Business as usual: Be prepared for IT disruptions09 November 2005
It seems this year that the world has suffered a high number of disasters on varying scales, from the hurricanes battering the US to the London bomb attacks. And with murmurings of a potential energy crisis heading Britain's way during the winter, businesses are being urged to have plans in place for coping in the event of a disruption to day-to-day operations.
But two surveys have indicated that small to medium sized businesses in the UK are not adequately prepared to maintain "business as usual" in the face of unforeseen obstacles.
A study carried out by Cable & Wireless and the Institute of Directors found that 65 per cent of British firms polled admitted that their businesses would suffer material losses if staff were unable to come to the office for a day.
And a second report from the British Standards Institute found that 45 per cent of firms would be unable to cope in the event of a major terror or natural threat, and 25 per cent would suffer in the event of a disruption to IT systems.
Deciding not to expend time and resources on planning for something that may never happen could end up being a false economy if the unthinkable occurs. There are some simple processes that small businesses can put in place to help maintain trade in the event of disruption.
Plans
As businesses of all sizes increasingly rely on IT systems for their operations, it is a good idea to put together a business continuity plan. This is an outline of the procedures to follow in order to get your business up and running in the event of an unexpected stoppage.
Being prepared for the unexpected can benefit your business in a number of ways.
- Save money through the efficient and effective resumption of business operations.
- Maintain staff productivity as staffing resources can be simply utilised remotely.
- Ensure customer satisfaction by minimising the knock-on effect to their business of a disruption.
- Promote new custom through outward reliability.
Should business be interrupted for any reason, it is important to ensure that there are contingency processes in place for two aspects your company: staff, and business data.
It's a good idea to ensure that staff members are able to work off-site, in the event of transport disruptions whether as a result of risks or fuel shortages. In order for this to be practical, staff members should be able to access the company network via an extranet in order to utilise business data, company email, and client details. It may also be wise to ensure that company laptops and handheld devices are quipped to access the internet through a wireless connection to allow staff to work both at home and while on the move. See our previous feature on homeworking for more information on this.
But for staff to be able to work effectively whether on-site or remotely, essential company data should be backed up, ideally at a separate location to the company base. The IoD survey found that 31 per cent of businesses recognised the need to have vital data backed-up but kept the information on-site, rendering it useless if access became limited. Using online data back-up, files can be transferred to a different location through a broadband connection. Various companies offer storage and retrieval services, such as BT's Datasure which encrypts essential data to keep it secure. See our online data back-up feature for further information.
You can also find information on business continuity planning at the Business Link website.
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