Disaster Planning
Robot Save provides a fill-in-the-blank Disaster Planning system. It allows you to enter a list of all disasters or emergencies that your company might encounter, such as fire, flood, or air conditioning failure. You also can enter the strategic suppliers of important equipment or forms.
Then, for each disaster or strategic supplier, you specify the people to contact in the order they should be contacted. If you need more information, you can enter additional documentation for each disaster or supplier. Robot Save lets you display the Disaster Plan or print it out in a letter-size report format.
To begin creating your disaster plan, display the Disaster Planning Menu. To display the menu, select option 6 from the Robot Save Main Menu.
People to Contact
The primary information in a disaster plan is lists of emergency contacts and critical supplies. You enter the people to contact for each type of emergency. You also enter how to acquire the supplies critical to continuing operations.
Your plan should have a record for each type of emergency. An emergency is any type of disaster that could interrupt your operations. Each type of emergency should have its own record because each can have a different list of people to contact.
If you have Robot Alert installed, you can send pager messages to contacts. To send a pager message when an emergency occurs, enter a 2 in the Opt column next to the contact. Robot Alert then sends a pager message to the pager name specified in the contact record. It sends the Emergency description as the pager message.
Critical Supplies
Your plan also needs a record for each type of critical supply. A critical supply is any item that your company must have to operate (for example, computers, phone service, office space, forms, and so on). Create a separate record for each item (or group of items) that requires a different set of contacts.
If you have Robot Alert installed, you can send your contacts email, text, or pager messages when an emergency occurs. To send a message to a contact, just enter the device information on the proper Robot Save panel.
Additional Information
You might have additional information that would be useful when recovering from a disaster. It could be more information about the people to contact or about the critical supplies needed. To include this information in the plan, you can attach text to the emergency or critical supply record using the Disaster Planning Text Entry panel.
Once text is attached to a record, you cannot delete the link between the text and the record. However, you can change the text so it is blank or you can re-create the record. To re-create a record, add a new record with a slightly different name, add the contacts from the old record using the Contact Finder, and then delete the old record. You then can attach text to the new record.
To enter new text for an emergency or critical supply record, enter a 2 in the Opt column next to the record. To attach text that has already been entered for another record, enter a 3.
Attaching Existing Text
You can attach existing text to a record to save both entry time and maintenance time. You enter the text just once, and changes you make to the text are reflected in all records to which it is attached. Any text you attach, however, must be generic enough to apply to every record to which it is attached. You cannot customize the text for individual emergencies or critical supplies because if you change the text for one record, it changes for all records to which the text is attached.
Customizing Generic Text
If you attach the same text to more than one record as described on the preceding page, you cannot customize it for each record. If you want to enter text only once, yet add details specific to each record, do the following:
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Enter the generic text for one record.
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Copy the record. Enter the name and description for the new record. Robot Save then copies the contact list and text to the new record. It assigns a new reference number to the text for the new record.
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Customize the copies. Edit the contact list and the text. Because the text has its own reference number, you can change it without changing the other copies of the text.
Cover Page
Create a cover page, or series of pages, to introduce your disaster plan. The cover page could list the disaster plan title with your company name and address. Add as many pages of introductory text as you want. You might include a detailed list of the emergency teams and team leaders. You also could include a profile of the company and general information about the business.
Printing the Disaster Plan
You should print your disaster plan after you create it and each time you update it. Keep copies both on-site and off-site so that you have it when an emergency occurs. You may even want to post portions of it in the computer room and other common areas.
To change the default print attributes, select option 11 on the System Setup Menu to display the Disaster Planning Defaults panel.
You can print either the entire plan or selected emergencies or strategic supplies from the plan. After updating the plan, you can print just the records you have updated. Each emergency or critical supply starts a new page so you can separate them easily. The contacts are listed first, followed by any text entered for the record.
To print the entire plan, select option 2 on the Disaster Planning Menu. The print job is submitted to batch. To print selected records, enter a 6 in the Opt column next to the records you want to print on the Disaster Planning Maintenance panel.