We rely on our staff and technology to keep our businesses running, but what happens if those systems break down or key employees are absent or unable to work? Whether affected by natural disasters or IT failure, businesses risk irretrievable damage to their income or reputation if they don’t put business continuity measures in place to ensure they can get back on their feet with minimum impact.

Of course, most of us are able to look to the scale of the hurricane that destroyed parts of New Orleans in 2005 or the tsunami that devastated parts of southeast Asia in 2004 and feel thankful that those sorts of incidents ‘wouldn’t ever happen here’. But, actually, organisations are affected on a regular basis by disruption to employees and processes. Fire, flood, loss of personnel or premises, IT system failure and theft are common causes of business breakdowns, loss of income and even legal penalties. The most minor interruption to the running of your business or your systems, such as strikes on public transport or delays owing to adverse weather conditions, may result in the reputation or credibility of your company suffering.

The recent swine flu crisis provides a case in point: businesses should be prepared for the impact of mass staff illness or absence from the office because of the risk of infection. Otherwise they may struggle to meet their existing contractual commitments, let alone take on additional work, in the event that the swine flu virus causes the worldwide pandemic that many predict.

Fortunately, it just takes a small investment of time to minimise the impact of such disruptions on your business livelihood. Businesses should begin by putting in place business continuity plans that prepare their offices for the effects of disruption. They should examine and plan for the impact of scenarios such as:

• the irretrievable loss or destruction of key paper files, particularly where they relate to accounting or legal processes;
• the consequences of a key member of the organisation suddenly becoming unavailable;
• the theft, destruction or catastrophic failure of servers or computer software;
• the effect on work or work processes if employees are unable to gain access to the office or their computer files.

Ask yourself what is vulnerable in your business. Are you reliant on key people? Do they hold information about systems or processes that no one else knows about? What would happen if they left or became unavailable for work? How long would it take to train someone to replace them and what would be the impact on the business in the meantime?

Look in detail at how your data is managed. Are computer files backed up or are you reliant on paper copies? What would happen if your physical systems or paper-based records were destroyed by fire, flood, theft, security breaches or wilful or accidental damage? Even if your data has been backed up, how long would it take to deliver a replacement system, install all the software and restore the backup and test?

Look too at your office premises and the security of your computer hardware or communication equipment. What would happen if your office suddenly became unavailable due to fire or flood? What if your computer hardware broke down or was stolen? What if your phone line, file sharing, document management or email systems were disrupted due to error or network outage? If your staff is unable to access data or contacts, you risk losing market share, customers, momentum, revenue and credibility.

Minimising disruption

The survival of a business can often depend on how quickly and easily it is able to get back to ‘business as usual’. Conducting a business-impact analysis could help you to identify what you need to do to protect yourself in the face of common interruptions, and determine what elements of your business need to be up and running as soon as possible.

Your response plan should also identify the roles and responsibilities of key staff in times of crisis, and, to ensure it is working and up to date, you need to carry out training and testing on a regular basis. Most importantly, don’t put the review off, thinking that it won’t happen to you. A little bit of investment in time now could make all the difference to your business’s survival, should the worst occur.

KEEP YOUR SYSTEMS SECURE

Hosted technologies can play an important role in mitigating business risk. They store and support data away from a company’s premises and are supervised and supported by third-party experts. This means that if a business site is affected by damage and disruption, the company’s records and systems will emerge unscathed.

The benefits of this are not to be underestimated. In 2005, a devastating fire at an oil depot at Buncefield, near Hemel Hempstead in the UK, damaged more than 80 buildings on industrial estates surrounding the depot, and some were demolished by the blasts. Internet shopping giant ASOS was just one of the businesses affected; it lost stock in the fire, but thankfully its data, including incoming and outgoing customer orders, was stored offsite in a hosted facility, meaning that it could continue to trade and communicate using stock stored elsewhere.

Easing the pressure

Hosted systems also provide continuity of workflow. If employees are unable to reach company premises, they can still work on data and documents from home. Similarly, if a key employee becomes suddenly unavailable, the hosted system will enable a company to access work and documents without interruption.

From an IP perspective, this is crucial. Missing docketing or renewal deadlines could risk irretrievable loss to your IP assets – or those of your clients. But how many companies factor this type of threat into the daily running of their business? Hosted systems provide an easy and proven means of taking the pressure off and relieving a company of the risk of such losses. They can also provide the foundation of a fail-safe business continuity plan.

For more information about how CPA Global software solutions can assist business continuity, contact Neil Berrecloth

This article first appeared in IP Review, issue 27