failure

2008-01-15T03:49:00.000-08:00

Here at Prime PC & Networking Services, we have found that backing up data is one of the most common mistakes small businesses make when it comes to their computers and computer networks. Not because the data backups get done incorrectly, but because they aren't done at all. A lot of the Value of a small business is stored on the computers that the business uses. Think about it: customer lists, inventory database, proprietary software, the business's books. Close your eyes and imagine how you would continue business as usual if someone came in over the weekend and stole every computer in your workplace? Or your building burns down. Or a tornado takes everything to Oz. Get the picture?

Determining your Backup Strategy is very straight forward and by answering a few questions you will be half-way there.

What data (computer files or programs) do you need to run your business?

Make a list of and the location of all computer files that you will need in case of a disaster.

Most of the time these files are spread throughout the various computers in a small business.

Attempt to consolidate these files in as few locations on the computers as possible. This will make the actual act of backing up less complicated.

Decide how often you need to backup your data. Monthly, weekly, daily? I used to work for an organization that backed up their data the instant anything was written to their servers. The backups were on live servers in a far away place, which allowed the business to continue operations within hours in case the something terrible happened to their building. The frequency of your backups should be related to how much new data is written to your systems each day and how crippled your operation would be if you lost a day's, week's, month's worth of this information.

Decide the method of backing up. Something as simple as burning a CD with the mission critical data works for some. Others need sophisticated systems such as external tape drives backing up on a two week rotation, with the tapes stored off-site (sometimes simply in a fire-proof safe in an employees closet at home).

Finally, Just Do It! And keep a log that shows the date, time, success of backup, and the person logging the information. It is also recommended that a backup is restored and tested on a regular basis to make sure a backup is actually taking place.

The Boy Scouts of America had it right when they picked the Scout Motto: "Be Prepared"

careersemp loyment

Risk - It's Everywhere!

2008-01-15T03:30:00.000-08:00

The alarm clock awakes you and you are at risk! From your very first step when you get out of bed until you turn out your reading lamp as you close your eyes at night you are always assuming some risk. You can bang your toe with your first step in the morning and you can get an electric shock as you turn out that light at night. Let's face it, there is risk associated with everything you do.

Some risks are statistically very small but potentially very important - think of the drug tampering crime back in the 80's when seven people were killed by poison-laced Tylenol. Other risks are statistically higher but with relatively minor effects where we might be unhappy with a purchase. We spend a good portion of our time and energy attempting to eliminate or minimize risk in our personal life and our business life. With each purchasing decision we assess the amount of risk we are comfortable with and then act accordingly. Your customers and prospects do that also and are always seeking to minimize or eliminate the risks they incur.

Obviously, the greater the risk the buyer perceives, the more reluctance there is to purchase. That is why it is difficult to get prospects to change vendors or to get them to try something new without a good reason or a substantial incentive. The lower the risk the easier it is to get someone to try a new vendor or a new product. That is why there are so many "free" offers, coupons, incentives, rebates, and strong guarantees all attempting to lower the risk for the purchaser.

Marketers stay awake at night trying to figure out how to lower the perception of risk for their company's products figuring that, if they can minimize or eliminate that risk sales will increase as new people will try the product, enjoy the experience and come back for more. Will they win a new customer every time? No, but many great businesses have been built because they have been able to lower the risk enough to attract new customers. Try it!

change management

A Top-Notch Data Center Disaster Recovery Plan is Essential for Every Business

2008-01-14T02:33:00.000-08:00

A high quality data center disaster recovery plan is a must for any company. It is not wise to be complacent as there is no telling when a problem may occur or disaster may strike. This plan is not something to put off until it's more convenient, or until you have more money or more time. Too many company managers make the mistake of concentrating on business proposals, deadlines, and meetings...failing to consider that the deadline for a good data center disaster recovery plan could be at any given time. Quite a few have paid dearly for this mistake.

Although the odds of a calamity striking may be low, the success if your business is not something to leave to chance. What happens if you are one of the unlucky ones whose invaluable business data are compromised? By giving a good data center disaster recovery plan top priority, you are not allowing possible "what if" scenarios a chance to manifest.

A solid plan has benefits in addition peace of mind. A reliable computer backup system provides services such as data security, orderly documentation, and file restoration. A quality computer backup system also ensures that lost or damaged files or programs will not disrupt the day-to-day operations of your business.

Having a top-notch data center disaster recovery plan is a good investment. Not only does it give the assurance of surviving a potential catastrophe, but it can save money over the longer-term by keeping your business running smoothly through efficient data management. Getting a high quality plan can offer your business a new life, while readily dismissing such a plan may lead to the death of your business.

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?A-Top-Notch-Data-Center-Disaster-Recovery-Plan-is-Essential-for-Every-Business&id=797615
change management

6 Important Reasons Why You Need A Data Center Disaster Recovery Plan

2008-01-14T02:17:00.000-08:00

More often than not a new business does not think a data center disaster recovery plan is necessary, much less a priority.

They usually think that a disaster won't happen to them or think that since their business doesn't use software as much as other businesses that their isn't any reason to spend the money required of a sound data center disaster recovery plan. But let me tell you why you definitely need it right now:

1. Self-Confidence: Employees and customers both will be grateful for the peace of mind that comes with protection against any sort of disaster. They can rest easy when the corporation they are devoted to knows how to think ahead and plan for unforeseen events. When the company makes certain that it is prepared for any crisis that may come its way, people defiantly feel secure and this brings on loyalty. It also acts as a major selling point to potential clients, helping build a strong customer base that is crucial in every business.

2. Records: Data center disaster recovery plans always include computer backup systems so businesses enjoy the proper documentation that is included in the system. This is just one fringe benefit any business can enjoy. An extremely useful feature of some systems is the capability of sorting and organizing backup data easily in case there is a need to refer and restore original files and programs that have been deleted or misplaced as a result of human error.

3. Safekeeping Files: The risk of data destruction is extremely high with all of the worms and viruses threatening computer systems on a daily basis. These malicious programs could wreak devastation on a data center, bringing the business to a complete stop. When you have a computer backup system you can fix this chaos quickly by replacing the corrupted files. Then it is back to business to usual at its normal speed.

4. Effectiveness: Computer backup systems support work efficiency by restoring damaged or deleted files, so the work stoppage is just a small blip of the chart instead of a major downtrend in production that a major delay would cause. You have to realize that data center disaster recovery plans are useful in minor problems or accidents as well as a full-blown disaster.

5. Investments: A data center disaster recovery plan saves the business a ton of money the first time it needs to be used. You are saving money in the long run by preventing any type of software problem, no matter what the size from affecting and slowing down business.

6. Worst Circumstance: If you are struck with any type of disaster and your valuable data is completely wiped out, not to worry; all you have to do is go to your online computer backups that can restore all the data that was lost. You can be sure that any businesses without any online computer backups will be wishing they had a serious data center disaster recovery plan in place when they are trying to remember what they lost!

Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?6-Important-Reasons-Why-You-Need-A-Data-Center-Disaster-Recovery-Plan&id=793620
branding news

Making a Good Data Center Disaster Recovery Plan Starts With Online Computer Backups

2008-01-13T01:53:00.000-08:00

There is one plan that is crucial to every business, and I am talking about the companies business. I am referring to the company's data center disaster recovery plan. By having a data center disaster recovery plan a company s able to ensure that it's precious data is safe and that if a small problem to large catastrophe were to take place, the company will be able to quickly recover and get back to business as usual.

Unfortunately, just knowing these facts are not enough to provide the safety required. Sure understanding their importance is a major part of it, but this understanding alone is not enough to prepare a company for the worst case scenario. In fact, there are actually quite a few things a company needs to take into consideration when creating a data center disaster recovery plan. The most important aspect, is figuring out exactly what you need, and than choosing a computer backup system which allows online computer backups and can handle everything your company may throw at it.

This selection is such a big deal because computer backup systems are the core piece of every data center disaster recovery plan. That is why your computer backup system must posses the ability to accommodate online computer backups for the most efficient protection. While it is true that backing up your important programs, files, and applications is an absolute must, for the best protection it is imperative that your computer backup system can allow you to back up your data to an online server.

Since computers within your network remain vulnerable to any attacks the main data center encounters, this means that by not having an online computer backup will in fact keep enable allow your data to, in sense, remain unprotected. Besides this threat, it can also be a major hassle having to keep track of data stored over a series of different computers or hardware devices. Just think how much organized your company will be with all of your important files securely stored in one place away from harms way.

By choosing an online server, you will be able to keep all your important backup data organized and readily available to those with authorized access to it. And, as mentioned above, online computer backups, by being a separate entity from the rest of your network, means that your information will be protected from any threats, internal and external, that the company may deal with.

Another key advantage to storing your data with online computer backups is that your computers will have a lot of space freed up, which will allow them to work much faster, making your company more efficient.

With all the advantages an online computer backup has to offer to a data center disaster recovery plan, one should be very diligent in finding a quality computer backup system that carries the online backup feature. This is actually the recommended starting point for every great data center disaster recovery plan.

accounting payroll news

The Benefits of a User-Friendly Backup Program in a Data Center Disaster Recovery Plan

2008-01-13T01:37:00.000-08:00

With all the other major elements to consider in choosing the right computer backup system for your data center disaster recovery plan, one other key feature sometimes get overlooked. That feature is how user-friendly the system actually is. But is this a mistake?

A lot of people think; who cares how user-friendly the computer back up system is, as long as it can keep the worms, viruses, moles, and human errors at bay, then what does it matter how easy it is to use. After all, user friendliness is not going to be able to house the terabytes of files, programs, applications and other data that the business needs to keep secure.

So, is a user-friendly computer backup system really worth the time it takes to find one? Absolutely! By having a user-friendly system, it allows those in charge of the data center disaster recovery plan to properly and efficiently back up your companies files. And since it is so easy to do, your employees will have no excuses for not doing regular backups, ensuring all your data is always safe and secure.

Sadly, a lot of companies do not give their plan the attention it deserves. The most common excuse seems to be that they are simply intimidated by the computer backup system. And rightfully so; in fact some systems are so complex that it turns locating a simple file into a very difficult task. With simple tasks like these being so difficult it is understandable that a company would be hesitant to do regular testing of the systems ability to successfully restore any lost data. This leaves them very vulnerable if a disaster were to strike.

As one would expect, the computer backup system; being the backbone of a data center disaster recovery plan, needs to be tested on a regular basis to ensure a business will not have a file recovery disaster if a disaster should strike. So, if a company has a complex computer backup system, it may be lenient on simulating massive file losses as it does not understand how the system works. The companies can not really be blamed for these, as even the most capable employees may be hesitant to attempt a test where they may expose the business to a major file recovery disaster.

Now you can see why a user-friendly system is an absolute must have component of any plan. By ensuring that you and your employees are capable and confident in using the computer backup system, you will be able to rest assured that your company will be able to recover from even the most devastating disasters.

change management

Business Continuity Planners - 1 Powerful Tip for a Focused, Involved Team

2008-01-12T04:49:00.000-08:00

Are you challenged keeping team members involved in the continuing effort of developing and maintaining your company's business continuity plan? We know their reasons: too busy, don't understand the process, don't see the value, and don't perceive the project as a real company priority. Our challenge and concern: have team members seriously consider the information they are submitting to the continuity plan.

Not surprising is the fact that families and households are not planning for emergencies, disasters or terrorist attacks at home either. Everyone is busy. It is easy to gamble that nothing will happen. Every day that passes without incident reinforces that lack of action. As BC planners, we understand that a good plan is like insurance. We want to be fully covered, but hope we never have to use it.

How can we raise the awareness and motivate our employees to take continuity planning seriously? One solution is to encourage them to have a family home continuity plan.

As business recovery planners we can help. How? Apply the best practices learned over the last decade from the business continuity community to best practices for our team members and company employees to develop their own home continuity plans. Families and households have a lot of information to identify and document. Families need a structured methodology to get started and to avoid getting bogged down with unnecessary information.

Both our business and personal worlds are information dependent. Every household needs an easy, reliable way to create emergency preparedness and recovery plans to manage their own essential information to respond to an emergency or disaster, and to recover as painlessly as possible. What essential information: contact numbers, emergency procedures, evacuation routes, shelter addresses, lists and location of supplies, critical documents, user ID's, PIN numbers, credit, bank, retirement account numbers, medical information, insurance information, list of assets. Have your employees really considered what the impact would be if a home PC was stolen or damaged? Could they restore their applications and data to a new PC? Would that only impact them, or your company too?

What would happen if they could not get back into their house for several days? Would they have the information they need? What if they could not leave their house for several days, would they have the supplies they need and know what to do?

What are the benefits or why should you consider this?

· If a disruption is widespread and effects employees' families, people will be able to return to the workplace faster and be less distracted once they have secured their own households.

· If there is advanced warning, the employees responsible to handle the last minute efforts to secure the workplace, will have peace of mind knowing that their own family plan is being executed. They do not have to wait until they get home since they would have planned ahead of time what should be done and who will do it.

· This important and relevant planning experience will lead to better understanding of the continuity planning process at work. Expect better cooperation resulting in a more engaged workforce contributing better ideas and insights.

· When they leave the workplace each day, they will better understand that the important documents left on their desks and the important information on their PC's must be able to be reproduced. It is more likely that PCs will be backed up. Documents will be logged in and stored according to the company's continuity plan.

· For employees who work at home, this is an opportunity to reemphasize the company's policy of backing up that work and having the work available to their department at all times.

· And last but not least, successful companies foster the sense that their employees are important. This is another way to show that your company cares for its employees and that this company is a family friendly place to work.

How can we do this, aren't we busy enough? Right now, how are you getting the word out about business continuity planning? Use the same techniques.

· In your newsletter or on your Intranet, deliver a project plan for completing a home continuity plan. Have one task or topic in each newsletter. Include tips and Internet URLs as resources for additional information.

· Include short discussions on continuity planning at department or company meetings. Talk about both business continuity and home continuity issues. Show what they have in common.

· Provide worksheets. Fill in common information to get them started such as contact numbers and addresses for local first responders, hospitals, shelters, government disaster planning agencies; sources for weather updates and traffic advisories; your company's emergency numbers.

· There is a growing awareness that families must be prepared for the first 72 hours following a crisis. Information and tools on how to create a home continuity and emergency preparedness plan are increasing.

· Share testimonials and experiences. Has there been a local incident such as a tornado, flood, hurricane, or fire? What was learned? What was needed at the time? What is being done differently today?

· If your company is purchasing medical supplies, food, water or other emergency supplies, consider offering to make purchases for employees using your company discount.

All companies rely on its employees. All business continuity plans rely on its employees. All employees care first for their families. This is a Win Win approach.

careersemp loyment

Disaster Management - Key Concerns And Prevention Measures

2008-01-12T04:23:00.000-08:00

Introduction

India has been traditionally vulnerable to natural disasters on account of its unique geo-climatic conditions. Floods, droughts, cyclones, earthquakes and landslides have been recurrent phenomena. At times, the same area is subjected to floods and drought situation in successive seasons or years. While not all natural calamities can be predicted and prevented, a state of preparedness and ability to respond quickly to a natural calamity can considerably mitigate loss of life and property and the human suffering and restore normalcy at the earliest. It is, therefore, of paramount importance that a plan of action for dealing with contingencies that arise in the wake of natural calamities is formulated and periodically updated. Timely Management of disaster reduces human sufferings and economic losses caused by natural and technological disasters. In this paper an attempt is made to highlight some of the grey areas that exist as far as disaster management in India is concerned. It also discusses prevention measures that can help in better recovery from such disasters.

Key Concerns of Disaster Management

Lack of seriousness about the issue: In number of cases it is seen that people or govt. is generally non-serious about the issue before the disaster actually happens. Countless times, it happens that people are living in such areas which are not recommended technically because the building is very old and it should be demolished, or the adequate safety measures have not been taken at the time of construction. Even sometimes warnings are given to the residents of particular area by the environmentalists about the forecast of occurrence of natural calamity but the people do not take it seriously until such incidents actually occurs. Natural disasters impart lessons at a very high cost of life and property. But if those lessons do not lead to learning and knowledge generation then it is a very heavy cost to bear. This lack of learning from the past hurts most at the recurrence of disasters. The earthquake in Gujarat (26th January 2001, an earthquake of 7.9 magnitude on Richter scale struck Gujarat, India, with its epicentre in Kutch, causing destruction of three towns and death of more than 20,000 people) and the subsequent chaos was an indicator of how crucial disaster planning is to manage relief and rehabilitation during disasters. The country will have to pay more attention towards creating public awareness and preparedness in respect of people living in known disaster prone areas.

Lack of strategic direction: Another important key concern is "lack of strategic direction" which means although people or Govt. is actually aware about the issue but they don't know how to strategically deal it. There is a plethora of literature describing the inappropriate actions taken to manage past disasters. Many of the same mismanagement problems tend to recur. Few examples of such mismanagement are:

· Physicians and nurses have been sent into disaster areas in numbers far in excess of actual need.

· Medical and paramedical personnel have often been hampered by the lack of the specific supplies they need to apply their skills to the disaster situation.

· In some disasters, available supplies have not been inventoried until well after the disaster, resulting in the importation of material which is used or needed.

Inadequate funds and infrastructure to handle disaster: Once the disaster occurs in a particular area or a region, it needs lots of funds and building of infrastructure to minimize the sufferings of the victims of disaster and rehabilitate them. But in case of India or other developing /underdeveloped countries, which are generally the victims of such disasters, funds are the measure problem. Even if funds are generated with the help of NGO's/ International assistance/people/Govt. , number of times funds are generally stuck in between and do not reach to the deprived one. Another important issue here is victims not only need food and shelter for a time being but they need permanent settlement. They need employment which can make them self dependant and that is the only way of solving their problem

Lack of co ordination of different services and departments: At the time of disaster, the coordination among different services and departments are very important. In order to implement the policies effectively and for the fast recovery from disaster it is very essential that all the departments should work as a single unit. But in most of the cases, it is found that co ordination among various departments and agencies are very poor. It must have Coordination with the local community, civil defense, army, police, fire brigade and with various governmental and non-governmental bodies including voluntary organizations.

Lack of planning and implementation: In order to come out of the disaster and make the things at place as previous, proper planning and implementation is needed. Planning involves such issues as "how to deal with the issue, "what all measures should be taken to solve the problem as quickly as possible" etc. But the planning part has no use if the proper implementation of such planning is not done. Therefore, planning and implementation is very much required in order to deal with a disaster or a calamity.

Due to lack of planning and implementation, the timely help that poured in from all over the world could not be utilized properly and in time. The emergency medical services (EMS) systems though are existing in some metropolitan cities are ill organized and weak as is evident from past experiences of mass casualties of bomb blasts (BSE - Mumbai), earthquakes (Maharashtra & Gujarat) and communal violence (Gujarat).

Lack of knowledge about the issue: Most serious key concern about the disaster is "Lack of Knowledge about the issue". If the proper knowledge about the disaster management will not be there then it will not only be difficult but impossible to deal with the issue. Because any disaster requires fast and expert handling of the issue. Poorly planned development can turn a recurring natural phenomenon into a human & economic disaster. Allowing dense populations on a floodplain or permitting poor or un-enforced building codes in earthquake zones is as likely as a natural event to cause casualties and losses. Similarly, allowing the degradation of natural resources increases the risk of disaster. Awareness generation is a key prerequisite for prevention, mitigation and preparedness by the community. Existing institutions like press, radio, television should be used extensively for generating awareness..The need of the hour is to make people aware about the issue, train them and make them expert professional in dealing with disaster. Timely management of disaster only helps in recovery from such traumatic incidents.

Disaster Prevention Measures

Infrastructure development: The entire disaster mitigation game plan must necessarily be anchored to frontline research and development in a holistic mode. State-of-the art technologies available worldwide need to be made available in India for up gradation of the disaster management system; at the same time, dedicated research activities should be encouraged, in all frontier areas related to disasters like biological, space applications, information technology, nuclear radiation etc., for a continuous flow of high quality basic information for sound disaster management planning,

Institutional arrangement: Institutional arrangements for disaster response are the heart of disaster management systems. There is no dearth of personnel, both civilian and military, experienced in handling situations arising out of natural disasters. However, there certainly is a pressing need for improvement and strengthening of existing institutional arrangements and systems in this regard to make the initial response to a disaster more effective and professional. Most of the resources and expertise needed already exist with the Government. What needs to be streamlined is how they should be integrated, trained and deployed. Some of the areas where improvement is urgently needed are:

a) Integrated planning for disasters, including the integration of relevant Armed Forces formations into disaster management planning at all levels from District to State and Central Government.

b) Setting up of a modern, permanent national command centre or operations room, with redundant communications and data links to all State capitals.

c) Establishment of a national stand by, quick reaction team composed of experienced professionals, both military and civilian, drawn from Central and State Government staff to respond immediately by flying in a matter of hours to the locations when a disaster strikes.

d) Creation of urban search and rescue capacity at all levels, by establishing a fully equipped Search and Rescue unit, as part of the fire service in all State capitals, with trained staff and modern equipment.

e) Media policy geared to handling the growing phenomenon of real time television reporting, which generates enormous political pressures on a government to respond rapidly and efficiently.

f) Closer interface with and better understanding of the international system for disaster response, and putting in place, systems for dealing with international assistance once it comes in e.g., customs, immigration, foreign policy implications etc. A greater appreciation is needed of the speed and automation of modern international response to a natural disaster. Closer interaction is required between of the Ministry of External Affairs and the relevant inter-national agencies concerned with disaster response.

h) Modern unified legislation for disaster management. In view of the current division of responsibilities between the State and Central Government into state, central and concurrent lists, there is a need to create a body of legislation dealing with response to natural disasters and other emergencies, clearly delineating responsibilities and powers of each entity and specifying what powers or actions would need to be triggered on declaration of a disaster by the Government of India or a State Government. This legislation should also incorporate the current legislation dealing with chemical emergencies that has been created by the Ministry of Environment so that all emergencies are dealt with under one law. The legislation should include clear definitions of what constitutes a disaster at a national level.

Education and training on disaster management: Under the Government of India and United Nations Development Programme , Disaster Risk Management Programme special emphasis has been laid on preparing the communities to face various hazards by generating awareness and increasing the capacity of various stakeholders to counter the adverse affects of disasters through integration of disaster mitigation into development planning, conducting special training for the disaster management personnel, creating public awareness India being prone to various disasters it is needless to emphasize the important role that educationalist and students can play in creating awareness in communities. Schoolteachers and children can become model disaster managers for a community that has faced a severe disaster in the recent past. They have done appreciable work in generating awareness, identifying the vulnerabilities, coping with them and working together as a team to reduce the impact of the disasters on the community. Truly, these are examples that reiterate the strong social responsibility that the institution as a school carries with it.

Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has successfully introduced Disaster Management as a frontline curriculum for class VIII and Class IX and proposed for class X in 2005 - 2006 in all the school board and has already imparted training to more than 1000 teachers throughout the country.

Networking policy makers, professionals, specialists, volunteers, activists and representatives of various government bodies as well as NGOs and international voluntary organizations: NGOs and PFs have to play a major role in bringing concerns related to risk management on to the national agenda and in promoting a shift of focus from mere relief response to disaster mitigation and preparedness. Agencies have to work well with local government and trend has to be set for collaborative work in disaster mitigation and preparedness. The government has to accept them as major partners in these tasks. The need for the application of international standards has been evolving over the last decade. Consistency is needed not just in how we respond, but in when we respond. The action plans should include:

(1) Development of positions of standards for management, health and public health, education and training, research, psychosocial aspects, and disaster plans

(2) Advocating for actions and task forces to deal with evolving and emerging disasters, terrorism, landmines, and emerging infections

(3) Working proactively to advocate and facilitate the multidisciplinary and multiorganisational requirements for disaster management and

(4) Developing a resource list of interdisciplinary institutions and activities organized by country and topics including the design and maintenance of a website proactively. Measures to be taken after occurrence of Disaster:

Step by step process:

Step 1: Arrange food and shelter for victims of disaster: In Post disaster phase, everything gets destroyed & damaged and the victims nor has food to eat or money to buy it neither a shelter to cover their heads. Those who survived out of the disaster live more miserable life and their sufferings are much higher than those who died in the disaster. When the disaster has made houses uninhabitable and there has been no evacuation of the area, temporary shelter must be arranged for those affected, for those who generally prefer to remain on the spot, in or near their property. It may happen that the population settles all over the place (waste ground, gardens, parks, squares, parking areas, sports grounds, etc), using anything that comes to hand (planks, plastics, tents, cars, containers, boats, railway wagons, buildings under construction, schools, public buildings, etc.). The sanitary situation may then rapidly deteriorate and it becomes very difficult to assess requirements.

Therefore, the first & foremost responsibility of govt. is to make arrangements of the food and shelter for the sufferers and it should ensure that

1. There are adequate amounts of safe drinking water, basic sanitation facilities, disposal of excreta, waste water and solid wastes and adequate shelter

2. Provide food protection measures, establishing or continuing vector control measures, and promoting personal hygiene

Communities exposed to the risk of disaster (and those that propose to give shelter to displaced persons) should select sites for temporary shelter (before a disaster strikes) and carry out the necessary preparatory work. The sites chosen for erecting shelters should be:

· Flood-proof, above high-water level,

· Preferably on a gentle slope to facilitate rainwater and waste water drainage,

· Not too close to the water table; otherwise the ground could become marshy in the rainy season,

· Protected against landslides and subsidence,

· Easily accessible, not far from the centre of the population,

· At a higher level than waste tips,

· Downstream from sources of drinking water.

(B) Availability of cooking, feeding and medical help in each shelter: Once the arrangement of shelter is been made than in each shelter their must be some arrangement for cooking, feeding and medical help. Some raw food in the form of flour, rice, pulses etc should be provided in addition to fuel for cooking. So that the victims become independent and they can at least cook for them if the ready food is not available or delayed. It has been seen that in disaster events, major national and international efforts are focused on giving food supplies to disaster-affected persons. However, in the absence of adequate cooking fuel these supplies do not help survivors, and quite a substantial amount gets spoiled. Thus, supply of stoves, which can run on both diesel and kerosene or solar cookers, may be useful. Instead of using kerosene or wood for burning bodies, it can be saved as a cooking fuel. Next thing which is very crucial is the availability of medical facility in each shelter because there is huge possibility of the danger of epidemics or other disease which may be water, soil or air borne. Trained Doctors as well as Nurses should be available for 24 hours in disaster affected area.The local health personnel should prepare periodic reports (weekly at the outset, then monthly) summarizing from the daily information collected bearing the following issues:

· The composition of the community: It is important to know the number and age-structure of the local population in order to adapt health activity programs accordingly and to assess requirements. Since this number keeps changing, the data must be updated periodically.

· The number and type of health personnel available, including local and volunteers from elsewhere.

· The causes of death, which is an important indicator for assessing the health situation.

· The cases that could not be dealt with on the spot and the reasons behind the decision to evacuate.

· The establishments to which people have been evacuated: this makes it possible to adapt the data received from the intermediate level so as to make rational use of support structures and specialized centres.

· The symptoms and diseases seen by the local health team: this indicates the disease pattern that is developing and the number of people affected.

· The programs and activities under way: this enables the intermediate level to take into account what the local team has already undertaken and to give the team indications on how to adapt its activities to the epidemiological forecasts made at intermediate level and in accordance with the evolution of the health situation in the whole of the disaster area.

Step 2: Reconstruction of House and Relocation of victims of Disaster

(A) Reconstruction of house of victims, if possible: Next important step is reconstruction of houses for the sufferers of the disaster. If possible, govt. should build the houses for victims to permanently settle them. Because they have lost everything in the disaster and they don't have money to buy the food and other essential things. For them making a house will be an impossible thing. Therefore Govt. should arrange for them some area where separate houses could be built in accordance with the available funds and resources.

(B) Relocation of victims to some other places: If it is not possible to construct the houses for the victims of disaster than they should be provided some sort of help in the form of interest free loan, or land at concessional rates etc., to settle down in new areas. Govt. should allocate a piece of land to each family so that they can make their arrangements at that place.

Step 3: Look for available employment opportunities: The arrangement for shelter and food will have no meaning in long run if the victims will not get employment. For such victims whose occupation get destroyed or damaged in the disaster, for them it is very essential that govt. should think of providing employment opportunities.

References:
"Special correspondent"."Holistic policy on disaster management". "The Hindu". (December 2005) "Anil K Gupta and Vijay Pratap Singh Aditya"."Contours of collaboration: Coping with Disasters through effective inter-organizational networks".Seminar held on 11th september'02.
"Disaster management unit north eastern council, shillong". "Disaster management -a regional perspective for development". http//necouncil.nic.in/dimnec
"Contingency Action Plan". http://disaster.bih.nic.in/ National%20Policy / Introduction.htm
"Joshi S.R.". "Natural disasters in north-east region and its management".
http://necouncil.gov.in/dimnec/dm1.htm
"Vulnerability Reduction & Sustainable Environment"
http://www.undp.org.in/VRSE/DME/default.htm
Draft: Disaster Management Guidelines - Trauma & Injuries".
http://www.iapindia.org/dmgTrauma.cfm
Model state disaster management policy for disaster management
http://necouncil.nic.in/dimnec/state_dm_plan-assam.doc

branding news

The Importance of Continuity and Disaster Recovery in an Organization

2008-01-11T00:41:00.000-08:00

Continuity and disaster recovery is one aspect that a company has to focus on to have effective and successful operations most of the time. This would assure them that in the event of any kind of disaster, their business would be able to remain fully functional and operational.

Unfortunately, business owners simply cannot tell as to when disaster would strike. That is why they would have to be prepared with a plan that would make sure that all the operations and transactions of the company would be able to pull through. Such a plan is referred to as a Business Continuity Planning or BCP. It is a methodology, used in the creation and validation of a logistical plan as to how the organization would be able to recover or restore the critical functions, which have been interrupted, all within a specified timeframe after the disaster or an extended disruption.

In other words, the BCP would be how the organization will prepare for any future unfortunate incidents, which might jeopardize the missions and goals of the company. These unfortunate incidents could be natural disasters such as earthquakes and typhoons, or fires or epidemic diseases.

The BCP is also considered as part of the overall learning strategies of the organization, which would be able to minimize any operational risks due to possible issues in the information management controls. The process could also be incorporated in the company's plan to improve information security, as well as in their reputation risk management practices.

More and more companies strive to establish a good BCP, as they aim to be able to create a foundation for the comprehension, development and implementation of the continuance of normal business operations in an organization, thus providing conference in all business relations that they engage in.

Continuous Data Protection Offers Viable Alternative to Traditional Backup Methods

2008-01-11T00:12:00.000-08:00

For some businesses the need continuous access critical data for customers, to operate the business, losing any data can translate to thousands of dollars lost. In order to recover the data, it can take up to 6 or more hours of personnel time, depending on the time lapse between the last backup and the recovery.

According to Gartner Research, two out of five companies do not survive a catastrophic blow to their systems and data (fire, flood, etc). A single incident of data loss costs businesses an average of $10,000 (PwC/DTI Information Security Breaches Survey 2002).

Continuous data protection (CDP) is becoming a viable, cost-effective alternative to traditional scheduled back up. With CDP there is no scheduled backup. Instead, anytime something is written to a disk it is automatically backed up, and a "storage snapshot" is taken of the file change. The snapshots are then recorded on electronic log or journal.

The primary advantage is that data recovery is nearly instantaneous. Plus, because each data change is recorded into a digital journal, IT personnel can also examine the journal to solve a host of problems. These include lost files and corrupted or mutilated data. It also takes less time to investigate than it does with tradition tape backup.

CDP also has other advantages; specifically regarding staffing and security. When it comes to staffing, because CDP is automated, it eliminates the time-consuming storage management tasks and frees up staff to focus on business-critical tasks. In the case of a virus or malware, CDP offers an extra layer of security by allowing IT staff to easily roll back to find clean versions of damaged files.

No solution is 'one size fits all.' Each business is unique so each business' backup and disaster recovery plan will be different. Depending on your business, a combination of backup capabilities may be best suited to protect various levels of data - from the utmost critical data to keep the business running to data the is less essential to business operations.

The key to business continuity and disaster recovery planning is to first understand the impact an outage, loss or major disaster will have on your business and then pick the right procedures and tools to minimize that impact.

6 Reasons A Data Center Disaster Recovery Plan Is Essential to Your Business

2008-01-10T00:51:00.000-08:00

All too often, new businesses do not recognize the importance of having a data center disaster recovery plan. Not only is it important - it is a necessity.

They may put a low priority on data center disaster recovery for many different reasons. Perhaps they feel that a disaster is a very unlikely occurrence, or maybe they don't think that the data is that important to their business. Regardless of their reasons, though, having a sound data center disaster recovery plan is important to any business.

Why is it so important?

1. Confidence.

Clients and staff alike will appreciate the peace of mind that comes from the assurance of protection against disaster of any kind. They'll rest easy knowing the company they are loyal to cares enough to to be proactive and plan contingencies, ensuring it is well-prepared for any problem that may come along. This assurance acts as a major selling point to potential customers as well as giving people a reason to remain loyal to the company, which in the long run, helps to build a strong customer base that is crucial in every business.

2. Documentation.

Computer backup systems are the backbone of all data center disaster recovery plans, but proper documentation is an important factor that any business will benefit from. Many systems are capable of sorting and organizing backup data easily. This is extremely useful when there is a need to locate and restore original files and programs that have been deleted or misplaced as a result of human error. A good data center disaster recovery system is a blessing in these cases.

3. File security.

The risk of file corruption is extremely high these days. There are countless worms and viruses that threaten computer systems on a daily basis. Computer viruses and malicious attacks can corrupt or delete files and generally wreck havoc on your data center, slowing business operations to a standstill and crippling productivity. Having a good computer backup system can get the business back on its feet quickly and restore the corrupted files, allowing business to resume at its required pace while maintaining production quality.

4. Efficiency.

Data center disaster recovery plans aren't only useful in the case of full-blown disasters; minor problems can cause a significant delay in production, as well. A plan can immediately address these problems as well. Computer backup systems can boost work efficiency by restoring damaged or deleted files, resulting in a barely noticeable drop in production rather than a major delay.

5. Cost Savings.

It's true, investing in a data center disaster recovery plan can save money. By preventing and solving problems of all sizes from affecting and slowing down business, you will be saving money in the long run. It can even prevent major financial losses in case of # 6.

6. Worst-case scenario.

If a disaster (natural or otherwise) strikes and destroys valuable data, the businesses it affected will be glad they had online computer backups that can restore all of their lost data. The unfortunate businesses without these online computer backups, though, will be wishing they took their data center disaster recovery plan seriously as they struggle to try to rebuild their businesses from the ground up.

Do You Really Need A Data Center Disaster Recovery Plan

2008-01-09T05:01:00.000-08:00

When it comes to a data center disaster recovery plan what if is not really an option.

Picture yourself running your very own small business. This may not be the largest company in the world but imagine it is doing pretty good.

You may have just landed your first major client. You know the type that will keep you and your employees busy trying to please him or her. You are working hard trying to get everything done before the closing date you set with your client gets here. Even though everything is a little hectic you should be able to meet your deadline on time.

Anything less than having the project finished by this deadline is totally unacceptable and you will probably lose his business if you mess this deal up.

Now imagine a loud scream filling the room. After you get your wits about you and you set out to discover the source of the noise you find one of the people who work for you looking at a blank monitor screen. This person who works for you sadly tells you he accidentally just deleted all of your customers files by mistake.

You can picture all of this new business going somewhere else because you know you will never meet that deadline now. What if you had installed that data center disaster recovery plan you had been thinking about just last week? If you had the foresight to add a computer backup system to your business you would be in great shape.

Want to hear some more?

It is not always a simple mistake that causes such a disaster. I get emails all the time telling me to watch out for some brand new virus. If you are not careful every computer in your office will have that virus on it. Using online computer backups make a lot of sense when you start thinking about losing files.

There is more.

You may get lucky and miss the latest virus. But there is always the chance some sort of disaster will come your way. Earthquakes and floods happen all the time and they may take every file on your computer system with them.

Your business needs to be ready for whatever comes along with a data center disaster recovery plan. Being prepared with a computer backup system and online computer backups may make all the difference in the world.

Are you getting the point?

You should never put off putting a data center disaster recovery plan into action. It is a part of your business you cannot afford to ignore. Be prepared and your business will be in a much better position to succeed.

Continuity and Disaster Recovery in Business - Analysis of Business Impact

2008-01-08T06:44:00.000-08:00

Analysis of business impact would be a crucial aspect of the process of the business continuity planning. This step would be quantifying the data and would be getting into the real issues of potential losses, which could negatively impact your business. This particular step is used to be able to understand the most critical impacts, as well as how to be able to protect your data, processes, people, assets, communications and the goodwill and reputation of the organization.

Organizations usually think of disaster recovery, when business continuity and the analysis of the business impact is a lot more focused on making sure that the business is kept operational and less focused on disaster recovery. The analysis of business impact is also not focused just on the possible disasters but also on the possible critical discontinuities. The primary elements of Business Impact Analysis would be identifying the critical business functions, establishing the maximum outage time, which is acceptable for each of the functions, and determining the impact of not being able to perform those functions. All of these could be measured using legal, financial, operations, regulatory and customer service requirements.

As soon as the adequacy of the security and controls has been evaluated and the critical business functions as well as the outage times have been defined, the business continuity planner has to develop some level of understanding on the probability threats which is factored by the impact or severity and also to start developing an analysis of cost benefit for the largest impact as well as the highest probability threats.

accounting payroll news

The Importance of a Good Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plan

2008-01-07T00:14:00.000-08:00

A data center disaster recovery plan, which is of high quality, is a necessity for any business. It would be unwise to be complacent just because we never know when a problem might occur if disaster would strike. This is a plan that should not only be put out until it is more convenient or you already have more money and time. Many business leaders usually make the mistake of focusing only on deadlines, meetings and business proposal - without considering that the deadline for planning data center disaster recovery could be anytime. There are those who have paid dearly as a result of committing this mistake.Though the chances that a disaster could strike are low, it is a concern that must not simply be left to chance. Let's say that you were quite unfortunate and has become one of those companies with valuable company data has been compromised. Thanks to the priority of the business development of a disaster recovery plan, you make sure that there would be no destructive "and" it would be a good happening.A plan would have the advantages of ensure peace of mind. Having a reliable backup system computer would be able to provide documentation ordered. Data security, and restoration of files. It would also be able to ensure that the files and programs that have been lost or damaged would not disrupt the normal functioning of your business.Making ensure that you have an excellent business disaster recovery plan would certainly be a good investment. It gives you the assurance that your business would be able to survive a disaster and that it would be able to save you a lot of money over the long term by maintaining the smooth operation of your organization.
careersemp loyment

Continuity and Disaster Recovery in Business - Risk Analysis and Control

2008-01-06T23:58:00.000-08:00

In the evaluation phase of the risks, some key areas should be covered. One important thing to understand is entirely likely threats. Probably in a perfect world, we know that do not exist, we may be able to identify and protect us against all threats to be able to ensure that our company will be able to continue to survive. We are obviously hampered by other factors such as time, budget and priorities, and we need to implement some form of cost-benefit analysis so that we can ensure that we are able to protect the most important corporate functions. Clearly, the same impact could result from different threats.Identification of your mission critical systems and business processes is another essential element of planning to ensure business continuity. Once the importance of systems and business processes as well as potential threats have been established, then you will have a need to identify the potential for loss and vulnerability. This would require a broad sweep of the organization to be able to identify vulnerabilities and analysis to be able to understand the vulnerabilities that would have the greatest impact on your business processes important. That would be in a position to begin to clarify and quantify the potential losses that could help establish priorities.After that you need to do an analysis of existing controls. This would cover physical security, population, data, processes, communication, as well as active protection.Next would be to develop a good level of understanding of the probability of threat, which are taken by shock, or the gravity of the threats.Ultimately, The aim is to achieve a minimum of threats, failures, impacts and to be able to mitigate losses. Essentially, you need to focus on protecting your people, data, vital communications, assets and your brand and reputation. This would all be to ensure that your business will be able to continue its operations through effective and inexpensive.
accounting blog news

Ready To Face Any Disaster With Prepared BCP

2008-01-06T00:40:00.000-08:00

Every successful business must be able to continue even if there will be disasters. Disasters can be incidents including the construction of fire or regional or national as earthquakes, as incidents pandemic diseases. Any disaster could be worse nightmare. A server overheating fire that consumes your computer room etc study and analysis of threats such as diseases, earthquakes, fires, floods, Cyber attack corruption, the hurricane, utility cuts, terrorism ... . Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is the methodology of the managerial staff used to create and validate a plan logistics for practicing how an organization will recover and restore partially or completely interrupted critical function (s) within a predetermined time after a disaster or prolonged interruption. The terms of logistics is called a Business Continuity Plan. BCP is the way an organization is preparing for future incidents that could endanger the organization's core mission and its long-term health. Software Industry won four major assets viz., Facilities, hardware, network and data.In event of a disaster, hardware and networks can be replaced, and facilities can be moved to another location. In fact, with the exception of data, almost every company asset can be replaced. Therefore, your first priority should be to protect the assets that are most at risk and difficult to replace: your data. Without growing is the list of potentially disruptive events: viruses, cuts, even natural disasters and terrorist events. Good business continuity plans keep running.Some organization examples that could contribute to a certain extent as below: * Business Continuity instituteFor example, a "Workshop to review lessons learned from flood UK-Event: Workshop on Flood BCI Date: November 21, 2007 At Venue: The National Motorcycle Museum, Solihull .* Some companies are actively investing and strengthening business relationships in different parts of the globe .* Few used IT organization for the development of flood risk associated with web pages survey of customer satisfaction, visitors can appreciate the Web pages. The survey will also provide information on stakeholders in the visitor / user group membership, for example, engineer, manager of flood plains, owner or tenant, interest * Business Continuity and Disaster Planning is an investment , not an expense is said by some organizations such as ISO related programs .* RBI of India for the business continuity plans and disaster recovery strategies developed managementSome as below: ** based on different scenarios Planning Function ** ** Training focuses on the consequences based PlanningAny without comment that the action plans will not work ... The effective implementation and execution of plans are needed.
accounting payroll news

Two Strong and Simple Tips To Help You in Disaster Recovery

2008-01-06T00:22:00.000-08:00

Disaster recovery preparedness is the key to the implementation of a disaster recovery plan successfully. And of course an essential element of these data is that we are all stored on computer and in the workbook. To create backups of data is absolutely essential and yet only one component of a disaster recovery plan. The other part is to ask if you want to keep the data you have stored offsite? Because if you are hit by a flood or fire destroys your building, you're not going to be able to get to get your backups. And natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes and fires are no respecter of territory and can also invade your home where you have the most vital backups stored. In this case, the key to a cure is to buy a disk, the enclosure waterproof, which can be quite punishment.It 's also important that you can see in the murk as it could be under Water in the rubble or black - because the power is switched off. The best color to see in poor conditions is not as white as everyone thinks, but yellow. So a solid yellow box is going to stand out, to stand up and go to the trouble one of the best chances of keeping your documents together.The other thing to think about is if you have a computer to restore your data so that you can Getting back running very quickly. To reduce the risk that you may have a computer at the home of a key employee ready to run your key systems - such as accounting and customer relations, and the e-mail systems. And finally, do you know how the work plan and to demonstrate your disaster preparedness for your business? Repeat. Yes, you need to repeat the disaster recovery plan and make sure that you can really work from the box on the key of the computer after a disaster.
accounting blog news

Disaster Recovery Planning

2008-01-05T00:47:00.000-08:00

Nobody wants to think about the possibility of tornadoes, hurricanes, floods or other acts that could ruin a company. Although the above are not as frequent in some areas, everyone has certainly experienced some form of outage. Whatever the cause, the loss of critical data on your electronic sources can ruin your business. So how does one protect themselves? Simply by creating a disaster recovery plan and the implementation it.Surprisingly then, statistics show many companies are not prepared when it comes to creating a disaster plan. It is said that 40 percent of all small businesses will go bankrupt if they can not get their data in the first 24 hours after a crisis while 43 percent of businesses never resume business following a major fire.To protect yourself, the first thing you should do in the construction of your recovery plan in the event of a disaster is to get the commitment of senior management. Management should be responsible for coordinating the disaster recovery plan and ensure its effectiveness within the organization. To have adequate time and resources must be committed to the development of an effective plan together. These resources could include both financial considerations and the efforts of all personnel involved.Second, establish a planning committee. A planning committee should be appointed to oversee the development and implementation of the plan. The planning committee should include representatives of all functional areas of the organization. Key members of the committee should include the operations manager for data processing and the manager. The committee should also define the scope of plan.Third, carry out a risk assessment, the planning committee should prepare a risk analysis and analysis of impact on business, which includes a range of disasters, including natural, technological and Human threats. Each functional area of the organization should be analyzed in order to determine the implications and potential impact associated with several disaster scenarios. The risk assessment process should also assess the security of vital records and vital records.Traditionally, the fire posed the greatest threat to an organisation. Intentional Destruction of the man, however, should also be considered. The plan should provide for the "worst case". It is important to assess the impacts and consequences resulting from the loss of information and services. The planning committee should also analyse the costs minimize the potential exposures.Fourth, establish priorities for the treatment and exploitation. To assess the basic needs of each department, including the functional operations, key personnel, information processing systems, services, documentation, vital records, policies and procedures. Where the priority, analyze and determine the maximum time that the ministry and the organization can function without the critical system.Critical needs are defined as the necessary procedures and equipment needed for operations should continue department, computer centre , the principal place of business or a combination of they be destroyed or become inaccessible.A method to determine the basic needs of a department is to document all the functions performed by each department. Once the principal functions were identified, operations and processes must be prioritized: essential, important and non essential.Create a written plan and test the plan once the above is taken into account. And, of course, obtain approval for the plan.Last, consider strategies for data recovery. The fastest and easiest way to ensure that the company can be salvaged, it must undergo a loss is to get copies of your data out of the building into a second location.Whether your company is small or large The practice of the above will keep you informed of Being a private company statistics.
Business online blog

Data Recovery From Natural Catastrophe

2008-01-05T00:30:00.000-08:00

Each agency that has a computer, or faced a loss of data or will face the same thing. Reasons for the situation of data loss are many. Leading cause of data loss is human error or software, either because of a malfunction, viruses, file / directory deletion or sabotage. Physical crash of the hard drive, the head crashing, the spindle stop spinning mechanical failure or electromechanical. But apart from these failures there are other types of failures that can strike your hard drive. The data loss occurs due to the loss catastrophe.Data occurs naturally due to a natural disaster is a rare case, but they kill the entire company. Only 3% of data loss occurs due to a natural disaster, but the destruction is great. Natural disasters can happen anywhere, at any time, either in the form of floods, files and strikes resulting from the reduction in power surge.FloodSpilling coffee on our system can cause the failure of the circuit in Total damage resulting from the system. Imagine what will happen to your hard drive when flooding due to your system is not immersed in water for a second but it may be a few days. It is not important to know to what extent the damage has been done, the data can always be recovered you just have to take the following precautions. Do not put on your computer once it was removed from the flood and although the reader system resembles Dry your eyes, but there may be a few drops of water present in the drive, which can cause a short Circuit You may think that drying wet reader can be useful; However, the dried leaves water contaminants on the disk and can cause a crash head De happen when the system is switched on. Therefore, it is recommended to place the media in a plastic bag sealed instead.Fire damageDue fire on the plastic encasing computer hard disk is damaged, but the data still resides on the hard drive. Services Company data recovery can recover lost data from such disks. In the event of a file, you may take the following precautions. When your computer gets wet from fire hoses onto the hard disk of wet outside the system and do not dry rather put in a plastic bag and sealed. That's because during a fire, with the help of small air vents, changes extreme pressure and draw water contaminants within the reader. If you notice that you are not able to recover the hard disk of the computer had melted because it is sealed, then leave it like that.So recovery of these natural disasters can be done by the Data Recovery Services Company if we take such precautions after the misshaping.
advertising blog news

How To Make Safety Training Effective

2008-01-05T00:14:00.000-08:00

The employer is required to ensure that the workplace is safe for their employees and to ensure that the risk of accidents is reduced to a minimum. It must also have comprehensive security should program.It consists of topics such as personal protective equipment, safety practices or workplace hazards. There are two basic reasons to provide safety training. One is to teach someone to do a job safely and the second is to increase the safety awareness. But how do you know if the training was effective? The Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA), an agency of the United States Department of Labor, whose mission is to prevent various types of accidents at work that can cause injury, illness or death, writing voluminous safety standards Workplace and regulations affecting employers and employees.OSHA says that the effectiveness of the training program can even reduce the amount of property damage, liability and lack of working time. So if you are an employer and do not want to have problems with any type of claim for personal injury and to put a safety in the workplace just read the leaflet based on the guidelines for training ' OSHA trainers.1.Before for you even start training Au try to think about the problem you have. Consider whether a situation can be resolved using the training. This is a good solution to such problems as the lack of knowledge of the equipment employed or a lack of motivation. Even if, sometimes, other methods may be needed to ensure safety.2.You must also identify training needs. To do so the trainer can observe for example, a worker in his environment to characterize his training needs.3.Next try definy your goals and objectives. It is better to deliver action-oriented, using words such as: an employee ... "To be able to do ...". This will help listners choose what they should know by the end of the class. Goals also help clear focus.4.Make sure learning exercises most reliable simulate the real work. In this case, trainers may include role playing, or the roundtable group discussions, it can boost employee participation.5.At the start of the training program for employees must know why this area is so important to their jobs. It is common for students pay more attention and apply what they have learned if they know the benefits of lectures.6.Then try to evaluate the training to know the amount of learning achieved. Do it with specific questionnaires for students, or informal discussions by supervisors, observations or formal exams.7.When have reviewed scores, it may become clear whether the training has not been adequate and Employees have not reached the expected level of knowledge and skill. As the program is estimated trainer should ask some questions concerning the above points as: Were objectives presented clearly and concretely? Have simulate actual activities of employment enough? Employees were motivated?
accounting payroll news

Prepare For Disasters

2008-01-04T11:19:00.000-08:00

Can you imagine what would happen to you and your employees, if your company was suddenly and unexpectedly forced to close its doors for a few weeks or months? Do you think that the disaster could never happen to your company? What would you do if your company was suddenly devastated by an unexpected disaster? The reality is that only 7% of Americans are actually prepared for a disaster. Nobody expects a disaster happen to them ... It is something that happens to other people and other businesses. Stop and think what kind of disaster could cripple your business and what would be the consequences.There are two categories of disasters. Events are either catastrophic man-made disasters such as terrorism or natural disasters such as a storm or fire. Some of these events can occur without warning and others can not be predicted. When a natural disaster like a tornado occurs, approximately 60% of businesses affected will never reopen. Whatever the type of disaster might occur, you can increase the chances that you are not one of 60%. A recovery plan will help you get your doors quickly reopened. Your income will decrease to recover faster than you. A company needs a disaster recovery plan in writing. A plan of reorganization of the company explains the procedures to follow in case of disaster occur.Every company should stay informed. Listening to the radio, television and read articles that will help in case you are put in an emergency situation. Read articles that will help you prepare for the types of disasters that could affect your business. What would happen if your main supplier was handicapped by a disaster? Where would you be able to get the products you need to sell? You must have a backup of your entire supplier main supplier is rebuilding. Poor weather while listening to the radio and television, you will be notified when the weather is close and you have time to prepare. Not all storms can be predicted. You can keep you time to prepare your company for your company predicted disasters.Does have an emergency kit? Have a first aid kit in the building is great, but everyone must know where to find the kit if needed. The Red Cross has created a kit that is available in many stores and can also be purchased online. Different disasters should be different products. In a kit. There are a few essential elements necessary for all emergency kits. Ask yourself, what do I need to stay dry and warm, hydrated, treat minor injuries, the signal for help? Remember that someone in your company should know how to administer CPR.Every company must have a disaster recovery plan in writing. The plan should have a minimum of these elements: communication process, security / safety of the building and employees and data storage recovery.The policy written communication of your plan should include procedures for communicating with employees, suppliers and customers. Security must include both the safety and security of the building and employees. You want to be sure that the building is safe to re-enter and inform the staff. The submission should also include the use of a telephone. Sometimes, there are no telephone lines. Maybe the mobile phone towers are too low, knowing your options. Where is the backup of your computer information stored? Storing the backup in your building would be a bad idea if the building is destroyed.Have a written plan, which is periodically updated and distributed to every employee should be standard practice in all businesses. Employees moving and someone in charge today is not necessarily with the company tomorrow. There are many good sites where businesses can get a reorganization plan. To get a template to create a plan to contact www.ZeldaFraden.com. Each company has a well thought out plan increases the chances that they also fight the statistics and will remain open during their recovery period.
accounting blog news

Climbing Back

2008-01-04T11:13:00.000-08:00

Due to chronic health problems, my husband and I had to stop working our regular jobs. We felt that we were too young to sit at home feeling sorry for ourselves, we had no income to provide for ourselves, and we did not want to be on welfare! We decided to mortgage our house, and buy a business that we could Managed distance to ours, and stay active in body and mind What a minefield! We went to a business broker, and found "sharks"! Companies listed for sale with them incomplete records etcAfter were a few snags, we bought a company after an opinion that it would make us a fortune, but on issues, we would be able to support us, and to pay all Business Costs; well, In spite of best practices, it does not have to pay the bills and make a long story short, we came to the liquidation of the company, as we were insolvent, Housing was in a slump, the bank has demanded that we sell, and we sold at a huge loss, and to the mall $ 1.2 million in leasing, so we had to bankrupt found little ourselves.We Assistance for those who are bankrupt, no support group, no company advice.We thanks to the tip of your fingers over minefields, offered help; Multi Level Marketing company to join at considerable expense products costly that had no real merit, but we have survived, and we are doing well! We have found a new Multi Level Marketing company ourselves, to join low-cost, and with products that have great integrity, and the positive effects on our health.We have discovered how to build a website with little fresh, and a large building tools We learned about the words, affiliation, the construction site, networking, and much more! Nous avons trouvé Que nous pouvons gagner de l'argent réel hébergement de sites internet à très peu de frais, et nous sommes seulement dans le douloureux processus d'apprentissage de mettre le tout ensemble, car les gens sont très disposés à facturer beaucoup pour faire little! Morale in our history? Stick with your partner through the rough times, the thorns grow on both of us! Do not make emotional decisions when you are exhausted.List your skills, it is surprising to see how little skill that you really need to succeed in something if you persist.Look From the Internet to find different marketing, and the various products on the market, to create a new company on a shoestring.Find multiple sources of income, with repeated payments in the future, even small ones, with little or no fresh entry.Keep your chin up! People who have gone bankrupt business through "failure" did not necessarily fail, there is an old saying that to be successful, first of all, you should go bankrupt three times ... Once is enough! All I know is that we learned a lot of lessons from our lives, and we are still learning. We moved to a new area of activity, and we will succeed!
careersemp loyment