Business continuity and disaster recoveryThe neglected aspects of business continuity planning
Most business continuity plans fail to take into consideration the fact that in the aftermath of a disruption, organizations may have to handle large volumes of telephone calls from a variety of sources including
Most organizations are now fully aware of the critical importance of crisis communications in their business continuity planning: business continuity journals, magazines, and conference schedules are often dominated by discussion of communication issues. Patrick Roberts writes, however, that most of the effort and resource tend to be directed toward outgoing communications, particularly communications with the media. This often results in a lack of consideration of an equally important issue: that of handling incoming communications. In the aftermath of a disruption, organizations may have to handle large volumes of telephone calls from a variety of sources including: Staff and families, customers, suppliers, and
media organizations.
Roberts says that whilst these are highlighted as issues to consider in almost all business continuity plans, there is generally little mention of the resources required and how these will be organised. He offes detailed advice on why dealing with large numbers of telephone calls in a crisis situation requires detailed planning in advance and aims to provide some practical guidance for call handling.
