What is a BCP?
A BCP (business continuity plan) is the minimum expense that a company can have to have insurance. It may prove to be a boon for small companies as it has nothing costly attached to it. It is just a detailed plan of how the company and its employees will work in case of a disaster or an emergency, such as fire at the office place. It is an unfortunate fact that most of the companies fail to take out time from their routine to develop a plan like this.
How a BCP is planned?
There may be many ways by which a company, especially a small one can continue making its profit or even the regular work at the time of or after the disaster. These plans are sometimes referred to as DRP (disaster recovery plan). Actually, these two have a very thin line of separation. However, a Disaster recovery plans is completely oriented towards the recovery that need to be made after a disaster struck the company whereas, the business continuity plan emphasizes on the ways in which the business should be continued until recovery is accomplished.
Some of the major mistakes that some of the companies, if not most make while preparing a business continuity plan are listed below:
Back-ups not created
Most of the time it has been witnessed, the computers in the office do not have proper back up in cases of their failure. The documents in the computers are generally critical and may affect the company if lost.
Improper planning
Most of the employees think that they are aware of the networks in the office well but the fact is that they are not even aware of the numbers of servers that the company has. Companies generally fail to make proper collection of data and details regarding the software revision. Thus, the employees are not aware of the operating system and the software that they were using.
Improper communication
It has been noticed that most of the employees are unaware of the business continuity plan. They wait for the disaster to strike the company without bothering themselves to make the move beforehand.
Plans untested before hand
It may be the case that you have made a brilliant plan for fighting disaster, but still do not get the desired result at the end. The reason is that most of the companies know the plan well but are unable to execute it when time really comes. Lack of practice may be one of the reasons for this. The companies do not conduct a drill in which every member is asked to act as if the company has actually been struck by a disaster and handle situation accordingly.
Do not have a backup plan
No matter how much you have put in to make a good BCP, but there are chances that the plan may fail at the actual disaster situation. Many times there has been incidents that happen outside the plan made by the company and thus to fight such scene the companies generally do not have proper backup plans which at last makes them pay heavily.
About Author
Eva Birleson is an internet entrpreneur, blogger and advocate of paperless business systems.