Oct 4, 2005
Hurricane Katrina Spells Disaster for Printing and Mailing Professionals - Part 2
By Kevin Craine
In Part 1 of this special OutputLinks exclusive feature, we detailed the story of Stuart Masson, the manager of application development at Pel Hughes, a printing and direct mailing provider headquartered in New Orleans. Like most businesses in New Orleans, Katrina hit Pel Hughes hard.
With entire neighborhoods under 20 feet of water, New Orleans was left with no power, no drinking water, and no infrastructure. In the affected region – including Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama – more than 1.3 million homes and businesses found themselves in a state of emergency. The severity of the disaster is unprecedented and no one can predict how long recovery efforts will last. One thing is clear, however, when facing the kind of disastrous conditions left behind by Katrina, preparation can be key to the survival of your company. With a little luck and a little foresight, Masson’s company Pel Hughes was able to setup alternate operations at a disaster recovery site in Atlanta.
The Implications of Disaster
“Make sure that you have a good plan and that your back-up is offsite,” said Masson. “We had ours in a safe in the server room which is currently inaccessible. Luckily, one of our programmers happened to have a back-up in his desk drawer. This is all we have to work with, and it’s just a back-up of our source programs and not our entire network.”
Recovery was successful for Pel Hughes, however, due to the kind assistance of a competing print and fulfillment provider in Atlanta. "We had received several offers from our INg partners offering us their resources," says Masson. "DATAMATX stepped up to help. We are now working using their network, printers and inserters."
According to Pat McGrew, EDP, director of vertical industry marketing at Kodak Versamark, taking time to design and test a backup plan is the only way to ensure that your business can survive a disaster as significant as Katrina. “Any high volume printer/mailer should have a business continuity plan that involves sites well away from their current location,” said McGrew. “Disaster recovery providers are the first, best defense.”
Experts agree that without a proper plan, recovering a print-to-mail operation can take months and outsourcing recovery providers give organizations the ability to quickly trigger full-scale duplicate operations at the alternative site. Costs can be prohibitive, however. “If a business can't afford to keep a provider on line they should consider finding another like-minded organization to partner with,” said McGrew. “Remember to test the plan, though. A gentleman's agreement is great, but you need to be sure that your partner can come through for you.”
Whatever methods an organization may choose, recovery testing and executive support is essential. “If you have an internal plan, now is the time to test it,” said Nick Kopernik, director of business recovery services for Pitney Bowes Mailing Systems. “If you do not have internal redundancy, or you do not have a relationship with a third party disaster recovery provider, you should bring this to the attention of senior management.”
Designing a Disaster Recovery Plan
While many companies have various disaster recovery and business continuity plans, many also find that their IT data recovery programs fall short when it comes to printing and mailing. “Most IT professionals are not print/mail professionals,” said McGrew. “Most typically do not understand the ramifications of having the wrong fonts, different graphics or missing form overlays. And the complexities of the inserting and postal requirements are often discounted.” McGrew stresses that print and mail recovery is a specialty that is essential, but often overlooked. “Sadly, even since 9-11, this has not become a standard part of most disaster recovery plans.”
Data is the lifeblood of most modern organizations, however, it is the printing and mailing of statements, invoices and checks that support the financial well being of any business. “Data, in and of itself, is useless if you cannot get it into the hands of your customers,” said Kopernik. “IT recovery, without the appropriate print to mail solution, is no solution at all.”
The experts OutputLinks spoke to all emphasize that in order for a recovery plan to work it must be developed in advance and periodically tested to affirm the ability to recover operations in a timely fashion. Some may view printing and mailing as a stepchild of corporate information processing, but the risk of overlooking these sometimes-antiquated systems can spell trouble during times of business recovery.
“Many companies work with outdated equipment and software,” said Mark Fallon, president and CEO of the Berkshire Company, a national mailing systems consultancy. “You need to question whether or not compatible equipment will be available. Will you have the ability to adapt your applications to run on the new generation of equipment, or will you need to buy new models and new versions in order to recover?”
Designing and testing a plan is complicated further due to the complex and specialized nature of most large print/mail environments. “If you run a Xerox LCDS or Metacode shop where fonts, graphics and forms live on your printer, these critical resources may not be available at the recovery site unless you make an effort to keep the backup resources for your environment fresh,” said McGrew. “Indeed, resources can vary from machine to machine even in the IBM, Océ and PostScript environments.” McGrew suggests organizations strive to have a common repository of the critical resources that spans all high volume document-processing environments.
After the Flood
If you’ve been concerned that your print/mail recovery plan has not been getting the attention and funding that it needs, Fallon suggests that managers now have a very short window of opportunity to get the support of senior management to invest in more determined efforts. “While this disaster is in the headlines, executives will understand the value of a complete DR plan,” said Fallon. “However, as time goes by and this disaster fades from the news, the issue will fade in importance in the boardroom. Act now.”
Kopernik stresses that in addition to the fiduciary duty to company shareholders, your company may be at risk of litigation or sanction without a fully viable print/mail recovery plan. “You may be liable under Gramm-Leach-Bliley and/or Sarbanes Oxley if you do not adequately protect critical business information or processes,” said Kopernik. “Do not become complacent if your business was not affected this time around.”
As for Masson and Pel Hughes, both plan to come back just as strong or stronger than ever. “A lot of our work was from outside the New Orleans area, so those businesses were not affected, says Masson. “Not all businesses were as fortunate, however. Those who depend on work from inside the New Orleans area may not be able to come back.” What is Masson’s final perspective from his experience with Hurricane Katrina? “Enough back-ups aren't enough. Offsite locations are a must. In fact, it is best if your offsite is out of the city,” said Masson. “Be sure to have a recovery plan in place, test it, and continually update it. If possible, have a satellite location where you can at least limp along until your main site comes back online.”