When lightening strikes

Having a disaster management system in place will no longer bankrupt you, thanks to the move to software-based platforms says Dave Paulding, Interactive Intelligence’s regional sales director for UK and Africa.

Every business needs a clear plan to overcome out-of-the-norm emergency situations that disrupt business communications.  The loss of a phone system and email, voicemail and fax capabilities due to a natural disaster or uncontrollable power outage – even if only for a few hours – can seriously harm a company’s reputation as well as revenues. 

However, while most companies take measures to ensure data backups to recover important information during an emergency, they often overlook the communications process itself.  What is worse, many businesses still harbour misconceptions about the need for a communications disaster recovery (DR) strategy.  Some see DR planning as an unnecessary expense or one they cannot afford.  Others simply see it as unnecessary altogether.

Back in the ‘old days’ business communication systems were hardware-based and vulnerable to disasters like lightening strikes.  In addition, having a back-up system was expensive because of the hardware required, and could cost a company anywhere between R250-R400 000.  Today, having a disaster management system in place is much more affordable, thanks to the move to software-based platforms.  At R40-50 000, back-up systems are feasible for most companies.

But some organisations are still reluctant to make the investment.  Rather than saying any organisation without an effective DR plan is making a mistake, let’s look at some of the common misperceptions and reasons why it is not a priority.  

Disaster recovery planning is like insurance … overpriced, and seldom used

Fair enough.  But just like insurance, a business never realises how important a communications disaster recovery plan is until you need it – and do not have it.  Research firm Gartner Dataquest estimates that two out of five enterprises experiencing a disaster go out of business within five years.  Therefore, having a well-devised DR plan can not only save a company money in the long term, it can save the actual business.

My customers will understand if they cannot get through

Will they?  It is true that most people are sympathetic towards businesses that suffer from the effects of a disaster, like those in the US that were recently devastated by hurricanes.  But, as a customer, they may not be as sympathetic when other types of outages interrupt their ability to communicate with your company to place orders, check on the status of those orders, schedule a service call, etc.  After all, customers contact a business to purchase a product or service they need, and unfortunately their sympathy will eventually run its course.  Then they will choose – or be forced – to go to one of your competitors.

The only communications tools my business needs are phones

Valid point, but go back to your customers for a minute (and suppliers, employees and remote workers). If the phone was the only thing they relied on to contact you and vice versa, yes, your business or call center might need only backup phone services to get through an outage. But what happens if you are forced to work with a smaller staff during an emergency, and your customers no longer have access to self-service tools such as automated FAQ responses or your website? Chances are your business will be overloaded with calls, and will not have sufficient staffing to handle them all.

We can do disaster recovery ourselves

If your organisation has made the move to voice over IP (VoIP), that may be true. Fundamentally, IP telephony supports DR via its distributed network architecture – which, during an outage at one location, makes it possible for an organisation to route calls and other voice interactions to an alternate, designated disaster site connected over a local or wide area network.

Also because IP send calls as compressed voice “packets” over data networks, organisations can build a packet-based system for converged voice and data that is more reliable than traditional circuit-switched PBX phone systems and associated communications hardware.

However … the new breed of IP phones often used in a VoIP configuration require a dedicated power source within the enterprise, usually at HQ where an IP telephony server anchors enterprise-wide phone system capabilities.  Interrupt power to that base location, and quite simply your IP phones will not work.  Therefore the potential scenario ends up being a Catch 22 in that IP telephony can protect itself against a natural disaster, but cannot protect your business should Mother Nature decide to knock out power at the main office.

If you are working with a technology vendor who understands your needs, it is possible to devise a DR strategy to suit your business and your pocket.  You will be glad you took the long term view and made the investment when lightening strikes.