If your Utah business was unable to operate due to weather conditions, technical difficulties, or a hack, what would you do? It’s a question that every business owner needs to ask themselves. If you don’t know, it can cost your business productivity, money, and more. Whether the business is a small office with less than 10 employees or a field office for an international brand, you need a business continuity plan. This includes identifying the reason for companywide downtime, communicating with key players, and implementing a response plan.
Weather is unpredictable. Cyberattacks can happen at any time. Technology isn’t foolproof.
I might be aging myself but… I remember when Y2K was a real threat to technology. It was the end of 1999 and computers weren’t programmed to flip to 2000. The fear was that dates would reset to year 00 and programmers didn’t know what the impact would be. Turns out, we had nothing to worry about, but the threat was real at the time. Not all disasters end well like Y2K and it’s why we recommend a business continuity plan for each of our clients.
What Should be Included in a Business Continuity Plan?
A business continuity plan is a plan you never want to have to use but that your business needs. Collaborating with you, we create a guide for how your organization will run immediately after a disaster, and for the long term.
Communication, Risk Analysis, Incident Response, and Recovery
- Executive Summary – Who are the key players within the organization? Include a list of their names and contact information.
- Employee Information – Who are the managers? Create a list of managers and their contact information. Decide who they will each contact in case of a disaster. Maybe they contact one employee who contacts the next employee on the list.
- Office(s) and Equipment – Take inventory of office addresses and equipment. Where are the servers? How many workstations at each location? Who works at each location? In case of a disaster, your team will be able to assess exactly what and who may be impacted.
- Incident Response – We identify who will be part of this team and how the plan will be activated then we run through scenarios to ensure everyone knows what is happening and their role.
- Recovery Plan – This includes the initial response to disaster through getting the business running at full capacity.
Lastly, after you’ve done all the work to create the business continuity plan, we highly recommend reviewing it annually to address changes within the organization.
911 IT is here to support your team through disaster by developing and implementing a business continuity plan that works for your organization. Contact us today to learn more.
