As my expertise are in small business and relevant IT systems, I'd like to offer some clarity on this topic from an IT and Communications perspective as we all know that IT systems have become a basic element of our daily business life.
Firstly let's share some basic assumptions regarding Business Continuity.
First Assumption
Our first assumption is that the definition of this is that if a severe fault or incident occurs in our workplace, we'd like to be in a position that we could continue trading, even if it was in a restricted format.
Second Assumption
Let us also assume that we are a small business with limited funds and not a Bank who could afford a remote data centre which could run their business if a catastrophic failure occurred at the IT Centre.
Third Assumption
We will assume that we could get by for a day or so without our key IT systems but we would need to be able to pay Creditors and Staff pretty quickly and we would be lost without our phone systems.
Planning
Our next step is really the first planning step. We need to rank all of our IT and communications systems in order of importance. It's a fair guess that orders come through the phone system so that will possibly be at the top of the list. The next most important item will probably be IT related. It could be Email and Internet connectivity, perhaps access to the Bank Account for paying bills / wages or it could be access to the Accounting system to ensure cash flow is maintained. Perhaps the number one thing after communications with our Clients is to be able to service them with our IT systems whether that be stock dispatch, order enquiries, back-order review, order taking or placing orders on Suppliers. This list is a mandatory first step in determining our Business Continuity strategy as our plan will evolve based on the urgency of our needs.
A sample priority list from highest priority down could be :-
Email & Phone - To communicate with our customers and staff
Fax - to receive customer orders and place our orders with suppliers
Accounting system - To place orders in our system and record transactions for stock dispatch
Internet Connectivity - To access supplier websites for product research, placing supplier orders, access bank accounts and make payments
Next, we need to get a simple plan together to ensure we can do our best to survive a major business interruption. What could possibly go wrong ? Well, we will never be able to predict all of the potential failures in our electronic driven society, but I can give you a few hints. We have, over the past ten years, grown very reliant on communication systems - both telephone and Internet connectivity. These, followed by a failure to our central IT system - generally our server system/s but also to some of the supporting infrastructure such as the firewall, anti-virus protection, power cuts and malicious attacks, can bring our business to a halt.
Some of the most common business interruptions that I have seen in SMB are :-
Hardware malfunction or server crash - e.g. The old accounting package server failed to restart showing some hard disk error on the console. Backups were never taken as it was assumed that it was not required for a small business.
A building contractor had accidently cut a key Telstra cable in the street and it was going to take 3 days to repair. This meant that the business had no telephones, no fax and no Internet.
My next instalment will discuss our planning to work around these potential business destroying situations without spending a significant sum of money. Lets plan on working smart and keeping it simple !
