Summary
Until recently Business Continuity was seen as necessity only for large organisations. It is now widely accepted, no matter the size of the business, it is imperative that has a Business Continuity plan in place in order to survive a disaster situation.
Although seemingly surrounded by jargon the process of Business Continuity is, in fact, very simple and easy to apply. Very minor, scalable and cost effective changes can be made to even the smaller business which will enable it to survive a major incident.
The purpose of this guide is to remove the technical jargon and show how Business Continuity can fit the needs of SME`sThink about the effects on a business if its premises caught fire. What would happen if it were to experience a major utilities failure or extreme weather conditions? For small and medium sized Enterprises (SME`s) which are localised it is even more imperative to have some Business Continuity capability.
In recent years Business Continuity has become the norm in large corporate organisations. Now the same practices are beginning to filter through to smaller business as they begin to see the benefits. The key when implementing a Business Continuity plan, as an SME, is simplicity. No Technical ability is needed and even small changes which are scalable to the company size can mean the difference between disaster and survival.
What is Business Continuity?
The first step in applying a plan to any type of business is understanding what Business Continuity actually is. Put simply without jargon it is an action performed or applied to ensure business function is available during incident or disaster.
Business Continuity takes a number of forms ???
Workplace recovery
If an incident rendered a business premises unusable, to where would it recover its operation? Simple?. to a workplace recovery facility. These are buildings dedicated to providing effective workplace environments to allow continuation of business operations, in emergency situations.
Hosting
Hosting is the process of holding, either whole or in part, your computer systems and software etc. This can be done offsite allowing complete security should your premises or equipment be lost.
IT/Telecoms Backup
Allowing your telecoms and IT solutions to be accessible away from your premises with complete security of your data.
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The importance of employees is sometimes missed. The success of any company is determined by the most valuable asset -Â its people. Identify the risk of your employees and put procedures in place for them to continue work.
The plan then needs to be tested and regularly updated. It helps to make someone responsible for this so assigning the role of Business Continuity Project Manager could be useful.
The importance of employees is sometimes missed. The success of any company is determined by the most valuable asset -Â its people. Identify the risk of your employees and put procedures in place for them to continue work.
The plan then needs to be tested and regularly updated. It helps to make someone responsible for this so assigning the role of Business Continuity Project Manager could be useful.
Conclusion
Each of the elements mentioned earlier (Workplace recovery, Hosting and IT/Telecoms Backup) cover very specific areas of business. Not all will apply to every business template. Taking the time to review the business model will help decide the best option available. Once a workable, tested business continuity solution is in place it will provide complete peace of mind for the organisastion, employees and customers.
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