Planning for emergencies.

Disaster planning took on a new urgency for associations after September 11. But one area that may have been overlooked is how to ensure continuous inbound phone service in the event of an emergency. While not all associations need such advance preparation, the Society for Human Resource Management, Alexandria, Virginia, did.

SHRM's office building is located near a railroad line along which hazardous materials are transported. If a railway accident occurred that prevented access to its building, SHRM wanted to ensure that it could continue servicing inbound phone calls.

The solution: A multivendor strategy developed by Association Resource Group, a telecommunications company in McLean, Virginia, that redirects calls to 40 key SHRM phone numbers in the event of an emergency. Through this "virtual call center platform," vendors provide call-rerouting capabilities via automatic call distribution as well as redirects on local numbers. ARG subsequently added another feature that allows SHRM to initiate automatic outbound calls playing pre-recorded messages to alert staff, board members, and other stakeholders if the disaster recovery plan has to be implemented.

"Other situations that associations should consider when determining their voice disaster recovery needs include power outages, PBX [private branch exchange] failures, telephone circuit interruptions, building fires, and inclement weather that prevents employees from getting to the office. A good voice disaster recovery plan will address all those possibilities," says ARG President William H. Power. He suggests that associations ask themselves the following questions to gain a better understanding of their business continuity needs:

* In the event of a business interruption that affects your telephone service, how long can you operate without inbound telephone calls? Are those calls critical to your mission?

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* Do you want calls answered live or can they be answered by a recorded message? If a recorded message is acceptable, do you need voice-mail capability?

* Where will you relocate your staff if you can't be in your primary office? Will the temporary location be for everyone, or will staff be split up at different locations?

* If you know where your staff will be relocated, do you know the telephone numbers that will be assigned to them? Disaster recovery plans typically identify a temporary work location, but phone numbers are generally not assigned until displaced workers show up at the backup facility.

* How will you keep your stakeholders informed of your situation?

* Does your recovery plan need an update to include responses for telephone system or telephone-service outages?