 | By Dr. Joy Dike, Ph.D. Business continuity planning is often times an afterthought. Rather than being a proactive endeavor, a lot of businesses see it as an added expense that has little payoff. Or businesses see it as something that pertains to their IT department alone. |
Business continuity planning is kind of like life insurance – most people know they should have it, but it takes time, effort, and money and often gets pushed to the background. Like insurance, a business continuity plan is something you hope your business will never need to use. Like insurance, if you don’t have it in place you’ll regret it if tragedy strikes.
If you have a business continuity plan, do you review it annually? Sometimes businesses write a business continuity plan and then never look at it again. Your business continuity plan should be reviewed and drilled annually or semi-annually.
Business continuity plans often consist of the bare bones basics: a list of contact numbers, a spreadsheet about who works from home and who is on standby, and maybe some file server access information. The bare bones business continuity plan may take into account natural disasters, fire or flooding in the building, burst pipes, building contamination, major utility outage, and major computer viruses. But this stuff isn’t enough! You need to think both bigger and more detailed at the same time.
Maybe your business DOES have a business continuity plan. That’s great! Follow us over the next few days and we look at a handful of scenarios your business continuity plan probably doesn’t cover. We’ll also look at some issues pertaining to your business impact analysis, so don’t forget about that too.
If you have a business continuity plan, do you review it annually? Sometimes businesses write a business continuity plan and then never look at it again. Your business continuity plan should be reviewed and drilled annually or semi-annually.
Business continuity plans often consist of the bare bones basics: a list of contact numbers, a spreadsheet about who works from home and who is on standby, and maybe some file server access information. The bare bones business continuity plan may take into account natural disasters, fire or flooding in the building, burst pipes, building contamination, major utility outage, and major computer viruses. But this stuff isn’t enough! You need to think both bigger and more detailed at the same time.
Maybe your business DOES have a business continuity plan. That’s great! Follow us over the next few days and we look at a handful of scenarios your business continuity plan probably doesn’t cover. We’ll also look at some issues pertaining to your business impact analysis, so don’t forget about that too.
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