Whatever size business you run, wherever you run it from, it
is imperative you have a Disaster Recovery Plan. ‘Disasters’ don’t just mean
catastrophes like floods or fires. Anything that can bring business to a halt
can be classed as a disaster.
Things like adverse weather conditions that hold staff back
from getting into work, public transport strikes that do the same, police
incidents or terrorist alerts that block access to your premises, power cuts
and telephone or broadband outage. All of these can prove disastrous because
they will stop you serving and communicating with your customers.
How long could you continue without your data, systems or telephones?
Imagine not being able to access your operating systems,
data, files or telephone lines. How long do you think it would be before you
starting losing customers?
Precisely why you need to put together a Disaster Recovery
plan. The plan will include contingencies for every critical element of your
business. It will make you think about back-up plans for everything from
accessing your data to keeping your lines of communication open and providing
somewhere for your staff to work from.
Making good use of the cloud
When it comes to methods of continuing to run ‘business as
usual’, lots of companies are getting set up to work remotely. If staff can
work from home then everything can continue even if they’re unable to get into
work. Cloud based technologies will allow you to provide staff with remote
means of accessing your company network. They’ll be able to login to their own
familiar desktop and access all their files and software just as if they were
at work.
Another cloud based technology that proves incredibly effective
as a back-up plan is a hosted telephone system. Also known as VoIP, this is
basically a telephone system that works over an internet connection. So it’s
not affected by outage at the local exchange, and can be operated from
anywhere. In fact with just a flick of a switch it can transfer to a back-up
plan whereby your calls are re-routed to another number. Callers won’t know any
different so there’s no losing face – or business.
Some companies are signing up to a secondary internet
connection too to cover them in the event of losing their main broadband. This
secondary connection comes via a wireless source, so is not dependent on any
exchange and therefore makes an excellent back-up plan.
Make today the day you put together a Disaster Recovery plan
If your business hasn’t yet put together a Disaster Recovery
plan or you are yet to think about how you would react in a situation that
could potentially stop you operating as normal, make today the day you take
action.
If you’d like some help in getting started, your bookkeepers
can prove a useful resource.
