How to Construct a Triumphant Business Continuity Plan

If you don’t recognize the worst-case scenario when constructing your organization's disaster recovery strategy, you’ll inevitably suffer from it when it disaster strikes. Taking into account all of these nuances is one of the key ways your business can prepare for such an event. All of these instances need to be considered when implementing your business continuity plan. Let's examine this below.

To ensure that your organization's continuity plan is as effective as possible, you need to be comprehensive. If you’re not, chances are that a disaster will still cause problems for you, whether it’s data loss or a failure to access important applications. A thorough business continuity plan will consider the following information:

• Threat Matrix: What kind of threats will your organization be targeted by? This shouldn’t be reduced to just simple threats that can be prevented with little-to-no effort. You should consider all threats, from the smallest viruses to the most devastating vulnerabilities. View each and every one of these possible threats as major problems that need to be addressed.
• Critical Processes: The next step is to identify what your workflows are and who is accomplishing them. What processes does your organization absolutely need to keep going in a worst-case scenario? You should be able to identify these and ensure that they can happen with limited interruption.
• Command Chain: Who are your mission-critical personnel? Who is in charge if disaster strikes? You should designate someone as the leader in these situations and make sure that everyone is aware. If you don’t do this, the result could be chaos.
• Employee Safety and Evacuation: Employees are critical to the success of your organization If you don’t take their safety into consideration, you could be risking the future of your business. You should have an evacuation plan in place to keep them safe.
• Communication Plan and Contact Information: If you experience a disaster, everyone involved with your organization will want to know. You should inform them of what’s happening and give them a timeframe for how long you suspect it to last. You should also have a plan implemented to update them on major developments during this time.
• Backup Processes and Location: Do you have an off-site location where operations can be maintained uninterrupted? Is your data being backed up to an off-site location where it can be safe from external factors? In the event your office and internal data infrastructure is destroyed, you’ll want to have both of these to keep your business going.
• Inventory and Infrastructure: Your organization's infrastructure is full of moving parts that includes hardware and software. You’ll need to make sure that any and all assets that your business takes advantage of are accounted for. Having an inventory helps you assess a loss scenario when it comes time to order replacements or file insurance claims.
• End of Incident Criteria: You should have clearly defined terms that determine when your organization is outside the realm of a disaster incident. You can start by constructing a list of conditions that need to be fulfilled before declaring that your business is no longer suffering from an incident. This keeps you from beginning the recovery process prematurely, potentially causing more damage in the long run.
• Post-Incident Debriefing: Once you’re in the clear, you need to determine why the incident happened and how it could have been prevented. Consider ways that you can improve processes and reduce damage the next time something like this happens; yes, there will always be a next time. You should put together a questionnaire for all of your contacts so that you can get objective feedback regarding the disaster scenario.

Does your organization need a business continuity plan? Macro Systems can help. To learn more, reach out to us at 703-359-9211.