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Before you determine what needs to be considered in an IT focused Business Continuity Plan (BCP), you first have to know what a BCP is. At Vivacity Technologies, we are a group of IT professionals that help clients create workable BCP plans – among other consulting services.
What is an IT focused Business Continuity Plan?
An IT BCP outlines precisely how your business will continue to function during an unexpected service disruption. It needs to cover three main areas – infrastructure, technology and people. An IT BCP is similar to, and also includes, a disaster recovery plan. Generally, however, it is broader in scope including resources and employees, while also being geared to your IT systems and company’s data.
Unfortunately, disruptions to your business data will happen and present multiple risks, including:
Financial losses
Damaged reputation
Data loss
Security issues
Having a solid IT BCP in place will help to mitigate those risks by facilitating a quick and smooth recovery process. Here are five points to consider when implementing an IT BCP:
It must be led from the top. While the business lead does not need to create the BCP all alone, they do need to oversee the entire framework and have buy-in from all of upper management. The first priority is to identify your goals. By knowing and agreeing upon the main goals in times of crisis, your team will be united and ready to implement the framework of the plan.
Understand the risks. Define what type of risks you’re planning for. Once you know the main risks, you can assess them to determine potential impacts to your business. You can then determine how best to utilize resources to mitigate the impacts.
Devise a strategy. You have analyzed the risks and identified your resources, now you need to find cost-effective, practical strategies to reduce the fallout from your business’s disruption.
Think about infrastructure and communications. This is the age of computers and knowing how to use them best to serve you and your customers is vital, both to save your valuable data and keep communication flowing within your team and clientele. Having cloud computing solutions in place will allow employees to remotely interact when necessary and will aid in business recovery efforts. Integrating your social media and social networking platforms allows you to provide information and updates to customers and employees quickly and accurately.
Testing. A company’s BCP has to be regularly tested and adjusted in order to be effective. Emergency simulations should take place annually in order to find holes or areas of concern within the plan. The plan is not a one-and-done. It must be regularly assessed and adjusted as the world and technology around us changes.
We know you want to make the right decisions for your business, but creating an effective IT focused BCP can be a daunting job. We can help. To get your IT assessment done and start building your BCP, visit the What We Do page and book a meeting. By auditing your current IT system, we can give you unbiased advice and provide actionable improvements on the current state of your IT system.
Overview of Vivacity Technologies
Vivacity Technologies is a Canadian based organization providing independent IT consulting, and support with technology deployments. Aligning corporate strategies and IT environments is challenging, so having a trusted partner to rely on can be critical to an organization's success. Vivacity is that partner and an extension to your team, helping private, public and First Nation organizations bridge the gap between their current IT environment and their desired future state. For more information contact us info@vvctec.com.