BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLANNING

What Businesses Should Have a Continuity Plan?

All businesses ought to have a continuity plan, as a disaster can strike any business. The more complex a business’ structure and operations are, the more complex its plan will be.

What Elements Should a Continuity Plan Include?

There are several key elements that a continuity plan should have. Plans often include:

• The business’ location and contact numbers
• A contact list or phone tree of employees
• Strategies for recovering vital processes, including timeframes for recovering those processes
• A list of available resources, including personnel, facilities, and specialized equipment
• A plan to recover lost information, including both physical charts and electronic data
• A list of contact information for critical vendors

Even small businesses that have a single owner who knows all of this information should still have a place where these details are written down. If the owner is ever impacted by a disaster, someone else may need to help the business recover.

The above list is only a general list of what businesses may want to include in their plans. The exact items that a particular business should have in its plan will depend on the nature of the business, how large it is, and what types of disasters could affect it. A professional who specializes in business continuity planning can help businesses make sure their plans include everything that might be needed if a disaster strikes.

So What Does it All Mean?

When disasters strike businesses, they can have lasting effects on routine operations. A single disaster can disrupt a supply chain, shut down a facility, make order fulfillment impossible, render data inaccessible and causes many other problems. Business continuity planning helps businesses develop strategies for dealing with the interruptions that disasters can cause.