by Brianna Crandall — December 1, 2014—The Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety’s (IBHS) free business continuity planning toolkit, Open for Business-EZ (OFB-EZ), is now available as a free mobile app. The original Open for Business is a property protection and recovery planning tool for small to mid-sized businesses, and may serve as a quick reminder checklist for larger businesses.
IBHS member company EMC Insurance Companies partnered with IBHS to develop the new app, OFB-EZ Mobile, which guides users through an easy process to create a recovery plan that will help even the smallest business recover and re-open quickly after a disaster.
OFB-EZ Mobile, available for Android devices in the Google Play Store and for Apple devices in the App Store, includes several helpful planning tools, such as evaluation checklists to help business users understand their risks, and forms for users to enter and store important contact information for employees, key customers, suppliers, and vendors.
“When a small business experiences a disruption, whether it is caused by natural, man-made or technological forces, it can be costly and even result in the business’ permanent closure,” said Gail Moraton, IBHS business resiliency program manager. “OFB-EZ uses non-technical language and makes it easy for business owners to produce an effective business continuity plan so they are able to keep their doors open during disruptions and return to normal operations as quickly as possible.”
OFB-EZ is also available at no charge in Adobe Acrobat (pdf) and Microsoft Word formats on the IBHS Web site. Additional disaster preparedness resources for businesses and consumers are also available on the IBHS DisasterSafety.org Web site.
