Technical Storm
Technology is instrumental to any business continuity plan and any disaster-recovery effort
by Karen L. Wagner
The following is an excerpt from the May/Jun 2007 issue (Volume 72, Number 3) of JPM®, Journal of Property Management.
When Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in August 2005, few actions could protect the region’s cities and residents or their homes and businesses from the storm’s force. Boarding up windows made little difference. Locking up properties hardly had an effect. In the end, the use of technology allowed for the most speedy and seamless recoveries.
“I feel the key to any disaster business continuity plan is technology since the circumstances of the disaster most assuredly will strain or disable conventional resources and systems,” said Joe Pappalardo, president of Latter & Blum Property Management Inc., in New Orleans.
Being able to protect data, access data and keep communication lines open is vital to the operations of any business when disaster strikes. Business continuity plans focused on technology can help real estate managers prevent incapacitating losses and help their businesses recover faster.
“By utilizing the highest technology available, we can minimize or mitigate the loss and maintain a ‘pulse’ for a reasonable shot at recovery from the devastation,” Pappalardo said.
Up and Running
Having a reasonable shot at recovery requires considerable thought and careful planning. The first step in developing a technology-savvy plan is identifying and prioritizing key technology-driven operations a business simply cannot do without—like asset tracking or accounting applications, said Alan Sawchak, a senior business continuity consultant with Pennsylvania-based Strohl Systems.
While Sawchak doesn’t work exclusively with real estate management companies’ business continuity plans, he said it is important for any business to grasp how those processes are interconnected, how they are applied and what personnel and computer hardware are required to operate them.
By identifying the number of critical processes running on a particular technology system and estimating the financial consequences of losing that system, Sawchak said companies can uncover their greatest dependencies.
If a company has 30 different processes and 15 of those are run from the same system, he said that system should probably be recovered first. He also said if a company cannot meet minimum service levels and is going to lose half its revenue from a particular system being down, that system should be recovered quickly.
“What you want to be able to do is identify the most critical processes and try to ensure safeguards are in place so the impact of a disaster is minimal,” Sawchak said.
A business impact analysis will help company leaders determine the level of technology necessary to achieve a minimum level of service and have a company up and running in a certain time frame. The analysis should study all of a company’s business units, documenting all the technology and recovery a company might need to stay alive.
The Disaster Recovery Institute International in Washington, D.C., offers seminars and forms relating to tackling such an analysis, and software companies like Sawchak’s Strohl Systems offer business impact analysis software. Sawchak said completing an impact analysis or turning to a consultant is necessary to create a tailored and appropriate business continuity plan for those uncertain of their technology needs.
Some plans can be quite complicated, going as far as setting up a corporate emergency operations center where key executives can gather to review information on the impact of the disaster and then use that data to make decisions on how to recover. Other plans might simply include having appropriate communications technology to reach key employees.
One thing is certain, Sawchak said: Recovery hinges on the use of technology and backing up a company’s key processes.
“We’ve changed so much as a society and as businesses,” Sawchak said. “We rely upon technology to such an extent that we have to have backup plans to recover.”
Simplicity Speaks
Recovery requires communication. Communications technology like wireless communication devices, walkie-talkies, satellite phones and text messaging are all means of keeping communication intact and keeping a company operating.
Latter & Blum employees in New Orleans communicated with one another in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina with wireless communication devices equipped with mobile e-mail and Internet access, Pappalardo said. They also used their cell phones’ direct-connect feature, which enabled their phones to operate like walkie-talkies. The system works from coast to coast, and lines don’t get jammed like cell phone lines because there aren’t as many users.
Pappalardo said his managers were instructed to keep a list of preferred vendors, like those who replace glass, board up windows or pump out water, in each market area. In some cases, the company distributed its direct-connect phones to vendors so staff could contact them with the hope they would respond to the company’s properties first, he said.
“We were able to speak with all of our managers and all of our maintenance people no matter where they were to discuss the problems, the properties and so forth,” he said.
Satellite telephones and text-messaging systems can also be useful during and directly after disasters. Satellite phones are battery powered and aren’t affected by the widespread infrastructure failure often impacting standard telephone and Internet communications associated with a large disaster, said Terry Bruns, CEO of WPS Disaster Management Solutions, Langley, B.C.
He said some phones are equipped with modems to transmit data as well as voice communications. Because the phones run on batteries that can be recharged from portable electrical sources like portable generators or even car batteries, they can function in a power failure.
The text-messaging function on regular cell phones is similar to e-mail—only the text is transmitted from one phone to another. Bruns said text-messaging systems are more robust than voice communication because they aren’t as easily overloaded from heavy use. They use very little bandwidth, or data capacity, and many more messages can be transmitted at once.
After Hurricane Katrina, SRSA Gulf South Management, Metairie, La., established an 800 phone number for employees to call and record their emergency contact information—like name, evacuation location, landline telephone number and second cell phone number, said Michael Hilferty, CPM, RPM, director of property management for SRSA. The company’s office manager then collected the information and distributed it to employees via e-mail.
“Basically, any additional way we can improve communication among ourselves is helpful,” Hilferty said.
Web-based systems also help employees communicate with one another during a crisis. Users log on to a central location so everyone can view the same information—like damage reports, available resources, maps, live video feeds, links to FEMA and internal messages—in real time. The Web-based system may also be linked to local authorities’ systems, which might provide information on the status of a building or recovery efforts. The real-time communication fosters decision making.
“Using this virtual system, local and remote personnel can participate in the identification of available resources, decide where to best deploy those resources and ensure that those resources get to where they are needed the most,” Bruns said.
The full article is available as an online exclusive in the May/Jun 2007 JPM® issue.
IREM Members have free access to the JPM® online archives and the “Online Exclusives,” articles that are only available on the IREM Web site. Non-members can subscribe to JPM® at www.irem.org/jpm.