sundance-communications.com/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information Disaster Recovery Plan

Well, this is new to me. I have a relatively large customer that is badgering me into providing them with our company's "Disaster Recovery Plan." My plan is, you have a disaster, you buy new equipment from me and I install it. Apparently, this is not what they want. So, have any of you had to deal with this?

Rcaman

If they don't like THAT plan, offer them a "Super-Duper, all included Maintenance Plan".

In other words they pay through the nose every month in case they have an emergency. AKA "Pay me now, or pay me later".

Price it so a whole new system is paid for within a few months. Buy it, place it on the shelf and hold it as long as they keep paying. The minute they cancel the policy, use it elsewhere.

SIP service along with your MA.

That way if their building or the town gets wiped out by say.......... a tornado.
They can be back in business in a different location in a matter of hours and not weeks or months.

We ran into this last year when the tornadoes came thru here.
And to beat it all, the LEC (won't name names here) was running recordings on the customers number when people called sayin that this business is no longer in business and was giving the person calling the number competing businesses in near by towns that wasn't affected by the tornado.

Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity planning are a big part of what I (along with several others) do for my company. The major storms that hit the northeast in the last two years really moved this into the forefront.

We have documented plans for each site to follow in case of extended power failures, flooding, etc. If you depend on an answering service, what happens when their generator fails?

We have plans in place for drop-shipping computers and softphones to designated DR centers and timelines for bringing specific business units back on line in alternate locations.

My company is probably much larger than the small shops you guys run, but the concepts are the same. If your roof collapsed or your shop burned down tomorrow, just what is your plan to stay in business?

Also, there is a potential revenue stream to assist your customers with this type of planning for their business. If someone is asking the question, jump on it!

Your DRP is proprietary and should not be available to any other business. Your large customer is trying to place your company and services into their plan where you and yours can be held liable. Find out who's heading this project and ask for a seat at the table. That way you get to see the plan of action and milestones!
Good responses and topic!

I did Disaster Recovery Consulting for some very large customers for many years. DR varies dramatically from client to client. I remember the first question I used to ask my customers was "what disaster or disasters are you trying to protect yourself from?"

It sounds silly, but then I would expand on it - are you trying to protect yourself from a fire that destroys a whole building- or just part of it? The loss of incoming or outgoing service? Or the loss of internal communications?

Every business is different, and in the end it also comes down to how much they want to spend to (potentially) avoid these potential disasters.

Sometimes we would suggest service from two different COs for diversity. Sometimes a smaller second switch (hospitals in particular liked this). Sometimes it was enough to put additional tie trunks in between nodes on the network.

It all depends. If you can give me more particulars, maybe I can come up with more specific suggestions.

Sam

RCA, based on the wording of your OP, are they asking about planning for their disaster, or are they looking for assurance that you will still be around to support them if you get hit with a disaster?

After having a meeting and discussing their situation, it was determined that their insurance company is driving this and the need for a DRP is for both them and us. We did a lot of work for the coal mines and we have had our DRP in place for over 25 years. It is still exactly the same as we have three different sites with total duplication of stock, management and technicians. We had to do this post 9-11 for Homeland Security as coal mines, believe it or not, are considered endangered and susceptible to attack.

We were required to have one "backup" location but we opted for two. Our sites are sufficiently far apart so that when we got hit by the snow storm of 2010, two of our locations were still operational because we have full power generators running on natural gas, however, the roads were impassable for four days due to downed power lines, trees and drifting snow. Our third site was hampered by the snow, but all of our operations were conducted from there and we never missed a service call or appointment. We have Verizon FiOS and copper with four CO lines at each site as well as all three sites on three different wireless carriers as back-up.

Getting back to my client, the insurance company wanted THEIR DRP because they recently had a water pipe burst which wiped out their data room and, because they remote two of their branches, essentially closed them for three days. The administrator couldn't answer the insurance company's questions so he dropped it in my lap and expected me to do the job for him.

So, I had my client draw up an RFP stating exactly what they need to satisfy the insurance company and told them it would be costly, because of the amount of time involved doing a study at all three locations and evaluating all their needs, not just telephones. When I told him the study, alone, would be north of $5K, he balked and decided to get some quotes. I just got a call from him, this morning, and he wants us to do the study. I guess my "estimate" was substantially less than the four other quotes he received.

Thanks for all the replies. I guess, in this new "social order" we all need to consider "What If?"

Rcaman

My DRPs ALWAYS involved site visitations. Usually several days worth. If you know your client, and you did the work at his sites and he's local, it shouldn't be that bad.

I surveyed Banks, Hospitals, Call Centers, etc. i would look for outside problems and potential inside problems. sometimes I would find cable trays that were in danger of collapsing, switch rooms with sprinkler heads, telephone and data systems that hadn't been backed up for months and if they did had no offsite storage, etc.

The important first step is to find out what worries them the most and address that decisively. That will calm them down.

But remember - you don't have a crystal ball. You cannot predict everything. Do the best you can - with what they give you.

If you'd like to talk about it, give me a call.


Sam

I present this simple disaster recovery plan when customers ask about one. For those here that are providers, my recommendations do not apply.

1. State that their provider has the ultimate responsibility for maintaining working lines. Maintaining replacement site hardware only requires a MA with us.
2. I recommend the LDN be a POTS line with remote call forwarding. If they have analog service, it is no big deal. If it is a T-1, then the LDN should be chipped out from a DID block and be always forwarded to a lead DID #. Years ago, some providers offered their disaster recovery plan which was to guarantee a 1/2 hour call forward window if pre-arranged and paid for.
3. Buy a MA. I then guarantee to maintain an emergency crash kit for their system along with a 2-hour response time. I am not responsible for the TelCo's service.

This puts all the cost and onus on the customer and gets me a MA if they are serious about such a scenario. Its amazing how often the subject gets dropped when they become aware that their monthly costs increase. Usually they reply with a thank you and "that is all the info that we need."

I think Sam's recommendation for in-depth meetings applies for the largest customers. For such accounts, various sub-level failures can be planned for. The ones that do not depend on the TelCo's service. For all such contingencies, the customer should be aware that they will be paying for every and all such assurances.