Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plans are related as one comprehensive strategy to maximise continued performance and minimise downtime.

For any business, ensuring that they continue to operate in spite of potential obstacles and can recover effectively is of the utmost importance. We are continually working with organisations assisting with business continuity consulting, and we’re often asked what a business continuity plan is and how it relates to disaster recovery plans

First, some definitions are in order. A business continuity plan is all about having steps in place to handle and move beyond difficult situations. Disruptions are a fundamental issue to business revenue and can significantly impact a business’ viability. So knowing how to identify potential threats and what you can do to handle them is essential.

Likewise, a disaster recovery plan is similarly about disruptions, only instead of focusing on continued performance, it addresses how you plan to recover if something is affected by disaster or unforeseen impacts.

While these were once individual reports, in recent times we’ve seen a rise in businesses combining these two plans into one comprehensive strategy to maximise continued performance and minimise downtime. While organisations might have a dedicated team aimed at developing these documents, the steps and decisions contained within the plans must be approved and agreed upon throughout the entire organisational hierarchy.

Each part of the organisation needs to identify their potential weaknesses and consider how their disruption might impact the continued performance. Whether this is IT support, accounting or building management, each part needs to look at what they can do to minimise disruption.

While in no way is this comprehensive, we’ve often found that steps such as restoring servers and mainframes, re-establishing private branch exchanges, or setting up local area networks are fundamental to continued performance. Beyond that, issues that can impact continuity include illness, staff departure, supply chain disruptions, environmental impacts or malicious actions from external or internal sources. Businesses who overlook these issues can be setting themselves up for failure.

Ultimately, there is a lot to be considered, and it’s unrealistic to expect organisations to understand all possible threats. Talk with our business continuity experts today to see how we can minimise the impact that unforeseen issues can have on your company.

Contact us on 1300 799 165 to discuss your needs today. Alternatively, browse our Intellect IT website for all the information you need regarding our range of professional IT services.