Coming in From the Cold: Business Continuity After a Crisis

Imagine This…

As you lock the doors of your medical delivery service office, the snow starts falling. You heard on the radio that this would be a bad one. Your drivers have hit their marks, delivering medical supplies to in-home patients and lab materials to transport stations and hospitals. They were sent home to prep for the possibility of power outages.

A thousand things run through your head as you lock the office doors—the well-being of your staff and your clients at the top of the list. You walk to your car, laptop and mobile phone in hand, while snow drifts blanket the near-empty parking lot.

Warming your hands in the car, the world outside grows darker and the snow falls harder. You can barely see the front of your building through the snow.

This is going to be a bad one.

Thoughts of Business Continuity…

You know the statistics. You’ve seen floods and fires shutter small businesses that had no continuity plan. But you knew the benefits. You knew having an actionable plan in the event of a disaster would not only improve the chances of business survival, but also the health and happiness of your clients who depend on your services.

Source: Gazette

No business is immune from an unexpected event. With the reliance on technology and the digitalization of paperwork edging closer to 100%, two things are happening. Businesses like yours are saving tons of real estate on file storage, but more importantly, you now have the ability to regenerate your business when the unexpected happens.

So, what’s in the business continuity plan?

A business continuity plan helps you take the steps to prepare for disastrous events that could result in data loss. Whether these are big events, like cybersecurity attacks and natural disasters, or localized problems, like spilling a drink on a laptop, the business continuity plan is your reaction to a list of possible scenarios that could prevent your business from functioning correctly. The plan illustrates how your daily operations are affected by a multitude of scenarios, with stages of reaction to get you back on the right track.

So you made a business continuity plan. You sat down with your managed IT services provider (your MSP) and discussed situation outcomes. How do we push through worst-case scenarios that could mean potential, detrimental data loss to our vital infrastructure?

Armed with your business continuity plan, you head into the storm with more confidence than you had the last time a blizzard hit the city.

You Will Survive…

In your medical delivery business, people live and die by the efficiency and accessibility of your data. Whether it’s the frequency of delivery for oxygen tanks, or the assurance that prescriptions are delivered on time and to the right client—your data is the backbone of your business, and any hiccup in the system is not only a black mark on your reputation but could have detrimental effects on your clients.

As you arrive home in the midst of this blizzard, you think about the meetings you had with your MSP, where you defined contingencies to ensure the survival of your vital infrastructure.

You covered three main areas to prepare for continuity after a disaster:

Replacing Equipment

Equipment is first because, without it, your company cannot function. Lost computers, destroyed servers, ill-functioning phone systems: These systems must be replaced. You researched nearby rentals to fulfill workstation requirements for annex work locations. You also invested in mobile office capabilities, utilizing laptop docking stations and transferable phone systems to allow for work-from-home options.

Protocols for Disasters

Which circumstance requires which solution? You and your MSP went through the scenarios. You know the protocol when you experience:

Data loss with no equipment damage
Data loss with some equipment damage
Data loss with total equipment damage
Inaccessible office space with no equipment damage
Inaccessible office space with no equipment damage
Inaccessible office space with total equipment damage

And on and on. You remember the scenarios seemed never-ending at the time. Now, as you watch the weather on the news, you’re happy you took the time. You clearly remember discussing a hypothetical: A blizzard closes down the office for several days, and you remember the stats:

Source: Gazette

Data Backups

Before you signed on with your MSP, you entrusted your data backup to an external hard drive. After that, you moved to a cloud backup service. But you never knew how the backups worked or if they would truly be there when needed.

Luckily, your MSP is a data backup expert. With the highest level of backup solutions behind you, you know as you go to sleep that in the morning your system can be revived in seconds, even with the total loss of office and equipment. This is fail-safe recovery. This is a peaceful night’s sleep.

The Worst Is Behind…

When you wake, the world outside is a blur of white. Your power is on. You message a few employees and make sure they are safe. You check the news. At your building, the snow will get up to 20 inches. Up to 30 inches in some places around the state. Days will pass before you will get anywhere near your office.

You’ve planned for this. You took the steps to secure your data, to keep you mobile, in the face of crisis. While most small business owners around you sit and wait, you sit down with your coffee, open your laptop and get to work.

Contingencies, disaster recovery, tested backups, mobile office capabilities, business continuity: This is where AnchorSix thrives. We want you to have the assurances you need to face any event with confidence that your vital infrastructure is always there, so you can focus on what really matters to your business: the lives and well-being of your clients.

Learn more: Business Continuity & The Road to Survival