Business Continuity Plan

How to Overcome COVID19 with Business Continuity Plans

It’s no longer rumor that major cities around the world are on lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus, and this has affected businesses gravely. However, you can still get your business running with business continuity plans.
This is why it is highly crucial to put business continuity plans in place to ensure that your business keeps running amidst the pandemics.
If you do not already know what business continuity plans are, or you want more insights on how to utilize business continuity plans to boost your business, this article will serve as a valuable resource for you.

What is Business Continuity Planning (BCP)?

Business continuity planning is a process that is aimed at driving business through temporary disruptions, like the present situation created by the pandemic. Each business continuity plan must address practical considerations that are relevant to that particular business. And this may include the following:
• Information backup procedures and processes
• Dislocation from crucial physical assets or office as a result of an emergency such as the COVID19 pandemic
• Unavailability or loss of key personnel
• System restoration procedures and processes
• Continuation of customer communications and customer service
• Liability and risk mitigation tactics
• Supervisory and recordkeeping obligations
• Distribution or supply channel impacts
• Unavailability or loss of components and business operational systems
• Procedures and process for training employees
• Communication and emergency contact trees, etc.
A well-developed BCP helps to minimize uncertainty, instills confidence while enabling competence for the sustainable performance of any firm. This is why it is highly crucial to embed it as part of the culture of an organization.

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How IT Support Helps You with Business Continuity Plans during Quarantine Time

A Business Continuity Plan can be an essential tool that must be put in place to ensure that the service line of business is preserved, during and through the event that brought about a disruption in normal business processes like the COVID-19 pandemic.
Here’s how IT Support can be of assistance with Business Continuity Plans during quarantine time:

Analyze the Impact

Identify and then prioritize the key processes and functions in your organization. This is to determine which ones will have the most significant impact if they are not functioning correctly or available.
For instance, the COVID-19 situation has literally forced almost everyone to operate without access to facilities for an extended and unknowable period.
As soon as you have identified how the prevailing scenario will impact your business, you need to discover the gaps between the requirements for continuous service levels with minimum disruptions and your ability to deliver these requirements.

Initiate or Expand Flexible Work Arrangements 

One of the first adjustments that organizations must put in place amid the coronavirus pandemic is the initiation or expansion of flexible work arrangements as well as other policies that permit employees to work safely and remotely.
Companies will have to reallocate resources and reorganize teams, depending primarily on the sector. They will also need to utilize wellbeing policies and programs that support safe working environments.
Tools such as Trello, Slack, Planfix, and Zoom can be used to facilitate communication between employees and those who need to work on-site.
For instance, when employees work remotely, they may use the tool known as “Slack” for sharing videos, PDFs, images, or documents with other employees. For face-to-face communications, Zoom or Skype works best while Trello is one of the best tools for task and project management.

Promote Continuous Customer Service 

Even if your business is in dire straits, your customers should not feel that situation in any way. And this means it will be a terrible idea for you to stop communicating with your esteemed customers.
Customer service must never be compromised, no matter what, so consider moving your customer communication channel to advanced platforms, which include cloud telephony. Cloud telephony—such as VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol)—is one of the perfect options that companies will require as a modern communication system with customers.

The Use of Cloud Technology 

Cloud services have greatly impacted the way businesses are run. When your employees work remotely, they may need IT Support in order to be able to use cloud services securely from any location across the nation.
Securing data, as well as business communication systems in the cloud, can significantly enhance processes. It will also give you more access and control to valuable data and connected devices.
Working remotely may also call for the use of Virtual Private Network (VPN) to prepare for unexpected shutdowns. Many offices with remote workers run on VPNs, though only a handful of these organizations are equipped to deal with a surge in the number of remote users.
Take a look at your bandwidth and make sure your internet connection is top-notch in order to support the sudden change or surge in remote connection traffic.

Tracking Employee Productivity 

No one knows how long the novel coronavirus pandemic will persist, but organizations need to keep track of the productivity of their employees.
It is not an easy feat for employees who are used to working in an office environment to start working remotely right away. Productivity may tank as some employees may become bored, lazy, or generally idle unless you put measures in place to enhance the productivity of your employees.
With these measures in place, you can keep your employees connected, track their work-time so that you can get something close to the output you get during regular 8-hour workdays.
Keeping track of employees’ productivity may entail installing an application or two that will contribute to the efficient monitoring of the performance of your employees.
Examples of such applications include Toggl, Yaware, etc.

Conclusion 

Companies all over the world are doing their best to come to terms with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their businesses. The risks may be considerable, but the crisis has also revealed several areas where firms can build resilience as well as reshape themselves for a post-pandemic world.
Do you need IT Support for your Business Continuity Plans? Contact Salient IT for help.