Key stages for an effective business continuity plan
Winter is coming and with it the risk of disruption increases, make sure your business is ready
It may not be the best thing to think about but every business needs to have a plan for the worst possible scenario. With a risk of flooding or even the office being closed through storm damage, it is worthwhile to spend the time to have a business continuity plan that encompasses every factor of your business. Here is some advice from us to make sure that a nightmare scenario doesn’t knock you off your feet.
Find temporary workspace
Depending on your industry, workspace may seem like a major factor but in truth, you can work around it. For a shop or storage company, it’s important to find a backup location that will work as a temporary location while your premises is out of order, or at the very least to protect stock. Protecting your investment in stock and fixed assets is the main priority.
Can staff do their job elsewhere?
If you are an office-based company, workspace is not the main priority. With a myriad of options for communication, the company can be fully functioning for an extended period of time with staff working from home or at temporary locations. The main issue to consider here is communication. A group email to keep staff updated and aware of when the office will be back up-and-running is important. Staff will be hesitant to communicate with personal phones and so online communication or company mobile phones need to be considered.
The priority is ensuring that everyone is kept up-to-date and that they have as many of the tools they use on a regular basis as possible. To do this, use apps hosted in the cloud, ensuring that data can be saved and not disrupted, regardless of damage to your premises.
Keep business partners in the loop
Ensuring that you can keep in contact with clients and suppliers is vital; they need to understand the issues you are facing and that you are doing your best to service them despite the disruption. This is critical to maintaining a revenue stream and the long-term security of the business – clients understand that everyone faces unavoidable issues at one time or another and if you keep them updated they will remain loyal to you.
How will I protect our vital information?
Protecting servers is crucial. Whether they are onsite or hosted in the cloud, they need to remain up and running for you to remain functional, to access information and maintain its security as well as complete business transactions.
Protecting your server and backing it up elsewhere is crucial to securing confidential staff and client information, something you must do in order to be compliant with the law as well as protect the key intellectual property that your business is based upon, including documents like staff contracts and patents.
Where are you vulnerable?
The focus of business continuity is identifying where you are weakest and addressing them. Anything that is vital to your business plan needs to be maintained while you’re working under your business continuity plan. What’s more, business continuity is a great exercise in working out efficiencies, identifying the extra products and services that you have but can operate without, allowing you to target areas that could be either focused on or diluted in future.
Ultimately disaster planning is a task in streamlining and identifying backup solutions to how your business currently operates. It is a painstaking task and one that often gets put off, especially if your circumstances change, such as moving premises, but it is something that you will be thankful for doing correctly if there is ever a problem.
If you would like further advice for the future planning of your business, we can help. We offer consultancy services and can help you plan for the future of your business, avoiding whatever the weather, or anything else, throws at you. If you would like to know more, please get in touch be emailing info@morganreach.com or calling us on 0121 236 0777.
Key stages for an effective business continuity plan
