If technology fails, try Plan-b

Plan-b managing director Ian Forrester says his service is essentially an insurance against disruption. Photo / Supplied

When a contractor wielding an angle grinder accidentally cut into the air-conditioning cooling system of a downtown Auckland office block, thousands of litres of water poured through 11 floors of office space.

The mishap forced some businesses in the high-rise to evacuate while the mess was cleaned up.

For Southern Cross, which has a call centre in the building, the disruption could have meant thousands of dollars an hour of lost business and a line-up of disgruntled customers as phones went unanswered.

But a contract with Albany "business continuity" company Plan-b meant the insurer could immediately move staff, and switch incoming calls and its computer network links, to emergency office space run by Plan-b.

Ever-growing use of technology may have increased productivity but it has also raised the risk of serious disruption if that technology fails or the offices where it is housed suddenly become inaccessible.

Power blackouts in Auckland this year have been a reminder of the need to prepare for business disruptions. Plan-b managing director Ian Forrester says planning to have staff work from home or meet at an internet cafe is unlikely to be the best option.

"We've found that those businesses that believe that's possible operate at an incredibly inefficient level because people need to communicate. They need to sit down in a room and plan, talk about things, have a white board," he says.

Plan-b, founded in the mid-1990s, sells computer data tape backup management and storage services, along with server maintenance, repair and recovery services, as well as its stand-by "nerve centre" facilities. It has more than 500 customers, ranging from large organisations to small businesses.

While the recession has stalled many technology companies' ambitions, Plan-b has been on an aggressive growth path, with the family-owned company saying it has re-invested all profits, plus several million dollars of shareholder funds back into the business over the past 18 months.

The company, which employs about 40 staff, has expanded its stand-by service with new facilities in Hamilton and Wellington, and established a business continuity consultancy arm which has picked up contracts in several companies.

Last week it began new online backup services targeting smaller businesses which Forrester says has only become an affordable option as technology and broadband infrastructure improves.

"While online managed backups have been available for a few years now, the cost of data transfer and the speeds at which it could be done just made it not that attractive," he says.

"But that's certainly getting better and we expect as data transfer costs come down in price it will become more and more attractive."

Forrester, a former corporate financier who is the son-in-law of

Plan-b co-founder and chairman Gray Mathias, joined the company in 2007.

He says the company is continuing to invest for growth because its owners see huge potential for the services it offers.

"The business model of having customers subscribe for a small monthly fee to what is essentially an insurance product is just going to grow and become a necessity for every business," he says.

"It is growing from a legislative perspective, with fiduciary requirements on directors. They have to make sure they have done everything in their power to make sure businesses are safe and secure, and this is part of that process."

Forrester says Plan-b's services are aimed at keeping companies in business if they are hit by an event that affects them but not their competitors, rather than a major civil disaster such as an earthquake.

"It's not that we won't help a customer, it's that if the whole of Auckland is flattened it affects every business and people are going to be more focused on personal survival than on business survival."