When it comes to preparing for the worst, a smart business owner is armed with appropriate insurance coverage. But is that enough? Not according to Anita Castora, records and information manager at North Canton’s Quanterra Environmental Services.
Giving full respect to the old adage, ‘An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,’ Castora says the company has proactively prepared a comprehensive disaster recovery plan so everybody will know precisely what to do before the insurance adjusters arrive.
It’s an important step. According to national statistics, nearly nine out of 10 companies that suffer a disaster are out of business within five years. Insurance notwithstanding.
Quanterra is an environmental testing laboratory that handles testing for contamination of drinking water, hazardous waste and a range of industrial applications. The company is one of the largest environmental labs in the country, with headquarters in Denver and 13 other locations across the country. Locally, Quanterra employs 80 people and operates with the entrepreneurial attitude of a small company-as it was prior to the company’s purchase by Corning eight years ago.
Qunaterra’s decision to develop a disaster recovery plan-or business resumption plan as it’s called internally-was arrived at independently by the North Canton lab’s staff, motivated by a concern to protect the company’s vital records and personnel.
That was five years ago. The next step, according to Castora, was to contact BICEPP, the Business and Industry Council for Emergency Planning and Preparedness. BICEPP, a program of the American Red Cross Greater Cleveland Chapter, is designed to help businesses and organizations plan for emergencies. BICEPP has 140 member companies in Northeast Ohio, but Quanterra was its first in Stark County.
According to Castora, BICEPP’s expertise was essential in convincing Quanterra management to spend the time and money needed to develop a disaster recovery plan. “Because this kind of effort doesn’t generate revenue, it’s hard to get the company to deal with it,” says Castora.
Working with BICEPP helped Castora build a case for taking the time to create and implement an effective recovery plan. Since disaster recovery is not mandated by most companies, the importance of preparation might not be seen until something has already gone wrong.
“We knew of a case of a lab in New Jersey that had a fire in the mid 1980s, and some people were killed, so we were aware of how disasters can occur in our industry, and wanted to make preparing our company for a disaster a priority,” Castora says.
BICEPP’s contribution to Quanterra’s disaster recovery planning was critical in addressing all facets of an effective, workable plan. The goal: to emphasize emergency preparedness and develop contingencies to maintain business operations in spite of a disaster. BICEPP’s emergency response and disaster recovery expertise is provided to member companies such as Quanterra for a yearly fee, ranging from $100 to $500 based on company size.
Services include personalized consultation, assistance in creating and evaluating a plan, and monthly workshops and seminars to assure the plan remains effective and updated.
The list of 1998 BICEPP monthly meeting topics illustrates the wide range of issues that companies need to address when it comes to business recovery planning. Some of the topics for this year’s Northeast Ohio member meetings include:
- Dealing with the media/reputation management;
- Communications and data recovery;
- Financial issues;
- Restoration of property (fire, water and smoke);
- Creating an evacuation plan;
- Business impact analysis
- Human issues in disaster planning
As these topics suggest, effective emergency planning is more than a simple fire drill; it’s a multi-level, long-range process. Involvement in BICEPP has also provided Quanterra with other valuable resources, says Castora, including networking with other member companies to share ideas, and gaining access to information about products and services in the business recovery industry.
Last July, Quanterra staff put its emergency plan into action when a tornado was reported heading toward the facility. While the storm passed without incident, employees said they were grateful they didn’t have to wait helplessly until someone else figured out what to do.
Margo McVay is an independent writer in Canton.