Organizations managing disasters have a mission to provide recovery services to individuals impacted by the disaster event. As a large number of individuals are often impacted, systems are implemented to support the delivery and tracking of information throughout the recovery program. This system is an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system.

In traditional business, these systems usually manage our assets, production, accounting, marketing, and human resource activities. In the disaster world, however, these systems manage applicants and funding mechanisms as well as the individual work streams and auditing functions to better support the program and its applicants.

Disaster recovery managers are often charged with identifying and selecting the systems to support their program. Here are some helpful tips that will make this process a little easier.

There is no off-the-shelf solution that is going to meet all of the needs of your program.

Disaster recovery is complex and almost every response is customized to the state and locality delivering the services. Therefore, while certain components of an ERP system designed for these programs can be used to support recovery efforts, customization is likely. When choosing a solution to implement, select a solution that is flexible and for which you have or can find resources to support. There will be always be changes; so having a system that can be easily modified will increase the success of your system implementation.

The system architecture and design decisions you make in the first few months will impact every future decision.

After the ERP system is designed, the program often changes. This leads to significant rework to support the program mission and goals. Operations managers should make sure they have a consultant with experience in disaster recovery who can point out the risks with systems and understand disaster recovery programs. By collaborating with an experienced consultant, risks are managed from the beginning and future changes will have limited negative impacts.

People will leave; plan for it.

Document decisions at all levels of the program: policy decisions, standard operating procedures, process flows, data flows, lessons learned, and the analysis behind those decisions. This will be time consuming, but maintaining historical data will save you precious time when people leave, when you have audits, and when you are making critical system changes. Having an effective knowledge transfer and management plan in place is the only way to ensure the system is effective long term.

There will be more changes requested than you have resources to implement.

When policies are changing to enhance delivery of services to impacted persons, and systems are being updated to reflect those changes at the same time users are being added to support the program, there will be numerous change requests. These change requests will range from personal preference of interfaces to policy driven changes. In order to manage change effectively, system managers need to prioritize changes and focus on those changes with the greatest impact to the program as well as evaluate the timeline for implementation of those changes as part of the decision-making process. If change requests are not prioritized, the team could spend time implementing changes that have no positive impact on the program, while critical changes languish.

The program will eventually end, but not as quickly as you expect.

Decisions are often made regarding systems with the thinking that disaster programs are temporary. This kind of thinking, while important to recognize, can have damaging impacts on the ability of a system to support the program effectively. Systems should be designed for permanence in spite of the limited lifespan of recovery programs. The initial system should not be thought of as temporary, but upgrades and enhancements should include a cost/benefit analysis that factors in the anticipated program end. Thinking of the solution as permanent will allow the program to have a solution in place for better supporting the overall program mission throughout its duration.