Business Continuity Planning, also referred to as Disaster Recovery, is basically a formal plan whereby your business or company can continue running as smoothly as possible despite the interruption in normal services that a crisis situation may create. For example, suppose a power outage occurs resulting from a natural disaster, a Business Continuity Plan will allow you to continue to handle customer requests or share important data within your organization. This may involve moving to a pre-determined location, implementing special protocols or retrieving hard copies of business or client information. In the past, many businesses have had no choice but to shut the doors temporarily and wait for services to be restored. In many cases, this lapse in the normal flow of business results in the doors shutting permanently.
Gone are those days, because there are professional services available that will effectively allow your business to prepare ahead of time for how it will respond and recover in the event of a disaster. A Business Continuity Plan will determine how your business will continue to operate despite the absence of leadership, utility power or access to the internet. In most cases, this begins with a printed manual, stored in a disaster proof location inside the business. The manual will contain complete and clear instructions on the steps to follow for securing sensitive and confidential information that will protect the interests of the company. It will also contain procedures for handling business transactions and data recovery for clients and vendors
The success of a Business Continuity Plan can best be illustrated by the actions that some businesses had to take after the 911 World Trade Center attacks in 2001. When terrorists attacked firms that were housed within those and nearby buildings, only those businesses with well developed and thoroughly tested Business Continuity Plans survived and were operational again within a few days. On the other hand, when the World Trade Center was bombed eight years earlier in 1993, before organizations realized the need for Business Continuity Plans, 350 businesses were affected by that blast and 150 of those were forced to shut their doors for good.
The development of a Business Continuity Plan involves 5 stages:
1Analysis - A complete threat analysis with regard to the overall structure of the business and the impact that a natural disaster, civil uprising, economic breakdown or technical failure would have on the business along with the amount of time it would take to restore operations without causing permanent damage to the business. The analysis would specifically identify critical systems that are major priorities and contribute to the continued operation of the business during a crisis situation. These are systems that need to be up and running at all times if possible. For example, if the web servers for amazon.com were to crash, this would be considered a critical system incident.
2Solution Design - The identification of a practical and cost effective solution to overcome specific aspects of critical areas of disruption including the retrieval of data within the most tolerable time frame.
3Testing and Organization Acceptance - A series of testing with mock crisis situations to check the efficiency and effectiveness of the Business Continuity Plan until it has been determined by the organization that it will meet the immediate needs of the business in the event of an emergency.
4Implementation - The complete execution and walk-through of the finished solution that will be implemented once specific instructions are followed along with the complete set-up and securing of the plan.
5Maintenance - The annual or bi-annual evaluation and updating of the Business Continuity Plan to determine if it continues to meet the operational needs of the business in the event of an emergency as well as specific training given to individuals whose roles are critical to response and recovery.
Does your small business have a Business Continuity Plan? Are you willing to risk the possibility that your business may suffer a complete shutdown and subsequent failure in the event of a crisis situation simply because you were not prepared to continue operations? Why not invest a few moments of your time to consult with a professional Business Continuity Plan designer at Stacked Networks, Inc.
You may not have the power to control everything, but preparation gives you controlling power.
