What Does a Typical Contingency Plan Outline Look Like?

what does a typical contingency plan outline look like

Part of running a modern business is planning for the quick recovery of your business’ computer processes in the event of an emergency. In the past, when the computers went down, they just went down.

According to this article, organizations create contingency plans, sometimes called a “Plan B,” to prepare for something bad that could affect the organization’s ability to function. Developing an effective contingency plan is essential for any organization.

Having a system in place to restore them immediately was unheard of for small and medium-sized businesses; and even for many large corporations. Professionals mainly used computers to run programs like Excel or Word. They managed files in certain ways and receptionists played Solitaire. However, as we all know, times have changed.

Now our global business culture is somewhat reliant on technology for many things like:

  • Communication
  • Marketing
  • Customer relationship management
  • Online and offline reputation management
  • File storage
  • Business processes

Because of this, it’s now crucial to back up your entire computer system and have protocols in place, so that your business can continue to run smoothly even when your systems are down.

Having a good contingency plan in place will ensure that business interruption, data loss, and productivity loss are minimal across all the devices that your company uses.

This could include your company:

  • Desktops and laptops
  • Mobile devices like smartphones and tablets
  • Peripherals like printers and all-in-one fax machines
  • Servers
  • Websites
  • Computer networks
  • Mainframes
  • Distributed systems

Depending on the size of your business and your standard operating procedures, some contingency plans might include:

Having to relocate your primary business and IT systems temporarily to an alternate site, using alternate equipment, or having your IT team reset some systems manually to get them working properly again

Here’s a Typical Contingency Plan Outline

1. State your goals – In the event of a power outage, drive failure or even an extreme condition like fire or water damage, what goals must your contingency plan meet for your business to remain efficient and operational?

2. Define the impact on your business – How much downtime can your business really handle? Some businesses can handle 7 days, while others can only handle 3 hours. What type of overall impact financially and professionally would an outage and downtime cause? What is the scope of varying degrees?

Though this may seem like redundant step, it’s not. Yes, “it would be bad,” is an answer that could apply to any negative situation. However, you might not realize that certain departments can handle much less downtime than you realized and some might not need much investment in contingency planning.

3. Once you’ve identified your goals and the potential impacts on your business, decide what preventive steps you can take to minimize problems; so you don’t have so much to fix during an outage – This could mean using certain types of backup, cloud servers located in other states and taking other simple measures that will mean certain parts of your business wouldn’t even need resetting or restoration.

4. Next identify your list of go-to recovery strategies – You should have a list of recovery strategies to implement immediately when something happens. You should have strategies appropriate for both small and extreme emergencies.

5. Next, take time to test your plan and train your staff – Every contingency plan is different, so just like a fire drill, your company staff and IT staff should understand how your plan will work.

6. Ensure that you’re taking the proper maintenance steps daily, weekly etc.

Should your IT team routinely check servers?
Does any software or equipment need biannual upgrading?
Do you have any new staff you need to train on how to properly backup their work or behave in an emergency situation?

Contact Us

We understand that contingency planning is just as much a part of modern businesses as smartphones and color printers. We understand how to make the restoration process simple for businesses, yet effective in the case of an emergency.

Prepare Early for Hurricane Season with Continuity of Operations Planning

prepare early for hurricane season with continuity of operations planning 2

If you’re a small business recently opening here in Florida, you’re just as vulnerable to disasters as the big companies surrounding you.

Not all small businesses new to the Florida area understand that continuity of operations planning has a more dire importance because of the threats of hurricanes.

However, it goes beyond hurricanes to the point of general disaster possibilities sometimes coming out of left field.

According to this article, all businesses have requirements that are critical to their function. You may have a printer contracted to create tickets, or specialized equipment that you can’t do business without.

It’s easy to get complacent about all of the above when nothing bad has ever happened to your business. While it’s true that Florida hasn’t had a damaging hurricane for a while, it doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen this year. As we see more and more unexpected weather events occur around the nation, don’t expect anything less here in Florida where anything can occur, including sinkholes.

So if you’ve done nothing toward disaster planning based on past track record, what should you do to start planning now? Continuity of operations planning is easier now thanks to digital technology available to store your data internally rather than in file cabinets or through an on-site database.

Here at 4Corner IT, we have all the tools you need for proper business continuity so you’re prepared for any type of disaster, even if it’s caused by humans.

Replicating Your Server to the Cloud

There isn’t any smarter move than having all your data sent to the cloud every time you save something. By replicating your server, you essentially have the entire contents of your business (including online software and hardware) backed up in the cloud. This immediately helps you if the power goes out for more than a week due to natural circumstances.

All you have to do is get yourself and your staff to another location where Internet is available, and all your data is readily accessible again. If you can do this the same day, downtime is minimal if even non-existent. In this case, you already know how dangerous downtime is to the survival of businesses, especially small ones.

Your Phone Systems Work the Same Way

If you’re still using landline phones in your business, you may want to move your phone systems to the cloud as well as part of a VoIP service. When you move your phones to the cloud, you immediately have your phone service available in another location, including data on your customers.

With customer phone calls being a vital part of any business, the sooner you can get them operational again, the better.

As a result, any massive hurricane hitting us later this summer won’t shut you down like it will for so many others who didn’t prepare. It’s time you eliminated any complacency and started thinking seriously about your continuity of operations in dire situations.

Contact us here at 4Corner IT and we’ll show you how fast the implementation is to the cloud without causing any obstructions.

Training Employees for Disaster Recovery

it consulting in south florida training employees for disaster recovery

IT Consulting in South Florida Disaster recovery plays a major role in IT consulting. Most businesses understand that business downtime is costly, but not all of them know how to create and execute a disaster recovery strategy.

According to this article, good business continuity plans will keep your company up and running through interruptions of any kind: power failures, IT system crashes, natural disasters, supply chain problems and more

Technology is just one aspect of disaster recovery. It’s great if you back your data up in the cloud, but you also need to know how to recover it.

Even if you practice data backup, you can fail at disaster recovery if you didn’t train your employees. According to a recent Tech Republic article, you should establish a communication protocol to keep employees informed in the case of a disaster:

“Working directly with your IT staff on disaster communication protocol goes hand in hand with the rule set of the communication tree. In a disaster, staff has a tendency to be nervous, so it’s natural for a staffer in the accounting department to just call a junior staff member in IT networking he has lunch with to “get the latest.” This is where rumors start that can be damaging to the company, both internally and externally.”

Here are three things you can do to establish a communication protocol:

Create a strategy

It all starts with your recovery strategy. In your plan, you need to outline how exactly employees will communicate with management.

Train employees

Once your strategy is finished, you can start training employees. The important thing is that each individual knows what he or she is supposed to do.

Follow up

After you train employees, you should follow up with them from time to time. If you don’t, then employees will just forget what they learned during training.

By mentioning disaster recovery from time to time, you’ll make sure that employees remember their training. This way, they’ll know what to do when disaster strikes.

To talk more about IT consulting in South Florida, or anything else, please contact us. Thanks.

5 Important Factors To Consider Regarding Computer Support Companies in South Florida

5 important factors to consider regarding computer support companies in south florida

computer support companies in south florida Computer support comes in different shapes and sizes. Here are some factors to look for when considering computer support companies in South Florida. Computer support companies and services specialize in troubleshooting and fixing a wide variety of primarily software-related personal computer issues and network connectivity problems as well as some hardware issues.

Integrity

We’ll start off with integrity since we think it’s the most important. You don’t want to trust something as important as computer support to just anybody, so it’s important to know who you’re dealing with.

To research a company’s integrity, look for their ratings and reviews. If other clients have had good experiences with them, that’s usually a good sign.

IT Support

IT support is kind of a vague term, and you want to be completely sure of what services you’re receiving. Ask about thinks like network support, computer repair, and data backup. If nothing else, you can choose a computer support company just based on the specific services they offer.

Office 365

Office 365 integration is very important for small businesses. You want to be sure that your computer support company assists you with Office 365 so you can take advantage of the new programs.

Cloud Computing

One of the new features of Office 365 is cloud computing. Many businesses are now turning to cloud computing in an effort to back up their data, improve collaboration among employees, and increase business productivity.

VoIP

Microsoft Lync, a new Office 365 program, helps companies implement a VoIP solution. VoIP improves upon the landline phone system by offering better call quality for lower prices.

Disaster Recovery

And finally, businesses should only choose a computer support company that assists with disaster recovery. In order to ensure business continuity, you need to practice disaster recovery preparedness and be ready to restore your data in the case of data loss.

It’s important that your computer support company in South Florida offers all of the aforementioned services. Otherwise, their computer support package would be incomplete.

To talk more about computer support companies in South Florida, or anything else, please contact us. Thanks.

5 Real World Advantages to Implementing Disaster Recovery in Fort Lauderdale

5 real world advantages to implementing disaster recovery in fort lauderdale

Nearly every business these days is heavily dependent on computers. So great is this reliance that protecting themselves from an equipment failure is crucial when it comes to a business’s long term survival. Companies – large and small – have succumbed to oblivion due to catastrophic data loss.

According to a recent article, an information technology disaster recovery plan (IT DRP) should be developed in conjunction with the business continuity plan. Taking a proactive approach now and implementing a plan formulated by a professional in disaster recovery in Fort Lauderdale support is vital.

1. Relying on the expertise of a Fort Lauderdale IT support team means that the business decreases its reliance on the CDs or floppy disks that were a mainstay in system recovery in the past. This makes it easier for a business to add additional peripheral equipment or to weather a serve configuration.

2. Manually recovering from data loss is a stressful event that invites errors, particularly when a business is not knowledgeable in the established procedures. An IT professional can provide a comprehensive professional recovery system that help reduce user errors significantly.

3. Using an IT support team means that downtime and its associated costs are minimized. The business will not need to spend valuable time searching for the information that is necessary to address the issue.

4. Two crucial IT processes seamlessly become one, streamlining the entire task with this type of approach. Both the back up of data and the preparations for disaster recovery become the same procedure when Fort Lauderdale IT support is utilized.

5. There is no need to wait for a recovery specialist to arrive on-site. Instead, the system can be completely restored virtually from a remote location anywhere in the world. Fort Lauderdale IT support can craft a data recovery solution that is designed to protect and retrieve data.

Implementing such a plan can save a great deal of time, energy and money in the long run – and maybe even the business itself. Do not hesitate to contact us  with any questions you may have, or to start being proactive about your IT support today.