It got me thinking, when three seemingly unrelated items crossed my desk in a single afternoon sometime in the middle of last year.  First, my daughter anxiously keeping an eye on whether flights were being cancelled because of ash from a volcano half a world away – she was heading for the ski-fields for university break.  An email arrived promoting Symantec’s 2011 “Disaster Preparedness Survey”, where they strongly point out the risks being taken by the 50% of SMB’s surveyed who have not yet put a plan in place to deal with a disruption to their computer systems.  The third item was reports of two major after-shocks in Christchurch – yes, I am writing from New Zealand, and I was reminded of all his again yesterday as we held one-year anniversary memorial services for those who lost their lives in the February 22, 2011 earthquake – in two building collapses, many or all staff of almost a dozen business were lost.

The last year or so has seen a succession of reports worldwide of earthquakes, floods, fires, volcanic eruptions and tornados, many of them in places where they weren’t expected.

So why don’t so many small-to-medium businesses have Disaster Recovery Plans in place?  My guess is that they either don’t know what to do, or having investigated what to do they find it’s simply too much work to consider in their already busy days. Read more…

Data Recovery Planning

When American Coatings, a leading interior & exterior coatings manufacturer, suffered a spectacular 16-hour long fire at their premise, they lost their entire building, equipment (including their computers), plant and physical records – fortunately, without any human casualty. The next big concern after human life was data – all they had was an off-site backup. What was left was knowledge in the minds of the people working there and a desire to get working again.

Fire, natural disaster, act of terrorism – data loss can come from any number of causes and as a result, the severity of the harm varies.  A short-circuit leading to fire in a company may result in major loss of important data, software or hardware, while an epidemic may leave the entire staff unable to work.

A Disaster Recovery Plan should cover every aspect of risk to your business, but what we will cover here is specific to the life-blood of your business – your data, and the systems it is stored on.  Your company needs to be prepared for all kinds of losses – business, data and human. The best approach to survive such disasters is to be prepared for them i.e. better safe than sorry. Read more…

The Economist Intelligence Unit identified 11 keys to surviving the current market conditions, but summed it up in three focuses: People, Practices, and Professional Experience.

The real question is: “Am I ready?” followed by “Would my people cope?”…
Business has become so complicated now, and especially so for those who manufacture products to a recipe or formula, that implementing an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system is no longer a question of “If” or even “When”.

This white paper helps you make an holistic evaluation of your business and its key asset – your people – to gauge your preparedness to start using ERP tools, and make the most of them! It is based on the Economist Intelligence Unit’s “11 keys to surviving the current market conditions”.

Learn about:

• Where in your business your people can benefit from ERP tools.
• How to overcome the threat of uncertainty about which systems to use.
• Which skills to look for in your existing staff that will point to ERP success.

View the White Paper here