Business continuity planning

Many small business owners make the mistake of thinking that business continuity is just about dealing with dramatic events such as fire or flood. In reality, even the most mundane of circumstances can force an office to close or result in catastrophic data loss.

By Rajesh Sinha, technical director, Extrasys

While you can’t necessarily avoid disaster, you can take steps to ensure that your business is protected from the consequences. Follow these steps to ensure your company is well placed to bounce back from any unforeseen problems:

Do not rely on insurance

Although adequate insurance is important and may seem like the obvious safeguard against disaster, it can take months to receive a pay out. Plus, it still takes time to get systems and data up and running again, during which time you could lose substantial trade.

Develop a comprehensive business continuity plan

As most business owners know, effective planning is a key element of success. A comprehensive business continuity plan should include procedures for backing-up and storing the information needed to get your business up and running again if your office is unexpectedly forced to close or your technology fails.

Ensure the plan includes details of preferred suppliers of serviced offices, copies of business-critical documents and files, as well as key customer and supplier contacts. Your plan should be kept offsite to keep it safe and readily accessible.

Create a policy for the back-up of your IT systems

Have a policy in place that ensures regular, comprehensive back-ups. Make sure you assign clear responsibility for this task, and specify exactly when it should be completed and what information should be duplicated. Be sure to include details of who will take on this responsibility in the event of absence through illness or holiday.

Store the back-ups away from the office

Whatever method is used to back-up your data, all back-up disks should be removed from the office and stored elsewhere. That way, even if your entire office is destroyed, your data is safe. 

You may choose to take your back-up disks home with you every evening or arrange to leave them at a partner business. There are also private companies that offer a service to collect your back-up disks from your premises at agreed times and store them at secure locations.

Consider outsourcing the management of your IT systems to a third party

Evaluate the option of backing-up your data online over a broadband connection to a remote data centre at a managed IT services provider.

The advantage of this method is that, if disaster does strike, you can quickly access the information and applications you need over the internet while you get your business back up and running.  

Some businesses go one step further and rather than running software locally on their computers, opt for all their software to be delivered continually over broadband and for the corporate network to be stored at a data centre rather than on an in-house server. 

This completely removes the need for businesses to conduct back-ups and also alleviates the headache of managing an IT network with upgrades, maintenance and security, as it’s all taken care of as part of the service. 
Practice your crisis management procedures and train staff

Once this plan has been developed it must be subjected to rigorous testing. Practice your disaster recovery plan on a quarterly basis.

This not only hones your disaster recovery team's skills but it will also familiarise new staff with the procedure, and ensure that your disaster recovery strategy is kept up to date by revealing any issues with new equipment or software.

Staff should be thoroughly trained to be made aware of the plan and their own related duties and responsibilities.
Regularly review your business continuity plan and procedures

Finally, periodically review your plan and back-up method to make sure that it continues to be appropriate for your business. Reviews should be undertaken every 6-12 months.

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By Rajesh Sinha  on   Jul 12,2008

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Keywords

business continuity    managed IT    IT network    broadband    acts of God   

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