3. If a broken water main shut down your telephone and Internet systems for six days, what would you do?
How dependent are you on telecommunications? If you’re like 99 per cent of North American businesses, your answer is “very!” As our urban infrastructure ages, sewers and mater mains fail increasingly often. When they do, there can be disastrous and unexpected consequences. What do you know about your telecommunications providers? Did you make your choices based on quality, reliability and operational resilience? Or, did you choose based on lowest price?
How well is your telecom provider prepared for emergencies? Do they have an effective business continuity plan of their own? Take some time now to consider how you could Avoid, Mitigate or Transfer this kind of risk.
Some companies maintain the expense of two different types of high-speed Internet access: one based on telephone infrastructure, another based on a coaxial cable network or dedicated fibre-optic lines. Although more expensive, they may be more resilient if one system fails. Likewise, they may develop protocols to transfer key business telephone lines over to alternative switchboards and networks. You may want to invest in an alternative carrier, or medium such as cellular, VOIP or coaxial cable based telephones for a portion of your business lines.
