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To be prepared for any disaster, your credit union needs backups
Many disaster recovery plans rely on a single solution to get each critical process up and running again. But what if that communication supplier, recovery site, leader or fuel source is not available? To be adequately protected, you need redundancy in your disaster plan as well, according to Mark Notron, director of continuity planning, and Scott Teel, marketing director, for Agility Recovery, Charlotte, N.C., who provided the expertise for “11 Common Disaster Planning Mistakes,” a company whitepaper available for download.
Don’t, for example, rely on a single means of communication, such as one email server or a single phone system with no backup. Additionally, key leadership personnel shouldn’t use the same cell phone carrier, they advise. Be sure leaders’ phones enable texts and that each person is comfortable writing and reading text messages.
If cell phone service goes down, your leadership team should be able to reach each other through landline phones, so make sure each person actually has a land line at home!
Think about how close your recovery site is to your building. Could a large storm put it out of commission as well? Also consider how you’ll use your recovery site. Will it be for data, employees or critical equipment? Using the cloud for data storage can help keep member records out of harm’s way.
If you’ve purchased a generator, you’ve taken the first—but only the first—step toward protecting your business from power outages, Notron and Teel warn. Generators must be regularly serviced, and you’ll need to secure fuel vendors before a crisis strikes. Test the generator regularly to make sure it works and that more than one person knows how to run it. Finally, try to protect the generator from the elements, and consider how you would move it—if, for example, the basement where it’s located became flooded.
Companies often plan their recovery efforts around one key individual, who has all the passwords and is the only one authorized to purchase items needed for recovery. Be sure to designate a back-up leader. In fact, your plan should account for how you’ll temporarily carry on without all people, Notron and Teel recommend, understanding that in certain disasters employees are unable make it to the office or are too busy recovering their personal lives to report to work.
Relying on a “single point of failure” is just one DRP shortfall covered in the whitepaper, which is based on an article by Anne Rosso for Collector magazine, the official publication of ACA International, The Association of Credit and Collection Professionals.
