Hartford, Conn. - Travelers now offers new resources to assist businesses with disaster preparedness planning. Two new online tools and a new Safety Academy class, titled "Business Continuity Planning," have been added to help Travelers customers create customized disaster recovery plans that will ensure optimum business continuity in the event of exposures from natural or manmade disasters.Bob Brody, senior vice president, Travelers Risk Control, says, "Emergency planning should be at the top of every "To Do" list for today's businesses. With more than a century of experience in risk control, Travelers is uniquely positioned to help its customers anticipate and respond to a wide spectrum of exposures from catastrophic risks faced by businesses and homeowners."
The first new online tool is "Disaster Preparedness and Business Continuity Management," an exposure guide available to customers and agents, on a CD-ROM that furnishes a practical, step-by-step guide for business continuity planning. The guide includes presentations, technical bulletins and checklists about topics including:
- Hurricane preparedness
- Natural disaster protection, response and recovery
- Property and equipment recovery guidelines
- Health precautions
- A general overview of business continuity planning
- FEMA emergency management guide for business and industry
This new tool contains another interactive resource, Open for Business, made available by the Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS). This Internet-based tool is designed to help small- to medium-sized businesses create disaster recovery plans as well as mitigate natural disaster risks. This second tool is also available on the Travelers Web site.
Travelers Risk Control has also added a disaster preparedness class to its Safety Academy agenda. The new course, "Business Continuity Planning," will enable participants to explore the myriad aspects of disaster planning and is targeted at managers, supervisors and risk management personnel that are considering the development of business continuity plans for their organizations.
Topics for discussion include: the definition of business continuity; the six phases of business continuity planning; a checklist to assist with emergency and recovery plans; function charts delineating responsibilities of business resumption teams; and recovery plan worksheets.
Marty Henry, vice president, Travelers Risk Control says, "Our customers have asked for our help, and we've responded with simple-to-use tools and training to make sure that they create a business continuity plan before a disaster strikes. With these new tools, we assist them in finding peace of mind."
Source: The St. Paul Travelers Cos. Inc.
