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Business Continuity Planning
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What is Business Continuity?
Business continuity can be defined as the process of preparing for potential disruptions to business operations. Business Continuity evolved from Disaster Recovery as experts realized that to be effective, recovery efforts had to be expanded to address overall business operations and that a single event (including, but not limited to disasters) can seriously impact a company’s ability to survive.
Why have a Business Continuity Plan?
A Business Continuity Plan will make you better prepared by reducing the possibility of business interruption, minimizing the business interruption if it does happen, and recovering from the interruption as soon as possible. Published studies show that over the past two decades, 78% of organizations which lacked contingency plans but suffered catastrophic loss of property, records, customer loyalty, a trained workforce as well as cash flow were gone within two years.
Getting Started
The Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS) has created the Open for Business online planning tool to serve as a guide for making a sensible plan.
No matter how good a plan sounds, the keys to making sure it actually works when it matters are communication and training, so be sure to get it in writing and spread the word.
Review, Update & Practice
What if your backup supplier goes out of business? What if you hire 10 new workers? What if your evacuation route changes because you moved to a new location?
An outdated plan isn’t going to help anyone. Have safety meetings at your company, and review the plan with everyone again. Most importantly, make sure everyone understands it. The middle of a catastrophe is a bad time to have questions about your disaster plan.
How can we help?
For assistance with your Business Continuity Plan, contact your Loss Control Representative or dial 800-228-6700, Option 1.
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