Billions of people around the globe are being impacted by the COVID-19 virus. While the number of actual cases remains small in comparison to the total population of the U.S. and the world overall, the impact the virus has created is shocking.
The past few days in the U.S. have seen dramatic changes, as our nation has taken measures unseen in my lifetime in an attempt to control the spread of COVID-19, including the closing of restaurants and bars, restricting travel, canceling events, and social distancing. Some other countries have come to a near standstill as national governments are shutting down commerce and limiting the movement of people.
Undoubtedly, as things unfold and time passes, “lessons learned” will be discovered and remediation plans for future risks will be discussed, along with the implementation of business continuity plans. Some industries such as first responders and healthcare systems do have extensive protocols in place in preparation for managing crises.
Even if your organization is not providing a product or service that has life or death consequences, the “death” of your organization can have devastating results. A lack of preparation can affect so many—an organizations’ team members, partners, community, as well as a secondary impact on all those who rely upon those directly suffering the consequences.
Business continuity is a subset of the netlogx core offering, Information Management. The process of developing a business continuity plan requires significant due diligence to understand intricate details that many professionals may not consider in their day-to-day activities, such as:
- What data do you collect, how is it collected, and by whom?
- Where and how is that data stored?
- How is that data retrieved and by whom?
- What processes are in place for conducting business?
- What would happen if some aspect of the organization’s processes could no longer be conducted in the normal manner?
- What remediation plans are in place?
- How are those remediation plans activated and by whom?
- Who are the stakeholders impacted and what role does each play when standard operating procedures have been thwarted?
- Have you considered the various threats to your organization and played out the scenarios for responding to those threats?
These are only a smattering of the questions that need to be addressed as you devise a business continuity plan. The best insurance policy for your organization is to have considered potential crises and to develop and document a plan to execute in response. netlogx can be your guide, working with you through the following stages:
- Business Impact Analysis
- Threat Risk Analysis
- Impact Scenarios
- Recovery Requirement
- Solution Decision
- Implementation
- Testing and Organization Acceptance
- Maintenance
The netlogx team has vast experience with organizational change management. With this experience, we can help you to develop and implement your best business continuity plan.
Regardless of whether you use the internal resources of your company or solicit the support of an outside consultant, please take the steps necessary to develop and maintain a business continuity plan for the safety of your organization.
