Irene's Coming: Are You Ready To Help Your Company And Your Customers?

Solution providers up and down the East Coast should be preparing for the potential impact of Hurricane Irene and taking steps to ensure that they can be in a position to respond to customers' needs, according to one VAR specializing in business continuity.

"There's no point to talking to customers if you haven't talked to yourself," said Mike Semel, vice president and chief security officer at Business Continuity Technologies, a Las Vegas, Nev.-based solution provider. "Are you going to be there for your customers? That's the very first thing."

In times of a potential emergency, VARs need to protect their own businesses and employees, which may include evacuating the area or making sure vital equipment is secured, Semel said.

"The card that trumps all others is safety. If the community tells you to evacuate, you have to evacuate. You won't be there for your customers but your customers won't be there anyway either. You want to be there for them at the first SAFE opportunity," Semel said.

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Preparing for a hurricane or any potential disaster involves knowing where your employees are and where they are going, Semel said.

"The trick to keep the business running is not to have the technology up and running, it's to have people there," he said.

Solution providers in Irene's path should also place proactive calls to their peers in outlying areas to see if they might help if necessary, Semel said.

"If you're part of [Heartland Tech Groups] or VentureTech or Varnex or TechSelect or ASCII or any of these organizations, reach out to people to work with. Say 'We may need help. Are you available?' This is not the time to do it alone if you are in the direct path," Semel said.

Most organizations have some sort of backup strategy, Semel said, but the key is having the right plan to recover as quickly as possible. "In the older days, if you backed up to tape, it was hardware dependent. You needed the right drive to read it. Now if you're online you still need to know how you'll get that data back across the Internet. It could be very slow. You'll still need servers, some PCs, infrastructure to make it work." Semel said.

It's better to take precautions even if that the event passes with no disruption, he added.

"The good news is a hurricane, unlike a tornado, you can see it coming. Because you can see it coming, you can prepare," he said. "The hardest thing people don't understand is that when you think about disasters and you test disaster plans, you're doing it with the power on and cell phones working. When you get into a disaster area, the power is off and cell towers aren't working or they're overloaded."

If disaster strikes, it's a better option to communicate by text message than by trying to call, Semel said. He noted that he was able to text his daughter in the Washington, D.C., area this week after an earthquake struck the area but other family members tried calling her to no avail.

"Federal employees [in the D.C. area] overloaded the cell phone system. Communicate by text. It saves the battery and is more likely to get through," he said.

Next: VARs Ready To Help

Meanwhile, Arlin Sorensen, CEO of Heartland Tech Groups, which started an initiative called Hands That Give earlier this year in which VARs help other VARs in times of need, said he has resources ready in case any solution providers are impacted by the hurricane.

"We've got a bunch of members along the coast. We're putting out an e-mail with some preparation tips, a checklist, and we're telling people that we're here to help. All they have to do is reach out and ask."

In May, Hands That Give members responded for the first time after SNC Squared, a Joplin, Mo.-based solution provider, saw its headquarters destroyed in a Class EF5 tornado that devastated the town.

Hands That Give now boasts 120 members signed up to help out if needed, though no specific resources have been allocated to help if Irene causes any damage.

"Our members are very responsive. I'm not worried about being able to rally the troops if we need to," Sorensen said. "We'll get a response out immediately. It's a big chunk of ground [that could be hit] but we have lots of resources that are not that far away."

As a business continuity expert, Semel blasted an e-mail Thursday to East Coast VARs with a checklist to get through a storm. Sorensen also planned to e-mail a version to HTG members. The lists include the following tips:

Family Communications Plan: Write down critical cell and landline numbers in case your phone dies; know where you will meet if cell towers and landline phones go out; designate an out-of-area relative everyone should contact if they can’t reach each other.

Cell phones:Text messages use less battery and get through when calls can’t; external batteries are available to keep your cell phone powered when the internal battery dies; pack your car charger and home charger if you evacuate; extend your battery by turning off wi-fi and other services you aren’t using.

Computers: Back up critical data onto external hard drives, thumb drives, or online services; if you have to evacuate take critical equipment with you or seal it in garbage bags to protect against water damage.

Water: Buy water or fill pots and pitchers with drinking water – 1 gallon per day per person; water systems may be contaminated and unsafe for drinking.

Food: Keep non-perishable food you don’t have to cook.

Cash: Credit cards won’t work if power and communications go down. Withdraw $ 200 - $ 300 so you can make purchases.

Automobile: Fill your gas tank; gas pumps won’t work if power fails.

Evacuation: Have a backpack or overnight bag with clothes, medications, sweatshirt and sweatpants; extra glasses, personal hygiene supplies; energy bars; emergency blankets; follow instructions to shut off water, gas, and electricity before you leave.

Hand-crank weather radio: These can also charge cell phones through a USB cable. Purchase one at Lowes, Home Depot, Sam’s, Costco, or Wal-mart. Make sure the radio has SAME alerting so you will only receive alerts for your local area.

Batteries: For flashlights, lanterns, radios.

LED lanterns: No need for fuel or mantles; safer than candles; some lanterns come with removable LED flashlights.

Common Sense: Evacuate if your local government issues an order; don’t drive through flooded streets; stay away from downed wires.

Don’t panic: Keep your cool for your own safety and your family's safety.

"Be prepared. This is the first big hurricane in three years. People haven't been drilling or they've had false alarms. Getting people motivated to respond is a challenge," Semel said. "You can't help your customers if you can't help yourself."