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In the wake of one of the most devastating hurricane seasons on record,
the importance of building natural disaster preparedness and recovery
plans into risk management programs is more apparent than ever before.
In fact, according to the Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS),
one out of four businesses that close due to natural disasters never
reopen and many that do reopen struggle to stay in business. Why?
Because most didn't plan in advance how to bounce back from a natural
disaster.
That's why PMA has partnered with IBHS to
offer free access to Open for Businesssm, an interactive
online disaster recovery and risk assessment tool. "It's a $2,000 per
user value that we're offering for free as another benefit of being a
PMA property policyholder," says Michael McMahon, PMA's Vice President
of Risk Control. "We think it's too helpful and too important not to."
Accessible through our web site, the tool is easy to use and doesn't
require a background in natural disaster mitigation or recovery - just
familiarity with a computer and, of course, your business. From
hurricanes and tornados to wildfires and freezing weather, the tool asks
all the pertinent questions to help you develop a readiness and recovery
plan for your business based on its geographic location. "The tool is
also quite adaptive," continues McMahon. "If your business has multiple
locations, you have the option of creating completely separate plans for
each location or just tailoring the property protection portion of the
plan for each location." The plan can even be saved securely on the IBHS
web site or your computer's hard drive to be accessed and updated as
needed.
Follow these steps to obtain an access code
to Open for Business and to begin drafting your natural disaster
recovery plan:
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Go to
www.pmagroup.com
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Select "Risk Control Services" from the
"Services" drop-down and select "Emergency Preparedness"
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Click the link under "Planning Tools"
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Fill in the fields in the yellow box and an
access code will be e-mailed to you.
It's easy to gain access to all the tools and resources that you need to
build a natural disaster plan tailored to your business and location.
Ultimately, in the event of a natural disaster, the plan you create will
help you to contact key employees, suppliers and vendors; keep vital
functions such as payroll running; and determine how to redirect
supplies to stay open.
Business Areas Covered in the Plan
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Employees, suppliers and vendors
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Emergency contacts
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Business functions
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Recovery locations
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Vital records
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Critical phone numbers
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Supplies
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Computer equipment and software
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Voice/data communications
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Equipment/machinery/vehicles
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