insideKENT Magazine Issue 29 - August 2014 | Page 153
BUSINESS
DISASTER
RECOVERY…
HAVE YOU
THOUGHT
ABOUT IT...?
HOW DO YOU COPE WITH RISK? IN PARTICULAR,
BOTH DISASTER RECOVERY AND BUSINESS INTERRUPTION?
I’m only asking because this June, ASOS, the
online fashion retailer, experienced a fire at its
Barnsley warehouse. ASOS estimated that 20%
of its stock had been affected by the blaze, but
what was worse was that its website was down
from the Friday up until 2am the following Monday
morning.
Some good news for ASOS was that it had
insurance cover for business interruption and
stock loss; the bad news, to my mind, was the
outage on its retail portal. There is a decent brand
loyalty there, but as consumers, we are fickle,
and if we cannot have it now we actively seek
substitutes and those substitutes may very quickly
become our brand of choice.
As a business owner, it is vital that you have both
a risk management plan, including disaster
recovery. The benefits of active risk management
plan include:
• Identifying financial impacts of business risk,
e.g., failure of suppliers to deliver stock on
time, every time
• Identifying the incidence of business risk, e.g.,
if the supplier cannot deliver, how quickly can
I get an alternative to keep my offers flowing
to the customers?
• Identifying where we can take more risk, e.g.,
as an entrepreneur, you are a risk taker. Are
there risks where you can spot a sales
opportunity?
• Work together with your IT team to develop a
backup response, e.g., how quickly can you
get your online system up and running due to
outages?
In summary, life happens. We don’t always know
what is going to hit us and when, but having a
plan and a response can lessen the impact of
a “Fire in the hole” going unheeded.
In respect of disaster recovery, some of the
considerations may be how quickly can you get
up and running again if your:
• Store floods
• IT system goes down
• Delivery driver is off sick
As for some helpful pointers in managing risk
and disaster recovery, how about the following:
• Work together with your insurance broker to
ascertain the level of cover required for both
business interruption and stock loss
• Work together with your accountant to develop
and monetise both a risk management and
disaster recovery plan
153
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about Wilkins Kennedy’s services, please
contact Ian McIntyre on 01233 629255
or [email protected].
www.wilkinskennedy.com