In the first part of this series, we wrote about how law firms, accounting, and medical practices can help recover from a disaster by following their crisis management plan. In this article, we share how BCDRs assist in crisis management because it helps a business owner be proactive. The business continuity and disaster recovery plan includes these three steps as its backbone of a crisis management plan
Include your IT staff in the preparation of the computer hardware and software planning of the disaster recovery strategies.
Relocating and tracking computer equipment is a task the IT staff need to prepare for. Work-from-home workstations, company software and data backups could be new and unique tasks for the IT staff.
BCDRs Assist In Crisis Management
Test the BCDR
Real-world “crisis-testing” in critical. There is no substitute for the true disaster, but the plan must be tested to determine areas missed in the BCDR’s preparation.
At a minimum you will want to test these components:
- The role each employee is responsible for
- That you have full contact information for each key individual
- Look for missed situations during the simulation. Did anyone check that the potential off-site location can accommodate your business?
- If your staff is going to work off-site, do you have the equipment they need to perform their tasks? Will they need to use their own home computers (if they have one) to access your business information? If so, do their computers have the capacity and capability to handle the software necessary?
- Is the order of the plan correct?
Test the BCDR regularly – at least once a year.
Update the plan if a key person leaves or takes on a new role within the organization. Print the BCDR and give each person involved a copy, store copies off-site. Your BCDR will do you no good if there is a computer virus that won’t allow you to access your system, nor will it help if it’s sitting in a binder in the office and you can’t get to the office.
The recent coronavirus situation has brought BCDR preparation and implementation to the forefront for many business owners. No one can predict the future and when business will operate as usual. Even in the midst of this pandemic, a crisis management plan can be started, tested and used for future disaster planning. Download a copy of our free BCDR checklist to do a self-assessment of potential risks in your business. This checklist gives law firms and accounting practices a starting point for the preparation of a crisis management plan.
We save our clients time, money and offer peace of mind. Don’t let your business become a statistic. Prepare a crisis management plan.
WareGeeks Solutions help organizations transform technology, operations and service delivery to meet business challenges. We seek to understand your business needs and apply our in-depth knowledge of Data Protection, Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR) and Cyber Security whether in the cloud or your data center environments to drafting a roadmap for transformation.