Very few business owners would dispute the wisdom behind having a business continuity plan. This doesn’t stop many (if not most) businesses from having an outdated, ineffective, incomplete or untested plan.
Similar to insurance, this provides the “peace of mind” in knowing you have a disaster recovery and/or business continuity plan, even if you never use it. As a result, these plans are frequently incomplete in design and execution.
“Every business continuity plan should have these elements, at a minimum!“
Data and Image Backup
– Business level Applications: Without Image and data backups, you won’t get your business back online and running after a disaster.
– Store backups on and off-site: Local backups are great for a quick recovery solution from minor issues, while off-site storage (automated) can only greater ensure the disaster that affected your office can’t affect your backup.
– Perform frequent and regular test restores of backed-up data: If you think a disaster hurts, discovering that your backed-up data is corrupt only adds insult to injury.
Communication Considerations
– Have a plan to notify employees how, when, and where they can work if something happens to your facility.
-Have a plan to notify partners and suppliers if a disaster affects your place of business. Provide contact info and the expected duration of downtime. This will help your supply chains adapt to your circumstances after a disaster.
– Have a plan to notify clients if a disaster affects your business. They will need to know how fast you will be able to resume operations. Lack of communication along these lines will cause them to assume your business is in dire straits and take their business elsewhere
Drilling and Testing
– Test backups and conduct drills often, ensuring you can restore a down server from your backed up data.
– Document procedures for conducting all the phases of your Disaster Recovery plan. Have this documentation in the hands of trusted personnel within your organization.
– Don’t assume your IT person will be available after a disaster. Make sure more than one person knows how to restore your systems.
– Store important information off-site. A list of phone numbers to call after a fire won’t do any good if it burns up in the fire.
– Update your plan yearly. Personnel change, phone numbers change, suppliers change, and technology changes. A business continuity plan that hasn’t changed in 2 years may be useless when a disaster strikes.
You’ll still hope to never use your business continuity plan. Of course, if you were to need it, your business will be on the fast track to resume operations as soon as possible. It will give your business a leg up on your competition.
Clare Computer Solutions has helped many companies design and put in place a business continuity plan. We’d be glad to help your company, too. Contact us today to get started.
