Disasters,Happen,Normal,false, business, insurance Disasters Happen

As we all know to live in this world we have to perform some activity by which we can earn money. There are many activities by which we can earn money and meet the standards to live in this society. And from one of them is franchise.  Franc Small offices have unique needs, and thatincludes document shredding. Designed with the smaller business inmind, the Dahle 20314 is a cross-cut shredder that offers Level 3security and brings you into compliance with federal regulations. The

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;mso-style-noshow:yes;mso-style-priority:99;mso-style-qformat:yes;mso-style-parent:"";mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;mso-para-margin:0in;mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;mso-pagination:widow-orphan;font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}It doesn'tmatter where your outsourcer site is located; it is at risk of a disaster. Thatdisaster may be from a utility outage, storm, flood, fire, quake, volcano, oract of violence.  Moreover, disastersusually don't happen as a single event.  Theyinvolve multiple facets. For example, storms may involve flooding or heavy snowwith the loss of electricity and/or communications. No matter whatthe disaster, you and your outsourcer need to have a plan for businesscontinuity and disaster recovery. The plan should pre-define what personnelwill do to reestablish operations during an emergency at your outsourcer facilities. Even as youplan, these pre-defined procedures should not to be interpreted as the onlycourse of action. In most cases, they should be overshadowed by common sense ormodified by the conditions of the particular emergency. Also recognize yourplanning will not remain static.  Youwill need to amend your planning to reflect changes in your operations and thatof your  outsourcer.  As you plan,recognize that disasters have different levels of severity: minimal loss,partial loss, and complete loss. Minimalloss canbe a temporary loss of a utility such as water, electrical, or communications.It may also be a weather-related closure without damage to facilities or lossof staff. In a minimal loss scenario, there may be little to do but work withthe utilities or wait for the weather. If the loss impacts operations for morethan a day, you need to have a plan for an alternative site with the ability totake the calls for the stricken site. Planning shouldbe part of your outsourcer selection. Pick one site in a warm southern climateand another in the northern climate, because hurricanes and snowstorms rarelyhappen at the  same time. If youroutsourcer is offshore, be sure their site has alternative power supplies suchas an uninterruptable power supply and generators. An alternative water supplyis also good planning since facilities without water can be just as disruptiveas a lack of electricity. Minimal lossplanning should include the impact of pandemics such as the avian flu, SARS,and other unpublicized diseases. For example, in 2009, The World HealthOrganization estimated the global H1N1 (swine flu) outbreak could infect 2billion over the course of the pandemic. The flu may not be destructive to your outsourcer's call center, ITsystems, or facilities, but they can a severe impact on your workforce. Planning forpandemic emergencies should provide the option for agents to work at home toprevent the spread of infection. You will need to plan for the shift in networkloads for agents who remotely login and an alternate means of voicecommunications to continue normal call flow. Partial loss of a physical locationrequires planning to reorganize the work. Planning for a  partial loss is similar to a minimal lossscenario except that you need to deal with damage to facilities. Recoveringfrom a partial loss may mean moving agents to an undamaged portion of the building,but emphasis should be to the safety and well-being of personnel. Complete loss denotes the fulldestruction of a call center site and equipment. Planning for a complete lossrequires the relocation of operations for an indefinite period of time while  reconstruction of the facility is performed. Detailing theaction for each of these levels is sufficient for planning. However, to ensurethat plans can be invoked when actual disasters happen requires testing.Disaster recovery testing determines how well you have planned and requires aheavy investment in time and manpower. If the test doesn't work, your teamsmust find the flaw and retest. Thus, you and your outsourcer should recognizethe resource commitment to configure networks and communications for the test andto return the configuration to its normal state. © 2011 Geoffrey Best.