Disasters can happen at any time and can often be unpredictable. Having a business continuity plan in place to be ready for anything will help your company avoid unnecessary stress, and quickly get your business functioning normally again. A continuity plan will help you minimize the damage caused by a disaster and prevent you from losing productivity.
One report in 2022 shows that 77% of surveyed SMBs are planning to increase their cybersecurity budgets over the next 12 months to prepare against data breaches or other business-interrupting disasters. Companies like these are realizing the importance of preparing a business continuity plan to ensure that natural disasters and cyber threats don’t disrupt their daily operation with downtime.
What is a Business Continuity Plan?
A business continuity plan refers to a framework that outlines how an organization will continue to function in the event of a disaster taking place. These disasters could include natural disasters, cyberattacks, hardware failure, system outages, and other potential threats. The plan should also include contact information for reaching employees, suppliers, and customers to keep them informed. Business Continuity Planning (BCP) allows organizations to resume normal business operations with minimal downtime.
The primary purpose of creating a business continuity plan is to ensure that the company can continue to operate sufficiently after a disaster. While it’s impossible to completely prevent any type of disaster from happening, a disaster recovery plan can help reduce the impact they have on your company.
Why is a Business Continuity Plan Important for Businesses of All Industries?
The importance of having a business continuity plan in place has been highlighted in recent years by several major disasters. In 2017 for example, Hurricane Harvey hit the southeastern region of Texas, causing widespread damage and disrupting businesses. Disasters like this can cause companies to close their doors for extended periods of time, which results in a loss of revenue.
Similarly, the COVID-19 pandemic has also shown the importance of having a business continuity plan. As governments around the world have implemented lockdown measures to prevent the spread of the virus, many businesses were forced to temporarily close their doors. A business continuity plan can help companies prepare for these types of disruptions and minimize the impact they have on operations, preventing them from having to close temporarily or permanently.
By having a plan in place, businesses can avoid costly downtime and disruptions to their operations.
Elements of a Strong BCP
Now that we’ve gone over the importance of having a BCP, let’s take a look at how you can create one for your own business. When creating your continuity plan, there are several elements of the plan you should include:
- Identification of critical systems and data
- Determination of acceptable downtime for each system
- Development of a backup and recovery plan for critical systems and data
- Identification of key personnel who will be responsible for executing the continuity plan
- Creation of communication plans for employees and consumers
- Development of a testing and maintenance schedule for the continuity plan
While this list is not exhaustive, it covers some important aspects of a BCP. Including these elements in your own continuity plan can ensure your company is prepared for anything that comes it’s way.
Keep Your Business Running Smoothly
Proactively working to implement a BCP that aids business processes and minimizes downtime is critical for all businesses of all sizes. ANC Group custom-tailors a unique IT strategy for your company to ensure your business operations continue to run smoothly in the event of a disaster. Contact our team today to get started!
