"The fire has thrown one of Sydney's biggest and busiest councils into turmoil, losing its website, meeting place and important items including strategic plans, engineering documents and development applications." (Ref Daily Telegraph, 16 Aug 2010)
News Clip Video of the Liverpool Council Fire, 14 Aug 2010.
There is a continuity plan in place - however it seems to have been underpinned by some interesting decisions.
First, backing up customer paperwork. In this case, the loss of development applications from the end of last week. A simple process analysis would place a "scan and file off site" step at the beginning of the process. This reflects respect for what the client is submitting - the backup process is not just about the assessment by the planning department. Or is it? So a question about "how and what" were they thinking arises.
Second, the commentary from the YouTube news video reports the building had no sprinklers. This means either the business continuity plan has not been nested within the organisations risk management arrangements or it has been nested and a cost benefit assessment advised not to install sprinkler systems. Which of these is so will be confirmed by the coroner.
Third, a key principles of managing a crisis is "communicate, communicate, communicate". In the modern world, best practice demands a "go to" webpage - even if it only tells customers what is available and what is not available. A default url to switch to is as important as a backup customer service centre line. Unfortunately this is not being provided (as of 11.00am Monday 16 Aug 2010)
