Why You Need A Business Continuity Plan for Extreme Weather Events

Extreme weather events in Texas, such as the February freeze earlier this year that knocked out power across the state, or Hurricane Harvey in 2017 that wreaked havoc with wind and rain, make it more important than ever for companies to consider their business continuity plans.

“Harvey caused catastrophic flooding, displaced tens of thousands of people, and caused over $180 billion in damage,” wrote Michael Porier, Managing Director for Security and Business Continuity at Protoviti. “It also provided a real-time test of business continuity plans for thousands of organizations.”

FreshByte Can Temporarily Move Client Data to the Cloud

At FreshByte, we have learned that our software users during inclement weather events may not be able to access their data if they have issues with their buildings and on-premises servers that could be affected by flooding, loss of power and other damage.

To keep customers up and running, FreshByte will offer to move clients data to the cloud free of charge so that they can have access to it and work with it anywhere they can gain internet access.

Once the extreme weather event is over and the client’s servers are fully operational, then FreshByte can move the data back to the client’s servers.

Extreme Weather Events on the Rise

If it seems as if we are experiencing more extreme weather events lately then that is because experts say that is exactly what is happening.

“Extreme weather events have increased significantly in the last 20 years,” according to a 2020 report from the United Nations.

The report, “The Human Cost of Disasters 2000-2019” found that there were:

• 4,212 natural disasters around the world
• 1.19 million lives were lost in those natural disasters
• $1.63 trillion was lost by businesses.

The United States, according to the report, experienced the second most extreme weather events of any country over the period, a total of 467, trailing only China (577).

“Disaster risk is becoming systemic with one even overlapping and influencing another in ways that are testing our resilience to the limit,” said Mami Mizutori, UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction.  

Business Continuity Plans More Important Than Ever

While Texas and the Gulf Coast had been home to hurricanes in the past, Harvey was a game changer for many.

“Prior hurricanes events in the Gulf Coast region, like Katrina, had already underscored the need for businesses to consider the potential for a post-disaster outage lasting a month or longer,” wrote Porier. “Even so, few companies in Harvey’s path had considered a scenario in which historic flooding would make it impossible for their entire workforce to come to the office for weeks — or force many of their employees to leave the area entirely and indefinitely.”

Porier suggests four critical areas businesses focus on to get operations back up and running:

• Communication for Employees: Effective communication is key to any crisis management plan.
• Access to Key Personnel:  Safety of loved ones and family will be prioritized over access to the workplace.
• Employee Assistance: Employees needs should be addressed and funds and other assistance distributed equitably.
• Remote Work Capabilities: Employees not only need remote connectivity but also the ability to access key software and data. FreshByte Software’s offer to move customer’s data to the cloud in extreme weather events can help businesses with their remote work capabilities.

FreshByte Software Designed for Efficiency, Traceability and Profitability

FreshByte’s Software’s ability to help with business continuity is a bonus to the core features designed to help wholesale distributors with efficiency, traceability, and profitability.

Among the features FreshByte Software includes:

• Slotting: Allows users to manage and report where items are within a warehouse by setting up slot locations and assigning items to them.
• Receivables: Offers unique accounts receivable solutions with cash flow planning to streamline wholesale distribution operations.
• Receiving: One of more labels, with or without relevant product barcodes, can be printed for each pallet to be received for future ID and traceability.
• Inventory Control: This module provides authorized users with instant product profitability, traceability, and usage information.
• General Ledger: Efficient and timely financial accounting and business management.
• Order Entry: Sales order-entry options, designed to improve profit margins.
• Purchasing: Module features inventory software solution.
• Traceability: State-of-the-art traceability that utilizes new barcodes and RFID technologies.
• Payables: No re-keying of data with inventory received in the warehouse automatically appears when entering a vendor invoice.
• Pricing: Manage and maximize pricing with this module.
• Repacking: Allows one or more inventory items, including supply materials to be re-packed.

Contact FreshByte Software today to learn more about how we can help your wholesale distribution business streamline operations and internal controls while ensuring traceability and accountability in real time.