Circumspex

G20 Provides Practice for Disaster Plans

All over Pittsburgh this weekend, business located within the city are implementing their business continuity plans. Many of them may not even realize they have - or ever needed - such a plan, but the G20 coming to town has forced businesses large and small to make adjustments to the way they do business.

Companies have moved their IT operations to hot sites outside the central business district. Others have implemented strategies to have employees work from home. Security forces have been either hired or strengthened and supplies stocked to handle incidents such as broken windows.

There have been a number of challenges to be considered in preparing for the days Pittsburgh hosts dignitaries from around the world. Protests and riots are an obvious consideration. The closure of vehicle traffic around the convention center and resulting loss of parking has caused some consternation. Many companies have closed for two business days, realizing the road closures and traffic trauma would prevent their employees from arriving and departing from work in any normal way. They've had to decide how to handle those days for their hourly-paid workers. They've decided that for some functions, two business days is a tolerable down time.

Schools and universities in the area are also affected, and many have also closed. Carnegie Mellon University, with its many programs and projects that run on a 24/7 schedule, can't schedule a closure. For some programs, there is no tolerable down time. Individual professors, however, are making decisions about conducting their classes. Those professors are considering the same factors facing businesses in the area and making their decisions.

Whatever strategies have been employed, and whatever they're called, all are truly part of a business continuity plan. Planning for business operation during a disruptive event is a simple definition of our industry. Companies that had plans previously in place are getting valuable practice in exercising their plans. Others are beginning to understand the complexities involved in planning and hopefully recognizing the need to keep those plans and continue to work on them.

There are lots of events that can disrupt business operations. In Pittsburgh this week it's the G20 Summit.

Communication the Key to Managing Disasters!

The importance of good communication during any disaster cannot be underestimated. The quick assimilation of a broad spectrum of information across any business is vital to effective decision-making. Information sharing amongst the emergency management team provides a common body of knowledge for directing the emergency response team in the field.  It also facilitates effective communication with other employees, vendors, customers and regulatory agencies.

What characteristics are common among successful emergency management team members? They have at their foundation solid expertise and technical knowledge in critical business processes. Members are able to rapidly process multiple facets of disasters and distill the information for clear transmission to senior management and emergency response participants. They must also be confident in their abilities to marshall internal and external resources required for immediate response and continuity of operations.

This ability to "think on your feet" is essential. Without leadership at this level minor disruptive events can spiral out of control and  overwhelm the management team. Take the time to select and train the emergency management team for your business.  Often the most effective members are not the same employees who manage day to day operations. Calm minds and good communications are the basis of successful response and mitigation.

Proficiently manage disasters or they will manage you1

Managing Mitigation : Controlling Emergency Power Costs

Well here we are almost a year after Hurricane Ike and we are still struggling to resolve invoices for mitigation,  I must scratch my head and remember my grandfather's words "Four sticks of butter to the pound".  This meaning be fair and give people their due.

However CAT situations bring out greed and overly inflated egos as well as opinions. Let's consider a case where the disaster contractor has run 20  generator, with fuel to power air conditioning in storage trailers at a cost of $20,000 per month.  There were 20 locations.  Yes that is correct. Folks are spending $400,000 per month on power for AC in temporary office trailers and storage containers,

$565 a day for a generator alone. Just crazy this long after the hurricane. Once permanent power was established temporary poles or additional panels could have been installed.  At that point we could have gotten electric bills that were $6000 per month instead of $400,000.

Does this contractor running all the equipment, sucking all this fuel provide benefit to anyone other than himself?  The answer is clearly no.

Look for more to come on managing mitigation.

 

G20 Summit: A Disaster?

Excitement abounds as Pittsburgh prepares to host the G20 summit in September. Perhaps not quite the excitement shown over the Superbowl win this year, or the Stanley Cup returning to Pittsburgh this year, but then we are a city of sports fanatics.

The G20 will be a major showcase for a beautiful city. Building and business owners within the golden triangle, however, are preparing for the two-day event as though a major natural disaster were headed our way.

A city built of bridges and tunnels, Pittsburgh traffic is difficult on a good day. Add the rolling security shut-downs of major roadways as dignitaries make their way in and out of their events and Pittsburgher's know there will be no quick or easy way to head into or out of the office. Employers and building owners know it too, and are planning almost as if a pandemic were scheduled for September 24, 2009. Plans being considered include everything from a complete holiday, to housing essential workers in the office buildings, to telecommuting and more.

Building owners and managers are establishing communication protocols to alert each other in the event protesters become unruly in their area. Along with foreign dignitaries and media, protesters are estimated to be 50,000 strong during the meetings. Buildings constructed mostly of glass are stockpiling plywood in anticipation of broken windows. Security checkpoints are being examined and strengthened. Every aspect of managing a business or a building in downtown Pittsburgh is being scrutinized to insure the least possible disruption to property, people and procedures.

Supplies are being gathered, and work plans put in place. This is business continuity planning as surely as are the plans for hurricanes and fires. Fortunately, the G20 comes with more advance warning. Savvy property and business professionals are taking full advantage of the opportunity to have their plans firmly in place.

Disaster: A Success Story

Developing the Circumspex planning tool for business continuity, disaster planning, and recovery, comes from a rich history of working with properties, tenants, owners, disaster contractors, insurance companies, adjusters, and the many more involved in the process of managing an incident.

Understanding and living both the property management role and the disaster contractor role enabled us to mesh our experiences into a tool that will truly work for the benefit of all involved in the recovery process. In order to benefit, though, you need to plan. 

The hardest part of committing the time and resources required for such planning is the ability or inability to measure results. Unfortunately, the best measure of those results is the recovery from an event. Not all of our businesses or properties are prone to hurricanes or wildfires on a seasonal basis, or flooding because they're on a waterfront, or terror attacks because they're located in high-risk areas. Those facing these routine challenges know all too well how important the planning process can be.

All of us, however, need to know how best to handle an event. Consider an article written by the developers of the Circumspex planning tool a decade before business continuity and disaster planning were buzzwords; before auditors asked questions related to planning; before changes in the insurance and re-insurance markets had underwriters looking far more closely at the potential risks for a client and the possibility of recovering from those risks.

This article was written by David J. Mistick, CPM and Deborah S. Mistick, CPM. It details the story of an apartment fire in a 12-unit building. It proves the need for planning and the results of planning. It proves that plans are important no matter how small the business or property. This article was written for the Journal of Property Management before plans were common or required or even considered. It is from these early experiences Circumspex derives its value. Let it work for you.

article: http://www.studentloannetwork.com/downloads/pdf/unemployment_deferment.pdf

Disaster Planning: Project or Process?

If you agree a project has a definite beginning and an end, it becomes evident that preparing for disaster is an on-going process.

Developing your plan may certainly start as a project, requiring the commitment of resources and an established goal of collecting vital information. There will even be a time when the initial planning document is complete and ready for distribution.

No business is static, however, and there will be important changes to be made. Personnel change. A piece of equipment is added or replaced. A new contract with a key supplier is signed. All of these types of changes need to be incorporated into your plan.

Circumspex offers an incredibly easy way to make these changes in real time, and to have them instantly accessible to all of who need it. With one change of your on-line plan, everyone with access has the new information. Most importantly, it's there when you need it - when an event occurs.

The beautifully organized and tabbed binder containing all of your planning information is cumbersome to update. The change process, depending on the size of your organization, can take weeks before critical information is disseminated to all parties. The Circumspex model simplifies that change process to this: update the on-line information. Your team instantly has it, and can print the plan. You can still keep the beautifully organized and tabbed binder, without the hassle of change updates.

Does Your Company Need a Disaster Plan?

Absolutely. No matter the size, the location, the number of employees, or your line of business, every company needs a plan.

The scope of the plan is what will vary for companies of different sizes. Companies working in multiple countries have different issues to consider than one building widgets in the midwest. A Florida company may face different threats than one in Wyoming. What all companies must face is the fact that something might go wrong. And you don't need to be located on a fault line or in tornado alley or in an area prone to hurricanes for that wrong thing to happen to you.

A small (very small) fire in a high-rise building several years ago resulted in one of the largest losses we'd faced to that point. And it wasn't the fire that caused the damage. The building staff not knowing where to turn off the sprinker system resulted in tens of thousands of gallons of water pouring through six floors of commercial office space. Computers, furniture, carpeting, ceiling tile - all of it was lost. Furthermore, the building manager first tried to handle the issue with her maintenance guy and a wet vac. There was no plan.

We met today with the manager of a very large class A office building in Pittsburgh, who'd spent the weekend handling the loss of a chiller. Not knowing where all of the tenants had their server rooms meant their efforts to provide temporary cooling were challenged and the manager spent her holiday weekend on the phone.

A plan means knowing who to call and exactly what to do when something goes wrong. Every business faces that challenge. Have you thought about where you'd locate your operation - your manufacturing facility or your worship space or your residents or your employees - when you have a problem?

You need a plan.

Let Circumspex help you get started today.

Understanding the Need for Disaster Planning

It was an interesting meeting with our attorney when he finally looked at the Circumspex planning tool and began to understand what planning, or lack thereof, might mean for his law firm. As he looked at the program the light went on, and when we were finished he went straight to his controller's office to identify what insurances and plans they had in place.

A few days later I received an e-mail citing what he determined was an inadequate plan that would likely be inaccessible in the event of a loss affecting their space. He spoke with his partners and they're all ready to begin the Circumspex process.

It doesn't matter the size or the location of your business. It doesn't matter if you own or lease your space. It doesn't matter if you employ 5 or 500 employees. Knowing how to contact them when you're displaced is important. Knowing what your space housed is important. Knowing how to contact your landlord, insurance agent, and disaster contractor is important. And being able to effectively communicate with an insurance adjuster regarding your claim will help to get it settled quickly and speed you on the road to recovery.

There are a great many things to think about when your business is displaced. It's a whole lot easier to think of them now than when you're faced with a disruption. Knowing in advance how you'll handle that situation can be the difference between survival and the failure of your company. 

Start now! Circumspex makes it easy.

Ease of Use of the Circumspex Platform

Traditionally, a viable disaster plan required gathering volumes of information, organizing that information, publishing, and distributing the information to everyone involved. All of this before any of it was usable. Changes in that information required repeating all of those steps.

The Circumspex web-based platform allows you to begin assembling information as it makes sense, and ensures that information is instantly available to your team. 

Start today, with the information you can easily find and input. Perhaps it's the purchase information of a new computer system, or the contact information for a new team member. Every piece entered is more than you had before, and will be of benefit when you need it. 

A complete plan is important, but that result shouldn't be an impediment to getting started. Circumspex allows you to start now and build. 

Give it a try!

Hurricane Disaster Plan 2009: Circumspex

It's that time again.  June 1st marks he beginning of the hurricane season. NOAA projects a normal hurricane season with nine to fourteen named storms. The agency expects seven to nine to develop into significant hurricanes. With that in mind its is time to review and test your business continuity and disaster plan.  The odds are that many parts and pieces of your business that may impact your plan have changed over the  past year. Especially in today's economic climate, budget and personnel changes have strained corporate resources.  This often leaves disaster planning in a lurch.

The sad yet simple truth is that this stressed economy leaves most companies even more vulnerable to impacts of business interruptions.  Often the maximum tolerable downtime for an organization has gotten more critical.   The shortage of cash on hand as well as normal business financing shrinks the survivability time frame post disaster. More than ever a plan to mitigate risks and intelligently and effectively respond to disasters is an essential part of any business plan.

Companies across the country are turning to Circumspex the premiere web based planning tool to assist their organizations. Circumspex is being given high marks for its robust format as well as its ease of use.