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- "Houston, We Have a Problem."Astronaut Jim Lovell, Apollo 13, April 13, 1970
- "Failure is Not an Option"
- The Problem of Staying in Control in a Disaster
- "The Right Stuff"
- Checklist for "Johnson Space Center" Quality Disaster Recovery
- Summary
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Like this article? We recommend
Like this article? We recommend
Like this article? We recommend
Checklist for "Johnson Space Center" Quality Disaster Recovery
After evaluating this firm and other available solutions for any hosted PBX or telecom disaster recovery service, you should ask the following:
- Can the service move your main inbound numbers instantly to any working telephone number, whether a branch office, home, wireless, VoIP, or satellite phone without having to call the phone company?
- Can the service duplicate the same call prompts (Press 1 for Sales, 2 for Customer Service, and so on) that exist today in your network?
- Can the service initiate your emergency response plan through a web connection, touch-tone phone, and PDA? Will the service provider do it for you if you are completely cut off?
- Does the service offer "find me, follow me" features? Whether at home, in the office, in the car, or via pager, PDA or text message, can you ensure that you will never lose touch with key first responders? The "find me, follow me" feature tries all these devices until the person is found.
- Will "find me, follow me" work by dialing the person’s regular office number (as opposed to a new one you have to remember and document)?
- Will the service broadcast to numerous users? Can emergency notification messages (ENMs) be set up by you and then broadcast to hundreds of responders based on the disaster?
- What kind of feature-richness can you expect on ENMs? One system I have found actually lets the recipient press a digit after hearing the recording, to be instantly placed into a voice conference with other members of the recovery team, to be connected with a live person, or to hear more detailed instructions. That is a very useful feature in a disaster!
- Can ENMs be sent to any network-connected device (phone, PDA, pager, text, and so on)?
- Can ENMs be recorded with specific information organized by message recipient, recovery team, department, or other criteria—based on their role in the emergency response?
- What if you plan for one disaster, but another disaster happens? Can ENMs and caller menus be changed quickly? Can this be accomplished by a touch-tone phone if you can’t get to a PC, or vice versa?
- Can voice conference bridges be activated instantly by you, based on department, telephone number, individual persons, or recovery team?
- Can the system forward your faxes? Can it forward to email accounts? Hotel fax machines? Hold them in storage for later retrieval?
- Can the system send faxes including broadcasting to hundreds of locations?
- Have you identified hotels in your area with high-speed Internet access? Why send people hundreds of miles to find work space and lodging? Any nearby hotel with high-speed Internet access can be a recovery center with a solution like the one discussed here!