Recent events such as the spread of COVID-19 have reminded many businesses why it’s so important to have a plan in place on how to mitigate risks that arise from things like travel bans and mandatory quarantine procedures.
Most disasters don’t give advance notice on when they are going to happen, even if there is some warning, events unfold rapidly and can change quickly. Here are 5 examples of why a Business Continuity Plan is an essential part of any business.
Minimise downtime
Downtime can cost businesses thousands of dollars every hour they cannot work. Think about not only the billable time lost but also the opportunity cost of paid employees not able to be productive.
A Business Continuity Plan will not only help you to mitigate downtime but will also give you a process to follow in the event that your systems go down.
Backups are not enough
Backups are an important part of your Disaster Recovery Plan but they don’t guarantee you’ll be back up and running if something goes wrong. If there is a disaster that wipes out all your applications and software, how useful will your data be?
Business Continuity Plans not only encompass how data should be protected but how to get the business back up and running if your infrastructure and processes are interrupted.
Plans and processes
One of the key benefits of a Business Continuity Plan is to establish a state of order amongst the chaos. It will ensure there is a place in place and everyone understands the chain of command and delegation of responsibility.
When something goes wrong without a plan, it’s easy to waste time figuring out who does what and what actions should take place. A Business Continuity Plan will mean your team can jump straight to addressing the situation.
Resilient culture
Resilience is a word that is thrown around a lot, both in our professional and personal lives, but it is important for a business to have a resilient culture.
Businesses that implement and continually improve their business continuity plans will often see an increased emphasis on resilience related to the everyday operations from employees. The concept of continuity starts to apply in everything your employees do, particularly if there’s strong management support for the program.
Stay alive
At the end of the day, the most important reason to have a Business Continuity Plan is to keep your business alive after a disaster or incident. Businesses that have a strong continuity plan in place are more likely to come out of a crisis surviving and thriving than their counterparts.
An up-to-date, tested plan gives your business the best chance of surviving a disaster. By not having a Business Continuity Plan you are putting considerable risk on your business to not only recover slowly, but perhaps not at all.
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