Surviving a Crisis
EXPECT the unexpected. Business is unpredictable, and a disaster could very well strike your company. Whether it’s a big event like a tornado or flood, or something smaller like a fire, the very existence of your operation could be in jeopardy if you’re not prepared. Develop plans and procedures to mitigate the effects before a disaster hits. The goal is to ensure a speedy return to working order so your operations can continue. And your information technologies should be a big priority. A recent study found those companies that suffered major losses to computerized data didn’t fare so well – 43 percent never reopened for business and 51 percent of those businesses that suffered outages longer than 10 days shut down within two years. What have you done to plan for a disaster? Do you even have a plan? Develop a business continuity plan and a disaster recovery plan to help you prepare before disaster strikes. BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLANNING A business continuity plan establishes a course of action – in terms of who, what, when and how – to support continued operations should a disaster occur. This business continuity plan contains advanced arrangements and procedures to guide your response to a disaster. It allows your critical business functions to continue and lets you determine the levels of interruption you can live with. Here are some steps to take to get you started. 1. Identify Mission-Critical Functions with a Business Impact Analysis Analyzing the business organization is a critical step. Begin by identifying mission-critical functions that have a high-dollar value, high customer impact and legal requirements or liabilities. There are tools to help you facilitate this process and determine the impact of losing the support of any resource, and will establish the escalation of that loss over time. This exercise will provide reliable data to senior management so they can make the appropriate decision on how best to mitigate the potential impact of that lost resource. You are not optimally prepared to minimize the total costs of an unforeseen disaster without doing this analysis. 2. Assemble a Business Continuity Planning Team Composition of the project team is equally important. Include subject matter experts that have a solid understanding of critical business functions. Other important members of the team are information technology experts with experience in database and system administration as well as security professionals and application specialists. And you may want to include outside legal counsel and public relations professionals, as appropriate. 3. Establish the Continuity Strategy When developing your strategy, you have to make two key decisions – what is your recovery point objective and your recovery time objective. First, determine your how much data loss you’re willing to accept if your business is disrupted. Is it everything you’ve done in the past week? Day? Hour? Your recovery point objective quantifies what you’re willing to lose. Next, decide what amount of downtime is acceptable. This is your recovery time objective, and it indicates the earliest time at which the business operations must resume after the disaster, or how much time you’re comfortable being out of business. The strategy itself contains five essential phases. Make sure you follow all of these steps: 1. Analyze the required steps 2. Design the who, what, when and how procedures for recovery 3. Test the plan so team members become familiar with their specific role and responsibilities 4. Implement the plan 5. Review and update the plan annually
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