In my last bulletin I shared with you my IT health check, designed to help SMEs to have a solid foundation of basic information about their IT infrastructure, systems and equipment. If you know what cards you have in your hand, it’s so much easier to play the right one, at the right time!
But there’s a natural follow up to an IT health check – a broader exercise, which will help equip you to deal with a nightmare scenario: How would you cope with a sudden crisis in your business?
By sudden crisis I mean, what would happen if your business:
- lost all its data?
- couldn’t use its core IT and telecoms systems and equipment?
- suffered from fire or flood damage to its offices?
- suddenly lost key members of staff – or a vital supplier?
- was unable to access bank accounts or key management software?
- was a victim of the theft of online, intellectual or physical property?
This is something that I continuously consider and review – to be as sure as possible that The PC Support Group could recover from any of these nightmare scenarios. I do worry about this stuff but what it makes me do is plan, and I think you know by now, that I love a plan!
Owner managers of SMEs work so hard, often for many years, to build up businesses that do great things – and provide prosperity and incomes for themselves, their families and their employees, and it really pains me to hear of events when all that effort goes up in smoke – sometimes literally.
Do you think you would survive and recover? Most importantly, do you have plans in place and resources in reserve to help you to deal with these challenges and emerge with your reputation and your business intact? If you do, your chances of making a full recovery are greatly increased. If you don’t, drawing up these plans and allocating adequate resources to cope with an emergency should be a top priority.
We have a series of free guides available about a range of business-critical issues and one is devoted to business continuity, with a six-step action plan designed to help you to prepare. The steps cover:
- How to carry out a business impact analysis – to understand your risks and vulnerabilities
- Assessing your current state of readiness – and identifying those areas needing attention
- How to construct your plan – to ensure you cover all the bases
- Communicating your plan – so that your team know what to do if something goes wrong
- Reviewing, testing and updating your plan – because your business is constantly evolving
- Recruiting external support – for specific expertise and to plug gaps in your plan.
This FREE, six step guide to business continuity is available now, just click on this link:
Business continuity for SMEs – how to survive a major emergency and recover in style.
If you’d like to have a chat about business continuity, or any other aspect of your IT and telecoms, email us on info@pcsupportgroup.com or call our team on 03300 886116 for an informal chat.
Phil Bird,
Managing Director, The PC Support Group.