Lockdown – People Factors

Looking after your personnel and keeping them informed during this period of lockdown is very important. The more that people feel kept in the loop, the more reassured they are amid these uncertain times. You need to be mindful also of how you are getting your information and where you are sourcing what you pass on in your communications.

Be wary of Social Media

We have seen the negative side of social media during the civil unrest in the Middle East, where various factions were putting out untruthful posts for their own political advantages. Although not as blatant now during the pandemic, we are still seeing people believing what they see in social media posts. The sheer volume of unfiltered, highly speculative and even purposefully wrong information is drowning out the facts and feeding people’s fears and anxieties. This has resulted in many rushes to supermarkets and other retail outlets. It is hard to control, but there are processes organisations can put in place to vet social media posts and also counteract the effects of negative or basically wrong posts. Within your organisation you should have someone who is monitoring the social media platforms, if only to get an idea of what people’s reactions are and where potential trouble hotspots are brewing at a local level.

Be Selective in your News Feeds

Unfortunately, some of the news channels in New Zealand are focused on negative aspects of news, because it is more important to see how many clicks they can get on a website than to report responsibly.

In a disaster situation, that is not the name of the game. If you are sending updates or disseminating news through your own channels, get your information out factually and non-emotively. The daily updates by the Ministry of Health Chief Executive and the Government of New Zealand are proving reliable sources. The MoH are doing an excellent job and their website www.Covid19.govt.nz is a great source of clear, accurate and up-to-date information.

For businesses, have your own communication channel to your staff. In a vacuum of communication, people turn to unofficial channels, rumour and speculation. Set up a separate email group, WhatsApp group, or even an SMS group. I would not recommend Facebook as a ‘secure’ channel. However, it is possible to have a Facebook Group set at Secret level for privacy and access, being mindful to only use it for social support rather than discussion of business or other sensitive information. If your team is going to reach out to each other across social media channels, it is better that you set it up for them and retain some control of the information flowing, keeping it inhouse, than have unsanctioned chatter happening online without the correct security settings.

There are online phone and video conferencing channels available too, including Google Hangouts and Zoom. Have regular meetings of your Crisis Management Team, review how you are going along and then send out an update to your staff, making sure you are telling them what you have done, what you intend to do and when the next update is.

You should already have a policy in place which states the information in this local company update is confidential and not to be shared with people outside of your organisation. If not, then make that a key point in your first communication. A careless social media post, tweet or comment can potentially get unexpected and unwanted focus on your business by the News Media.

Social Interaction is Important

Unfortunately, we cannot all meet in a coffee shop in the current lock-down situation, but you can use technology to do this. Have a good chat, discuss each other’s work situation, admire the cat that has just walked past the camera etc. Keep in contact with your people. Where you have split teams, some in the office, some at home, include them all into the conference chat. The ones that may have very little to do still want to know what is going on. You may even want to include those who you have had to lay off as they will be feeling very down and lost. Having the contact will help immensely and of course, when your business gets back into full swing again, they will be the first people you will want to re-employ.

In the next article, I will outline things you can do to retain your customers, and working with your suppliers.

Sam Mulholland is a Certified Business Continuity Planner (CBCP) and disaster recovery planning specialist with over 25 years’ experience in this field. Sam and his team can be contacted through the Standby Consulting New Zealand and Middle East offices.

Lockdown – managing your cashflow

This is the first of a series of guidelines that I and my company Standby Consulting have learned in the years we have been involved with Business Continuity Planning. As an owner of the company for over twenty years, we are well aware of the issues that organisations are going through right now, such as cashflow. 

Reducing the Financial Worries

Currently the governments in the countries Standby works in are putting in major financial assistance programmes. Great. The ones in New Zealand seem to be very well focused and positioned. 

For the businesses, the major financial overheads are salaries, rent, rates and then energy payments. The NZ Government has addressed the salaries issues where they can. 

Now it is time for the landlords to think about a rent holiday for their business tenants. Rent holidays are not unusual things in businesses leases. For the landlords, the loss of 1-2 months’ rent is going to be far cheaper than obtaining a new tenant and fitouts etc. should your existing tenants be forced to close. Supporting your tenants during this difficult period will earn you gratitude and respect for stepping up when businesses are most vulnerable. When we all come out the other side of this intact, you will have a very loyal tenant in the future. Ok, you may have your own financial payments to make, but have a talk to your bank about these. They may be willing to help; if the landlord still has the building leased with a loyal client then that is a far better risk to the bank than an empty space and you as a landlord trying to fill it. 

Then, there are local taxes such as rates; maybe it is time for the local councils to give a month or two months’ rates relief to those businesses who have been seriously impacted. 

Energy bills should, in theory, be reduced so not such a big worry for organisations. 

There are additional techniques as well, such as asking or deferment of payment of bills with your suppliers and talking to your customers, who may be very sympathetic and pay their own bills earlier to assist. When you manage to get back into business again you can also offer discounts to clients who pay their invoices earlier – that discount will be cheaper than a bank overdraft. 

Just remember, and I am sure I do not need to remind businesses of this, that a loan will increase the liabilities on your bottom line, and it has to be paid back eventually. Innovative ways of managing your cashflow by talking to your clients and suppliers can often give you the breathing space you require. 

Looking at the wider picture, if we can collectively take a 1-2 month drop in revenue and those of us who can pay our bills pay them quickly, it will help everyone. You will make it up again when business picks up and we are all much wiser. If everyone along the chain does their part, we can avoid a greater long-term impact on the economy and to each other. We are all in the same waka and we all need to row in the same direction. (for our overseas clients, a waka is a Maori canoe).

Sam Mulholland is a Certified Business Continuity Planner (CBCP) t and disaster recovery planning specialist with over 25 years’ experience in this field. Sam and his team can be contacted through the Standby Consulting New Zealand and Middle East offices.

Lockdown - Keep Your Customers and Suppliers Informed

In the sort of disruptive events we are experiencing during this pandemic it is important to keep your customers and suppliers informed. In the current situation, everyone will know your organisation is working in abnormal circumstances. It is a good policy to keep them informed. 

Be proactive

Go proactive with your customers, especially if something has happened that has the potential to make the news media. Tell them what you are doing, what the issues are and how you are dealing with it. Customers will give you a window to work with the issue and can often help with their own resources or provide quick payment to help with your cashflow.

Similar with suppliers, talk the issues over with them and explain what you are doing. They may well give you extended credit or discounts. Again, if the supplier goes that extra distance then you will be very, very loyal to them. 

Don’t be the bad guy

When you are caught between your debtors and your creditors, it is difficult not to react to the uncertainty by turning up the heat on late payers. But squeezing people already in financial difficulties does not help you longterm. If someone can’t pay, no amount of pressure will change that. Don’t be the bad guy. Communicate with customers and work out something together that will help get you and them through this, with partial or deferred payments, drip-feeding or credit extensions where possible. Be remembered for the right reasons when we come out on the other side of this situation.

Co-opetition

Something you never do is take advantage of a competitor that is in trouble. History shows that if you do, it will eventually bite you in the rear end. History also shows that in cases of a major impact on an organisation, businesses in the same business group have stepped up and helped them. It is better for the industry group that competitors are seen to be working together. 

Bringing it all together to make a plan

In this series of three articles I have briefly covered the financial issues, personnel issues, flow of information and social media, and talked about communicating with and preserving your customer base. Hey folks, we have the basis of a plan. 

Before covid-19 I and my consultants have been through many disastrous events that have been incredibly trying for organisations. We are only too happy to share our insights further . As disaster recovery and business continuity specialists we can provide advice and support to those wanting guidance in getting through the coming weeks, and navigating this extremely difficult time we find ourselves in. If you have any questions, I encourage you to reach out, either on this platform or privately.

Sam Mulholland is a Certified Business Continuity Planner (CBCP) and disaster recovery planning specialist with over 25 years’ experience in this field. Sam and his team can be contacted through the Standby Consulting New Zealand and Middle East offices.

COVID-19: An uncertain future - How to plan your way through

The spread of COVID-19 has triggered an unparalleled shake-up of the conventional work environment.

Without knowing exactly how the next period may play out, there are likely to be many further peaks and troughs, with this pandemic staying with us in some form for a prolonged period; more than likely heading into at least 2022, which means businesses have to be prepared to be flexible.

In this White Paper, Standby Consulting provides a detailed analysis of the current and ongoing effects of COVID-19 on organisations, the three phases of Respond, Recovery and Restoration and some thoughts on how to ensure long term survival.

While the economic landscape is continuously changing and the future still very much unknown, it may be some time until organisations are able to progress from their current Response or Recovery phases. It is essential though, that organisations begin to plan their required recovery and restoration strategies now, considering how they will operate and hopefully even thrive during the next few months and years. It is essential that businesses are agile and anticipate their plans for the transition.

Download Paper Here

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Is Your Hospital Vulnerable to Cyberattack?

Could your hospital cope if a cyber security breach meant a loss of all IT services? The Bahrain Defence Force (BDF) Hospital found out first-hand recently when it suffered an outage lasting four days, reportedly caused by a cyberattack.

The incident highlighted the vulnerability of hospitals globally to attacks on their IT facilities. Such outages can have both an immediate impact on patients and longer-lasting consequences for management teams in terms of business continuity and disaster recovery.

Hospitals in the United States appear especially vulnerable. Over the last two years a large number of US health facilities have reported ransomware attacks, many of them successful for the attackers. 

Regrettably, healthcare institutions are a perfect target for cyber criminals. They store large quantities of confidential and sensitive patient information and medical research which, if made public, could have devastating effects. To avoid this risk of exposure, the targeted health care facility may well end up paying the ransom demanded.

Reliance on IT has increased dramatically in recent years as healthcare institutions have moved away from paper-based patient records, with clinical records and images now entered directly into IT systems. 

In our own business we have seen that just 20 years ago only medical lab information was considered sufficiently critical to need a recovery window of 24 hours. Eight years ago that window had shrunk to six hours and included the patient management system, radiography and patient records.

Business Continuity Research Results

Business Impact Analyses (BIA) conducted by Standby show that hospitals are now highly reliant on IT and the services it provides to such an extent that the wellbeing of patients is at stake. 

For example, in 2016, Standby provided a report to a major New Zealand DHB on the reliance of IT, the results of which were shocking.

Of the 32 departments analysed:

• 38 percent said IT was ‘critical’ to their operation

• 28 percent said it was ‘very important’

• 12 percent said they could not tolerate any outage

• 66 percent said they could not manage with an outage of more than 8 hours

• ·61 percent indicated a zero tolerance of any loss of data.  

This demonstrates the high degree to which hospitals are now reliant on IT. It also clearly shows that specific measures need to be taken to prevent IT outages, so critical data is not lost or compromised.

How We Analyse Process

Standby’s process to gather information of this type is detailed and extensive. It involves talking to those on the frontline of reliance on IT and understanding their views on its importance rather than relying on the IT personnel’s perspective. Our team then reports back to the IT group on whether their systems meet the hospital’s needs. 

As part of this BIA process, Standby asks specific questions that highlight vulnerability to malicious cyberattacks. We check whether personnel are storing data correctly or undertaking activities that could open a window to cyberattack. Detecting such dangerous activity is critical to the protection of any organization, particularly hospitals.

Investing in a Standby Business Impact Analysis could protect you from a major IT outage, preventing harm to your patients and your organization and there is no better time to take action than today.

Find out more before disaster hits by emailing Standby at info@standbyconsulting.com

Sam Mulholland

Related Articles:-

Hospitals only spend 5% of its budget for Cybersecurity amidst 82% of them reporting to have been attacked

Health care’s huge cybersecurity problem

Hardin Memorial (USA) recovering from Cyberattack

Belgium’s Largest Hospital Fights Cyberattacks with AI

Exciting New Partnership Announced

Standby are delighted to announce a partnership with INONI. INONI is a Business Continuity Management (BCM) product developed in the UK by leading BCM consultants. The product offers a quick and extremely cost effective way of implementing a large BCM program across multiple sites and the different features within the cloud based software also allow you to streamline and integrate your Risk, Business Continuity and IT Disaster Recovery (DR) Management programmes all within one easy to use setup. We are extremely happy to now be able to offer such a product to our clients and partners in the Middle East.

If you would like to discuss this product or any other BCM or IT DR issues further then please feel free to get in contact at any point. 

We have moved our Bahrain office

We have moved our Bahrain Office to the United Tower in Bahrain Bay. See our Contact Page for directions 

Standby Celebrates 20 years in Operation

As Standby celebrates its 20th year of operation I felt it was a good time to reflect a little on our company history.  Standby was established in 1996 in response to an approach from IBM New Zealand to partner with them and establish a Business Continuity Recovery Service (BCRS) centre in the South Island of New Zealand.  Following a successful first project working for Wickliffe Press, IBM and Standby established a very successful long term partnership, working closely together to provide BCRS services and as well as Business Continuity Consultancy service throughout New Zealand and later in Australia and Fiji for clients such as New Zealand Dairy Foods Takanini, Auckland; Honda New Zealand; Schering-Plough Animal Health and Sealord one of New Zealand and Australia’s largest seafood companies.

Alongside the work completed in conjunction IBM, Standby, also carried out numerous consultancy projects under its own company name.  Some of the most memorable of these projects have been Mainland Products and Tower Australia & N.Z.; Waikato District Health Board and Massey University.

In 2007 Standby were proud to be approached by a Fortune 100 company based in the Kingdom of Bahrain to enhance and implement their IT Disaster Recovery solutions for the Middle East. Developing this project into a long term relationship allowed standby to lay foundations in Bahrain and establish a permanent office for its Middle East activities. From our Bahrain base, Standby has carried out many interesting new projects all over the GCC, in numerous different industry sectors such as banking and finance, insurance, construction, manufacturing and also education.

It was not long until Standby were also recruited to carry out Data Centre builds as well as IT consultancy, which due to my background in the IT sector and previously having built and managed data Centres for over 20 years it’s always one of my favourite areas of what we do. I am proud to say Standby has now successfully carried out over 10 data centre builds and 40 risk assessments throughout New Zealand and the GCC.

Twenty years is a significant time for any company to be in operation. During this 20 years Standby has built up a wide and extensive knowledge within the Business Continuity Management sector and put together an excellent team with an extensive knowledge of different industry sectors as well as in-depth expertise in Business Continuity Project Management and data center builds. Without the professionalism and high standards of our great staff, Standby would not have been able to develop its highly regarded knowledge and experience, or its enviable client base. They have taken on board my personal approach, where we deliver excellent bespoke reports, plans or data centers that meet the clients’ requirements.

 So as we move past our 20 years of operation I wish to thank our clients, supporting organizations and our Standby personnel and contractors who all work so hard to deliver above and beyond what is expected of them. 

Sam Mulholland  - Founder and Managing Director.  

Data Center Risk Assessment Can Save Thousands of Dollars

One of the most important lessons I learnt when managing data centres for Databanks Systems throughout New Zealand was the importance of carrying out risk assessments.  As a team of managers, we soon learnt that it is better to identify a risk and deal with it as early as possible, rather than let it remain and be the potential cause of a disaster. 

Individually risks may not present too much of a problem, but when combined with numerous other risk factors or events they can very quickly become a major issue.  It has become apparent to me throughout my career as a data centre manager and especially now as Senior BCP consultant that significant disasters are more often than not caused by a series of manageable events, that when combined create a “disaster”. A good example of this was during the recent flooding in my home town of Dunedin. 

The Event:

• In June 2015, there was the heaviest rain fall in 91 years
• Many streams and gullies feed into the South Dunedin basin from the hill suburbs
• Water flowed into a low lying area – less than 1 metre above sea level and started to pond
• Heavy flooding caused major problems such as road closures, power failures and the evacuation of a rest-home.

Other contributing factors

• The storm water infrastructure was already under stress from the usual winter rainfall it was designed to deal with
• Added to this was the fact that many of the drainage mud traps were full of mud and debris
• The screens in the pumping station designed to clear the water away filled with debris and could not clear the water
• The sea level in the area was above normal and so the natural drainage was not as fast as it could be
• Many of the houses in the area are now built on concrete slabs, which are only a few centimetres above ground level. 
• There was an increased run off of water from the surrounding hill suburbs.
• In the area of South Dunedin there has been an intensification of housing creating more roofs, drives and hard surfaces for the water to run off

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but this scenario looks as if it were a flooding disaster just waiting to happen and unfortunately these types of floods will likely happen more often with the added effects of climate change and other extreme weather events.

What happened in South Dunedin, was of particular interest to me as the data centre I used to manage was very close to the area that was flooded.  This is the second time in my life that I have had a data centre nearly flooded.  The first was in 1984 flooding of Invercargill city.

As a Manager of high importance data centres, I learnt very quickly the importance of carrying out very regular risk assessments.  For matters such as flooding, we would check the local mud traps and drains to see if they were clear, check the roof to see if there was any debris in the roof gutters and drains.  Check to see if the gutters became full of water or whether the water could flow back into the building.  All of these risks we felt important to the maintenance of the data centre were often not typical major risks you would associate with the upkeep of a technology.  However, it was through knowledge sharing and outside review that we came to realise the importance of these ‘outside’ risks.

Flooding events are not only caused by rain and rivers but also caused in buildings through broken pipes, over flowing hand basins and toilets. 

Water presents a major risk to data centres. 

Sam Mulholland - Managing Director

In carrying out our Risk Assessments, Standby Consulting uses a comprehensive check list that has been developed through many years of research, knowledge sharing and experience. These risk assessments are adapted to suit the regions we work in and modified to suit the client.

For more detail download pdf  http://www.standbyconsulting.com/documents/Data_Centre_Risk_assessment.pdf

Need more information?
For New Zealand, contact Janet Jones on +64 021 271 9467 or +64 03 4434914 janet@standbyconsulting.com
For Middle East, contact Tom Ham on +973 13673555 (office) or +973 3918 7293 tom@standbyconsulting.com

Disaster Recovery Plans for Otago & Southland

Following the Christchurch earthquakes, New Zealand insurance companies have been asking companies and organisations “where is your disaster recovery, business continuity or crisis management plan”.  Many organisations think that insurance is their recovery plan, but that is not the case.  All that insurance does is provide a source of financial support.  Ask the businesses in Christchurch how effective insurance was in getting their backup tapes and other critical data from the red zone.  No effect at all!

Standby Consulting is a Dunedin based company and we have consultants based in Dunedin and Central Otago.  Our consultants are internationally certified, have worked in New Zealand and overseas and have many years of experience.  Standby can bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to the south of the South Island .  Our plans are modified to suit the size and operation of your business.  Standby are known for our down to earth, practical and pragmatic approach.

We can provide Crisis Management Plans, Business Continuity Plans, Disaster Recovery plans or audit your existing plans.  We can also provide ongoing support contracts, which will maintain your plans and keep them up to date.

So take advantage of the local support and knowledge that is available right here in your province.    Call Janet Jones on 021 271 9467 or contact us at Info@standbyconsulting.com.