Is your business prepared for a cyber-attack, natural disaster, or even simple human error? Any of these situations can cost your business time, money and its reputation if you don’t have a plan. A business continuity plan is one which minimizes loss and disruption due to minor and significant events.
Recently, we had to implement our own business continuity plan due to a building-wide power outage. A landscaping incident took out the power to our building and the initial power restoration estimate was multiple days. Faced with the possibility of a multi-day business disruption, we put our business continuity plan into place.
We couldn’t control their timeline, but we were able to control ours with two key pieces:
- Backup Generators– Ahead of time, our IT team had identified critical pieces of the business that would need to function in the event of a disruption. These services were brought back into use with a backup generator.
- Offsite Work Station– Our staff had other locations to work from. We have a warehouse nearby and remote capabilities for some employees. Having access to the warehouse allowed us to move employee work stations and forward our phone lines.
Our day usually begins at 8AM. We were set up and ready to go at the warehouse (or remotely) by 10AM. The power to the building was restored and all systems (critical and non-critical) were back online by 1PM. A significant power outage resulted in less than one day of business disruption because we had a plan in place and our team worked together to continue serving our clients.
Wondering whether you need a business continuity plan? Ask yourself these questions:
- Do you know the critical pieces of your business that must continue to function?
- Do you have a plan for your staff to work somewhere other than the affected location?
- Will they have access to the software, documents and equipment they need to work?
- How quickly do you need access to your backup data?
- Are you prepared for multiple types of events?
- Do you have the right types of insurance?
- How long can you afford for your business to be down?
More questions about business continuity? Contact us for more information.