Did you know that companies that do not resume operations within 10 days of being impacted by a disaster are unlikely to survive long term? In fact, half of UK businesses that experience a disaster never re-open [1]. If this statistic surprises you, you need to consider whether your business could resume operations within 10 days if it were impacted by severe weather, a major technology failure or the loss of valuable client data.
If you do not know or cannot quantify the effect that a disaster would have on your business, you should consider hiring a business continuity consultant to help you with disaster planning and recovery.
What does a business continuity consultancy do?
A business continuity consultant is an experienced business professional who can help your business to assess its vulnerability to disasters, make enforceable plans for recovering from disasters and put in place mitigations to reduce the adverse impacts of disasters.
A business continuity consultant will help your business to implement the necessary safeguards, recovery procedures and training that will help your business to become resilient and sustainable.
How does a business continuity consultant work?
When you engage the services of a business continuity professional from a business continuity consultancy, you will receive the tailored support and guidance of an experienced business professional who will help you to understand your business' unique needs and vulnerabilities.
They will work with you to determine whether your business is compliant with relevant regulations and legislation pertaining to business continuity and data recovery, the fail-safes that should be implemented to protect against disasters and help you to identify how much downtime your business could endure before recovery becomes impossible.
By assessing and understanding these key factors, it is possible to create a mitigation plan and determine the actions that are necessary to improve your business' resilience.
What will a business continuity consultancy recommend?
The recommendations will be tailored to the particular needs of your business and based on your current position. Some companies may have already implemented elements of business continuity planning and disaster recovery, while others will be at the very start of their journey and require more help.
Generally, a business continuity consultant will help you to identify staff training needs, potential secondary business locations or methods by which operations could be resumed from a remote location, regulatory and legal compliance factors and so forth. There are many elements to business continuity planning, and as each industry sector has its own specific risks and requirements, this truly is a bespoke process for every individual business.
To find out more or to book an initial consultation for your business, please contact Needhams today.
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