No matter how meticulously you run your business, there will always be some things out of your control that can impact on your operations – both natural and man-made. Emjay Insurance Brokers recommends you ensure the longevity and safety of your company by having a disaster recovery strategy in place.
Australia is a nation of extremes. In the last 5 years there’s hardly been a region of the country that hasn’t been affected by some sort of natural catastrophe: floods and cyclones have battered far north Australia; serious bushfires have hit hard in most states, including Tasmania; the Brisbane hailstorm late last year caused more than $1bn worth of damage; and in April of this year, the NSW storms caused havoc for home and business owners alike over a huge swathe of the state.
Man-made incidents can be just as damaging. Industrial accidents, fire, supply chain cuts, vandalism and cyber-attacks can leave a business reeling as effectively as any natural disaster. Add in to the mix the threat of terrorism incidents, and one thing is clear: you can’t hide from what you can’t control. And big businesses can be just as hard hit as small ones.
When disaster strikes it’s important to have safeguards in place to ensure your business can cope with the set-backs and be back operating at maximum capacity again in the shortest time possible.
One method of dealing with the unexpected is having business interruption insurance in place, but a recommended complementary process to have alongside your insurance is a strong disaster recovery strategy.
Developing a business continuity plan (BCP) makes sound business sense. And even though every business is different in its complexity and risk profile, the steps you need to take to create a robust BCP are essentially the same:
- Develop a business impact analysis that will outline the disaster risk profile of the company and the maximum allowable outage times of the critical business processes.
- Create a business continuity framework and recovery structure, which outlines the key functions, roles and specific responsibilities, and identifies which individuals/teams should carry out which roles.
- Ensure all staff are versed on what the BCP means for them and their areas of responsibility. On-going training and mentoring of staff should form a part of this recovery strategy.
- Testing and maintenance of the strategy is required to maximise the likelihood of an adequate response to a business interruption.
Emjay Insurance Brokers is ideally placed to assist businesses in developing a disaster recovery strategy through our professional relationship with Risk Management Partners – a specialist business continuity and enterprise risk management consulting firm.
In most cases, it’s possible to develop a complete business continuity plan in just 12 weeks. So while there are no guarantees your business will avoid unforeseen circumstances, there’s no reason why you can’t keep the effects of them to a minimum.
You can read more about our disaster recovery services here. For more details on developing a business continuity plan, call Emjay Insurance Brokers on 02 9796 0400.
