Will Your Key Vendors & Partners Help?

Dear BC/DR Planning Colleague:

Our economy continues to ride out a recession. New jobless claims rose to a 26-year high and a record number of Americans are receiving jobless benefits, as announced recently, and more layoffs are expected at major companies like Macy's and Home Depot.

With earnings down, the first thing companies cut is planning, an ostensibly expendable expenditure. Yet, in hard economic times when companies are most vulnerable-isn't it all the more reason to have a good BCP?

In our last monthly e-mail message Tom Abruzzo, our BCM practice consulting leader and President of TAMP Systems, warned about the dangers firms face if they don't thoroughly scrutinize their supply chain to make certain they have a usable BCP in place. This month he takes it a step further.

February Tip

Making the Assumption Your Vendors Will Help You in Time of Crisis

Going hand-in-hand with a lack of scrutiny, he says, is the assumption your key vendors will help you in time of disaster to replenish mission critical tools or services needed to run your IT and business operations. The good relationship you have in ordinary times may create a false sense of security that your needs will be met during a crisis, and this resulting supply chain risk goes unplanned for.

Consider several cases in point: Will your heating and cooling service provider be able to repair your air conditioning system or provide emergency fuel if you need it in a disaster situation? How long will it take your IT vendors/partners to assist you during a crisis? Will your software vendors provide you with the software keys required to run their software on alternate computers when you need to do so?

Our Recommendation:

Get your key vendors and partners to commit and confirm they will supply you what you need, i.e., the fuel, IT resources, software keys, whatever is crucial to your IT and business operations. Do you have evidence of these service level agreements documented? The continuation of most businesses is too important to make this assumption and allow your suppliers such latitude.

We hope this discussion has been of value to you. If you have any questions, feel free to contact Tom directly at 1-800-252-4080 or tabruzzo@tampsystems.com.