How long can your business survive with no access to its premises?

How long can your business survive if you have no access to your computers?

How recently did you test your backups? Not just a file restore but a whole system restore?

Recent severe weather events in England have once again highlighted that we can no longer take for granted that the English weather, while being very dreary – miserable even, is mostly harmless.  Flood defences in Cockermouth were upgraded just a few years ago to cope with a “once in a hundred years” event – yesterdays was worse than ever expected.

A business continuity plan is a vital document for any business to have.  If done properly it’s not just about taking your backup tapes home, it’s a full analysis of risks to your business and a plan to cope with those eventualities.

How long before you get into real trouble?  How long before your customers lose confidence in you?

Most importantly what’s the plan to mitigate this?  We are not necessarily talking about fully managed (and expensive) workplace recovery solutions with your entire office replicated elsewhere.  We should however be looking at the practical aspects of how we get things up and running again for you.  Where does the management team meet? Who handles HR issues? Who looks after the phones (and who gets them diverted to a new number and how)? How and where do we get your computer systems up and running again?

It’s no wonder most small businesses don’t have a Business Continuity Plan, there are a lot of areas to consider and it’s very easy to put it off till later – after all “it won’t happen to me”.

The question is can you afford NOT to have one?  Do you really know how long your business can survive?