Promote Your Plan in a Competitive Bidding Situation:  In a post-Katrina world, many prospects expect their vendors to have plans in place that will protect their interests should there be a crisis.  A prospect entering into a long term agreement with a vendor wants to make sure that if their supplier has a fire, computer crash, flood or other untoward event, they will see little disruption in the goods or services being provided.  In a recent survey conducted by Tech Valley Continuity on LinkedIn, we received the following comments:

• "Long term or short term – doesn’t matter – it is a requirement to get to the final table. I coach my clients to ask the prospective service providers to present their disaster mitigation & recover plans as part of the bidding process. That not only includes the 'data systems' – which is what most companies think is the issue – but also to understand what other facilities the provider can bring to the table in the case of disaster like fire, flood or storm.“  David Schneider, (DKS&CO)

• “The RFPs I’ve answered all seem to request a Disaster Recovery Plan. It seems pretty standard after 9/11 and Katrina to have one for your business.”  Leah Graves

• “Disater Recovery is a part of every and any Self respecting RFP.”   VVSSB Shankar

• “When procuring healthcare services, a disaster recovery plan is of key importance. Some healthcare services are non life-critical, but there are some services where an interruption in provision could result in loss of life. Dependent on the nature of the project, I would expect my providers to have an awareness of the risks and potential points of failure in their operation, and to have plans in place for disaster avoidance and recovery.  A cheap service without a disaster plan is of no interest to me!”   Gavin Hodgson

Use Your Plan in Marketing Materials:  By emphasizing your foresight and willingness to commit time and money to ensuring your customers' satisfaction, you are demonstrating your professionalism and business savvy.  There's also a very good chance your competition does not have a good plan, which will help you stand out in your prospect's mind.

Improved Operational Efficiencies:  When you conduct your analysis of risks and their impact, you will review your day-to-day operations.  You will uncover bottlenecks, places where only one person knows how to perform a particular task, or operations that can be done more efficiently or possibly eliminated.  These findings will translate into improved cost savings and possibly greater customer satisfaction.

Improved I.T. Efficiencies:  If you are currently doing tape backups, you know how long and cumbersome it can be, not only in the backup process but especially when trying to recover the one file you accidentally deleted.  It can take hours to find the right tape and then finding that file, then restoring the correct version of the file.  The cost of doing scheduled, unattended electronic backups, over the internet in the middle of the night is much less than most companies believe.  Not only do you save the costs of purchasing, handling, and storing the tapes, but you also save the cost of purchasing and maintaining the equipment to perform those backups.  Recovery of lost files can take minutes - not hours.