Unplanned events can have a disastrous effect on small- and medium-sized businesses, which is why every business owner should know about business continuity and disaster recovery. What exactly are business continuity and disaster recovery? Together, it’s a process that identifies risks, threats and vulnerabilities that can impact your business’ continued operations and that provides a framework for building organizational resilience into your business, giving you a way to respond to crises effectively.
Know The Crises That Can Adversely Affect Your Business
Anything can happen at any time and no matter what size your business is, it may be vulnerable. Crises that can affect your business include:
â—ľ Natural disasters: Floods, fire and wind damage
â—ľ Theft or vandalism: Theft or vandalism of computers or other critical equipment
â—ľ Power loss
â—ľ IT system failures, computer viruses and attacks by hackers
â—ľ Restricted access to premises
â—ľ Loss or illness of key staff
â—ľ Terrorist attack
â—ľ Crises affecting suppliers or customers
Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Risk Assessment
Before you can mitigate risks, you must know how vulnerable you are. Through a risk assessment, you can assess the likelihood of a particular crisis occurring, including its projected frequency, and determine its possible impact on your business. Once you’ve determined the odds of any particular crisis affecting your business, you can decide whether or not to take steps to counteract or prevent it. For instance, the likelihood of a terrorist attack may be so low that you can choose to ignore it while a natural disaster, like a flood, may be more likely to occur and should be addressed. To determine the potential impact of a crisis on your business, you must consider the worst-case scenario for every type of crisis you feel is likely to occur. You must also determine how your customers might be impacted by each type of crisis.
Take Steps To Minimize The Impact Of A Crisis
Once you’ve determined the key risks your business faces, you must implement a management plan to protect your business functions from them. Some of the steps you can take include: install fire and burglar alarms, purchase maintenance agreements for critical equipment, install anti-virus software, back up data, purchase business insurance, and do not to rely too heavily on one or two key people for the running of your business.
If you are unsure how to develop an effective strategy for business continuity and disaster recovery, let Service IT Direct help. At Service IT Direct, we can help you develop a plan that will identify your potential risks and determine ways to mitigate them. To find out more, visit us online at www.serviceitdirect.com.
Service IT Direct | Business Continuity | www.serviceitdirect.com