Check with your telephone and security representative to insure there is no problem with multiple crisis communications centre personnel having access to the same voicemail account.
Setup: alternate location
Some disasters are so extensive that use of the original facility is not permissible. For such situations, two possibilities exist: a permanent alternate site, with equipment and furniture in place, or no permanent alternate site, and the crisis communications centre must be reconstituted. A permanent alternative site will need to have been established by agreement with the permanent residents of that site; often these are reciprocal agreements, where Group A agrees to share its space and resources with Group B in the event of displacement due to disaster, and Group B agrees to do the same if disaster befalls Group A.
Rarely an alternative site will be available without a current occupant; the disaster recovery plan will specify what the alternatives are.
Permanent alternative site
If within the same company, even if not the same division, the first task of the CCC will be transmitting to all disaster recovery participants the declaration of disaster, along with the CCC contact information, including e-mail addresses (if different) and who will be on the phones. The CCC contact will have this information captured on the crisis communications centre information sheet, ready for transmission. While this information needs to be captured in the disaster recovery plan, circumstances may require different locations or phone numbers. The CCC contact needs to capture and document this information as soon as possible.
No permanent alternative site
Establishing the crisis communications centre is top priority, along with reestablishing communications among the leadership as provided in the disaster recovery plan. The minimum requirements are a phone number and an e-mail address that will both be available throughout the duration of the disaster. If no provision has been made for alternates within the same company prior to disaster, then these must quickly be established and promulgated to leadership.In most cases, none of the required equipment will be immediately available. Procurement can be expected to be a problem.
For that reason, in the absence of alternatives, the crisis communications centre may need to be located in a residence. At short notice the existing computer, if any, must be brought up to the standard on the CCC information sheet, and other necessary equipment, hardware, and software must be provided as listed.
This solution is less than optimal. Communications cannot be secured, computer hardware may not be upgradeable to the needed standard, access cannot be controlled, and as a result, corporate information needed for disaster recovery may not be placed in this location without violating company confidentiality or data security.
Because of this, leadership is encouraged to work with senior management to provide a common crisis communications centre. The costs for equipping and staffing this common CCC can be shared, while data security is not compromised and the company's phone system, e-mail system, and computer assets may be used with minimal hindrance.
Please note that while a common crisis communications centre can reduce costs for several staffs, it should not be used across large regions where the staffs may be separated by several kilometres, making transportation a problem. Nor can they be used verticallyââ,¬"that is, a common crisis communications centre should not be used for multiple reporting levels of an organisation, but only for staffs at the same reporting level. This avoids communication mistakes that would be easily avoided by routing through the respective levels of leadership.
