DISASTER PLANNING

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DISASTER PLANNING
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Disaster Planning

• Root Causes
• Terrorism
• Earthquake
• Fire
• Severe weather, rain / flood
• Power Outages

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Disaster Planning Why?

• Can your business survive without paying its
  invoices? If so, for how long?
• How much of your firms operation is funded via
  Accounts Payable?
• Debt obligations
• Contractual obligations
• Utilities
• Cost of Goods Sold

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Establish A Crisis Team

• Does your firm have a crisis team?
• Make sure that Accounts Payable is represented on
  the crisis team.

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Cornerstones Of Your Plan Should Include

• Be knowledgeable of the components and flow of
  your Accounts Payable process.
• You may lose your entire ability to make
  payments.
• You may lose partial ability to make payments.
• Make sure your plan is a living document.
• Test your plan.
• Periodic walkthroughs.

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Cornerstones of Your Plan Should Touch Upon

• Back up facility
• A/P System capabilities
• Your staff
• Task evaluations
• Critical payments
• Supplies
• Telecommunications
• Day 1 events
• The Internet
• Telecommuting

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Identify Potential Back-up Locations

• Within Your Firm
• Other Divisions
• Branch Offices
• Vacant Space

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Identity Potential Back-up Locations

• Outside your firm
• Customers
• Suppliers
• Competitors
• Banks
• Commercial Realtors
• Consultants

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Back-up Locations

• Make sure that everyone knows where your back-up
  site is.
• Include maps.
• If nearby, dedicate a day to tour your back-up
  facility.
• Determine how many staff members will fit into
  back-up location.

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Accounts Payable System

• Identify resources where you can get PCs or
  terminals.
• Store your 1st Generation PCs coming off lease
• Leasing agent
• Manufacturer of Choice
• Rental agents
• Let them know they are part of your plan.

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Accounts Payable System

• Work with your I/T Department.
• Have an understanding of how you can be
  operational within fixed periods.
• 24 hours
• 1 week
• 2 weeks
• 1 month
• Longer

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Accounts Payable System

• Keep a copy of the software offsite.
• Know the hardware requirements for basic
  operations.
• Duplicate a stored PC offsite ready to go.

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Accounts Payable System Mainframe

• Is the mainframe offsite?
• Can access be routed over the network?
• Do other locations in your organization have
  access to your network?
• Can you access your network as a remote user
  (dial-up)?

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Accounts Payable Staff

• Maintain a Current Employee/Contact Roster
• Inventory everyones phone numbers
• Home phone, cell phone, beeper
• E-mail address
• Know everyones flexibility
• Availability for shift work
• Availability for travel
• Availability for overtime
• Shift preference and child care concerns

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Accounts Payable Staff

• Explain disaster assignments to your staff.
• Determine who reports day 1.
• Due to space limitations, multiple shifts and
  desk sharing will most likely be necessary.
• Let staff opt for shifts.
• In a pinch, tough decisions will get less
  resistance.

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Tasks Evaluation

• Essential
• Mail routing
• Manual check processing
• Vendor maintenance
• Critical invoice processing
• Disaster related payments

• Non Essential
• TE Processing
• Microfilming
• Record retention
• Non-critical invoices

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Accounts Payable Consideration

• Which payments are critical to your firms ongoing
  operations.
• Rent
• Utilities
• Taxes
• Cost of goods
• Legal / Compliance
• Business Interruption

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Supplies

• Determine what supplies you will need to operate.
• Identify your suppliers
• Companies
• Sales representatives
• Phone numbers

• Consider
• Check stock, envelopes
• Stationary
• Post office, express mail
• Office equipment
• Signature stamps

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Telecommunications

• Is back-up site wired ???
• To phone company
• Within site
• Are phones available
• Go wireless
• Access is fast
• Eliminates costly wiring
• Know supplier you opt for
• Let supplier know of your plan
• Let your supplier tell you start up time

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Day One (1) Events

• Obtain information estimating severity of
  disaster and length of recovery period.
• Determine how much of your plan will need to be
  executed.
• Execute call-down list to contact each Accounts
  Payable employee.

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The Internet

• Is your system web enabled?
• Do your employees have PCs at home?
• Would your firm be willing to subsidize employee
  hardware, software and connectivity costs if your
  contingency plan was part of the equation.

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Telecommuting

• What if you
• Met briefly each day (periodically) to hand out
  work.
• Have employees return home to complete invoice
  processing via web.
• Communicate via e-mail, cell phone and/or home
  phones.
• Employees would meet next day, to turn in
  completed work, get new invoices and return home.
  
• Imaging workflow could further enable your staff.

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At the very least,

• by establishing a disaster contingency plan, you
  will expand your current knowledge of how
  prepared and capable both your department and
  firm are should a disaster occur.
• the planning sessions will open your eyes to ways
  of doing things that will benefit your every day
  operation

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QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS