FORT WAYNE, Ind. -- Tornados. Hurricanes. 9/11. Concern over such events spurred Lassus Bros. Oil Inc., Fort Wayne, Ind., to ask a fundamental question key to its survival: What if something catastrophic happens to our headquarters?
Upper management wanted to make sure that if our headquarters building ceased to exist that we had a way to preserve the business, Greg Smith, director of information systems for the chain of 31 stores in Indiana and Ohio, told CSP Daily News. We had to come up with a continuity plan to access the data critical to running [image-nocss] the business and do it without spending tons of money.
First, working with Fort Wayne-based consultant Profician Computing, Lassus Bros. mirrored its accounting and pricebook servers offsite. It then tied the servers to the company's wide-area network (WAN) so field reps would be able to use store computers to connect to the remotes. The company's terminal and fuel operations were not part of the initial planning because both are located in another building 20 miles from the main office.
As we keep going and getting more and more done, we're finding little cracks in the plan to fix as we go, Smith said. Recently we took one of our fairly new laptops to configure as our data-collection machine. We can store it offsite, plug it in and have stores call in' to it. We're keeping it at our CFO's house, along with two dot-matrix printers there, but that's about it.
If an event were to cripple company headquarters, key office personnel would be assigned to stores, while a handful of people work behind the scenes, changing IP addresses to the offsite servers to absorb the dataflow. Payroll, which used to be done in-house, has since been outsourced as a continuity measure because payroll is one of the biggest concerns in such a situation, said Smith.
So far we have switched the accounting server off and jumped onto the other midweek, but we haven't yet done a full-blown drill yet, he said. We're preparing for things like tornados and massive power outages. The infrastructure has its weak points, but you can only plan for so much.
The company has also begun piecing together a contingency plan in the event of an avian-flu outbreak, though I don't think you can really plan for it until you see what might happen, Smith admitted. Unknownssuch as whether suppliers could make deliveriescould stymie the plan, but all Lassus stores have pay at the pump and many stores have enclosed counter areas to isolate store-level personnel.
Also, Lassus Bros.' philosophy encourages shadowing, which enables members of the executive team to pick up the slack for peers when needed. Everyone knows someone else's job well enough to get by, Smith said. We can cover for each other in the event of vacation or other times when someone might not be able to perform their duties.
For more information on more traditional succession plans implemented by retailers, look for the September issues of CSP and CSP Independent magazines.
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