Disasters affecting companies come in all shapes and sizes – fire, flood, theft, security breach, computer failure, but they all share one common feature – they always happen to others… until they happen to YOU!
What happens next all depends upon how well prepared we are…
Many companies already have a disaster recovery plan, however, if the plan has never been tested, or if it’s implementation is impractical, how confident can you be that it will meet the needs of your business? Having an out of date or unrehearsed plan can be as bad or worse than no plan at all.
Business Continuity Management concentrates on everything that is needed to continue the key business functions, whatever the catastrophe. It differs from disaster recovery, since it is proactive.
Our aim is to develop an action plan, which is easy to use and understand in a crisis, constructed on the basis of a risk assessment, providing achievable recovery within identified ideal timescales.
Whilst insurance is important, the fact remains that uninsured costs (fines, loss of confidence, adverse publicity, re-training etc) frequently exceed insured costs after a disaster.
The goal of resuming business-as-usual, with the minimum of interruption should be distinguished from the passive measure of simply insuring against disasters and their effects.
Effective disaster management can have a significant impact on the amount of business interruption insurance required and may well reduce insurance premium levels.
A lack of contingency planning could be costly for your business - if a disaster did hit, would it survive? According to a study by Gartner, the IT Consultants, two out of five businesses that are hit by a disaster, cease operating within two years.
Have you determined the value to your business of downtime? That is what is the cost if your business critical systems are down for one hour, four hours, etc? What would the impact be upon your business?
The most urgent action for any modern company following a disaster is to restore the IT facilities it needs to continue in business i.e. computers and communications. This allows you to keep in touch with customers, answer their concerns, retain essential information on trading, technology, accounts, etc and maintain the company’s integrity.
With over 10 years experience leading Disaster Recovery Management Teams and possessing industry-recognised qualifications, we take the hassle out of Business Continuity Management.
Our Annual Operational Health Check is based upon the guidelines and principals of ISO17799, which can help to identify and assess the risks facing your business.
We believe that prevention is better than cure and by implementing proactive initiatives relating to resilience and capacity we can help to minimise the risk of potential threats and maximise system availability.
By helping design, implement and test Business Resumption Plans, together, we can be sure that you are adequately prepared for your business survival.
Assuming a disaster should occur (and we may well be able to help you avoid one), we provide direct access to an assigned support specialist who will already be familiar with your needs and those of your business.
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