When a company is forced to stop its operations, financial losses can be sunk. In addition, a company that stops its activities gives a negative image to the public, which can lead to loss of customers and revenue. Therefore, it is essential to have a business continuity plan. In today’s article, we address the main issues related to this topic!
What is a business continuity plan?
Business continuity is nothing more than the ability of the company to maintain its normal operation even in the event of critical events, such as a computer disaster. The purpose of these plans is to guide employees so that they know what actions to take after such an event, thus adopting a proactive rather than reactive stance.
What are the key features of a successful business continuity and disaster recovery plan?
- List of updated contacts – internal and external – so that the activation of the plan can be executed in a simple and fast way;
- Documented procedures that include the lines of action to respond to specific situations (for example, evacuation plans, server recovery and recovery of communication services);
- Regular exercises to test the smooth operation of the plan using emergency response team members – most organizations forget the importance of these tests – an untested recovery plan does not pass a plan of good intentions
- Advance agreements with organizations to provide support services such as space for temporarily displaced employees and rapid replacement of damaged equipment;
- Agreements with financial institutions to obtain liquidity in order to ensure business continuity and payments;
- Administrative management support.
What are the business areas and processes that companies should consider when developing a plan?
All areas of the business are important for the development of a business continuity and disaster recovery plan. All department heads must contribute to this plan, indicating what their department does, what their intervention in the critical processes of the company, on which the normal operations depend (what technologies, applications and systems are necessary to carry out the daily tasks ), where the most important data is stored, and the maximum time of data loss and stoppage that the department can take. This information is then used to identify the most critical business processes and to set the base requirements for your business. Another important factor relates to risk assessment, which examines internal and external situations that may threaten the operation of the business. This assessment also identifies identified vulnerabilities that, if left untreated, can become real threats.