Q: An agency wants to prepare as best as possible for the possibility that its agency management system (AMS) goes down for an extended period of time, such as after a natural disaster or cyberattack. What best practices are recommended for maintaining access to AMS data? Should the agency be running and downloading weekly reports? 

Response 1: If you're on a cloud version of the AMS, then the vendor is responsible for making sure the data is accessible to you from any computer. In your disaster preparedness efforts, you need to focus on how to connect to the database when your office is affected by disaster.

There are plenty of ways to shore this access up, with laptops, remote access privileges and alternative internet services. Your AMS vendor may have those resources.

Response 2: You can never be overprepared for a disaster like your system going down. It should be part of your overall disaster plan. If it makes sense to run the weekly reports as you asked, then do it. I recommend you run those reports once a month and run a daily or weekly activity report.

It is important to have these operating procedures in writing, along with procedures on what to do if your system goes down. And whatever source you're using to back up your system, periodically make sure that everything you want to be backed up is actually getting backed up. 

Response 3: Although there is never any harm in backing up material information, I suspect that if you are using a cloud-based AMS, this should be automatically done for you. This is one of the benefits of cloud-based systems because they are backed up in multiple places, minimizing the risks of a disaster at the local level.

That said, given the old saying about an ounce of prevention, it cannot hurt to add another layer of preparedness by manually backing up systems. However, how often you manually back up data may differ by agency size. Weekly may seem more than necessary—monthly would probably be fine. Your agency errors & omissions provider may also have insights here, as operating without certain data or records of coverage changes could expose you to a claim.

Response 4: The Big “I" Agents Council for Technology (ACT) recently updated their disaster guide for agents, and the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of Louisiana (IIABL) has an excellent disaster planning manual as well.

Assuming you have zero access to your data and none of it is in the cloud and accessible from other locations, a current list of clients, including contact and policy information, is very beneficial. 

Otherwise, it depends on how the cloud system works for you. Sometimes, cloud-based AMS vendors maintain two copies of the data: one in the cloud and one on the agency's server, also called a local copy. If your AMS vendor is maintaining a local copy of the data for you, then your physical backup—assuming it backs up the local copy—would work.

If the AMS only maintains a cloud version, then you need to take the extra steps to ensure you make physical or electronic copies of the data.

This is all assuming the AMS is local to the agency. If you are running the system entirely offline, then there's no plug-and-play option available. In that case, you need copies of the data that don't depend on internet access to the AMS to read and extract data. Current data, downloaded at least weekly, is what you'll need.

This question was originally submitted by an agent through the Big “I" Virtual University's (VU) Ask an Expert service, with responses curated from multiple VU faculty members. Answers to other coverage questions are available on the VU website. If you need help accessing the website, request login information.

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