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Plan B

How to Protect Your Business from a Dead Programmer, an Enraged Business Partner and other Disasters.

Article Date: 19 May 2008.  Article updated 9 June 2008

Article by: Howard Sherman, The King of All Geeks

My cell phone rings interrupting a training session with my Royal Geeks. A quick glance at my phone tells me its one of our best clients so I take the phone call immediately.

Robert (not his real name), the owner of a nationwide trucking company, gets right to the point. "Our programmer died and we need someone to take over maintenance of our critical applications server immediately."

A wave of mixed feelings takes over.

A tinge of sadness as I learn this gifted programmer had died alone in his little house in a quaint little mountain village in Colorado, his body discovered several days after he suffered a massive heart attack.

A tiny jolt of joy at the new addition of lucrative, ongoing IT consulting for this high profile client.

A flood of apprehension sets in some days later as we discover this brilliant men left no notes, no solid backup of any of his code and absolutely no documentation of any kind.

RoyalGeeks resident Linux expert, Mike Ferrador, immediately starts the race against the clock to reverse-engineer this complex software system that manages every aspect of operations for this national freight carrier.

Race against the clock? What's the rush?

We have to be able to reconstruct the entire operating environment -- software and operating system -- in the event there is a server crash. The programmer had written huge chunks of software code custom-tailored to this client's needs.

Without all of his source code, a system failure could lead to catastrophe if we ever had to reinstall the software  because all of the custom-written code would be lost. This would set the client back several years if not cripple them completely.

Just as bad, the client would have wasted tens of thousands of dollars in software development.

Several weeks have gone by and we finally feel confident we have identified and cataloged all the source code of this sophisticated software application that runs the entire company.  After several months of arduous research we can finally move ahead.

The client would like new functionality and we are finally in a position to help them -- the shame is that so much time was lost in reconstructing everything done up until we arrived. Up until now, introducing new software features was impossible. So the client was forced to make due with what they have, waiting several  months before we were in a position to start enhancing their software to make his staff more productive.

So let me ask you -- What's your Plan B?

What would happen to your business if your programmer died leaving nothing behind but a small mountain chalet and a laptop locked up in probate?

What if your office burned down to the ground leaving no trace of your business except for the smoky ashes of what used to be your business records and client data?

What if your computer guy flaked out and abruptly stopped working for you taking with him all of your security access codes? If he were vicious, he could take down your entire network and erase every shred of data on every single computer. If he were "merely" irresponsible he could neutralize your ability to make any configuration changes to any part of your business -- website, email, accounting software, client databases, even your voicemail message. You name it.

What if your business partner, after years of working with you, snaps one morning and decides to change all of the locks on you?

What if you or a member of your family became ill and you weren't able to take care of business for days or even weeks?  If you're a sole proprietor this prospect could be very scary.

(Please do not make the mistake of thinking I am exaggerating -- I have personally seen all of the above, and much more, with my own eyes.)

So what's your backup plan?

More formally, we call such a strategy a Business Continuity Plan. A Business Continuity Plan (BCP) allows your business to continue to operate even after a partial or complete disaster.

Such an event could be the departure or disability of a key employee (if you're a sole proprietor that means you!), a security breach committed by a disgruntled employee or consultant, fire or flood of your business premises or even a blistering lawsuit.

While a comprehensive Business Continuity Plan is outside the scope of this web page, here are some important guidelines you should follow:

• Keep excellent, up to date copies of all of your records, a list of all passwords, and all traces of all of your software in off-site backups. For critical data MULTIPLE off-site backups are ideal. One such off-site location could be a safety deposit box at your local bank. Banks have excellent security and fire-resistant systems in place. Another good place to maintain backups would be your home and yet a third source of good off-site backups is a service like Carbonite.

• Never give any one employee too much access -- segment access to your key data and business systems in such a way that employees only have access to what they need -- and nothing more.

• Keep track of the activities of key employees and document all of their work.  In the case of programmers, full sets of code should be printed and backed up on storage media. For IT consultants (like us, the Royal Geeks) maintain a complete set of documentation of all work performed, all milestones reached and all access codes, passwords and logins, server configurations, etc.

• Maintain excellent insurance policies on your business and all key members of staff including umbrella insurance policies for people and liability insurance for the business itself.

• Cross-train members of your staff to be able to perform multiple tasks of different employees.  By doing this, you insulate yourself from the loss of a single employee which would otherwise hit you with a crippling setback.

Whichever way you go, make sure every element of your business' operations is well documented and backed up in case the programmer dies, the geek freaks or the roof is on fire.

Don't put this off. Do this today.

Right Now!

Close the office early and stop answering the phones if need be.

But do not let one more day go by without having a comprehensive Business Continuity Plan in place and operational.

Feel free to call our office and we will be happy to guide you through this critical process one step at a time.

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