McElroy formalizes disaster recovery plan
One of McElroy’s operational goals for 2005 was to develop a disaster recovery plan. We did complete this goal… but why does it matter to you?
As one of the largest translation companies in the United States, with 38 years of experience translating large volumes of time-sensitive and otherwise critical documents for Fortune 500 clients around the world, we believe we owe it to you to be as prepared as possible to continue service in the event of a disaster. We also feel responsible to our employees, for returning them to full employment and keeping them employed after a disaster, and doing our part to support our business community economy.
Our disaster recovery plan’s basic assumption is total inaccessibility to our workplace and the inability to use our resources and infrastructure for an extended period of time. In other words, we cannot get into or use our building, because of fire, storm, violence, terrorist attack, or lack of basic services (electricity, water). Our priorities in any emergency are to (1) protect human life, (2) eliminate or minimize the risk of injury, (3) protect assets, both physical and electronic, (4) minimize inevitable losses, and (5) resume normal operations as quickly as possible.
Our goal is to be minimally operational on mission-critical functions within three business days (with a disaster recovery team at an emergency operations center), and fully operational within 10 business days (with employees either telecommuting, working at leased office space, or returning to our building). If a disaster occurs, we plan to post information for both employees and clients as soon as possible on our web site.
The plan includes first steps, priorities, and recovery team assignments for setting up a computer and communications infrastructure at our emergency operations center. The plan also includes employee emergency contact information, vendor emergency contact information, an asset schedule for insurance purposes, and necessary passwords. Copies of the plan are retained at home by all disaster recovery team members.
We sleep better at night knowing we have prepared as best we can for a disaster. What about you? Does your company have a disaster recovery plan? To get started, visit FEMA's website and download their Emergency Management Guide for Business and Industry.
