Today’s world of business is full of threats and uncertainties. In order to survive in this hostile environment, companies have to be prepared for anything, flexible, and a hundred percent focused. Nowadays, even a tiny mistake can have disastrous consequences.
That’s why, to help anticipate potential risks and prepare necessary defensive solutions, companies create business continuity plans (BCP). A BCP takes care of everything from defining risks, implementing safety procedures, and reviewing the whole process.
An efficient continuity plan will enhance your company’s defense and ensure it will be able to operate without any significant disruptions in the event of a crisis. Unfortunately, creating an effective BCP is much harder than you may think.
In the article below, we’re going to discuss what makes business continuity plans fail. Knowing that will allow you to avoid potential mistakes when creating one yourself.
Using Unreliable Business Continuity Software
Many companies decide to use business continuity software to help them manage their plans more efficiently. Of course, to make sure everything works fine, you need to pick a reliable BCP software provider. If you fail, so will your whole plan.
To ensure you pick the right program, you need to do in-depth research on companies available on the market and then purchase the right software.
When it comes to that, many experts claim that MeridianBCMS is the future of business resilience. But no matter which software you pick, you need to make sure it’s reliable first. Cheaper programs may contain fewer defense layers and therefore make your company more exposed to potential risks.
Underestimating Certain Threats
One of the most significant mistakes that BCP creators make while designing a continuity plan is forgetting to consider minor risks. They often write their plans assuming electricity will be working, all employees will be at work, and everything will work as planned.
In short, they forget to consider minor threats that can make the whole scheme fail spectacularly. To make sure it never happens, it’s best to divide every plan into smaller parts containing different outcomes and scenarios.
Sure, there are still going to be some threats you can’t predict, but doing that will significantly lower their chances of occurring.
Forgetting to Test
As soon as you create your continuity plan, you need to test it. Only doing that will show you whether your BCP works the way it should. Many companies fail to perform tests, only to discover later that their plans aren’t helpful in the event of a real threat.
One reason for that is the costs. Testing your plan may cause minor disruptions in your company’s operations and, therefore. What’s more, if you want to try your cyber defense, paying a company to fake attack you with malware can also be costly.
Another reason is a false conviction that if you spent so much time creating your plan, it has to be perfect. Unfortunately, without testing it, you can never tell whether everything will work as planned.
Failing to Update
As mentioned before, the number of potential risks awaiting your company is incredibly high. What makes it worse is that it’s increasing every year. That’s why a continuity plan developed two years ago is no longer relevant.
A solution? Constant updates. Without them, your BCP won’t be able to serve its purpose. Of course, you don’t have to create everything from the scraps every year. Treat your old plan as a base, do in-depth research to determine any new potential threats, and implement them in your continuity plan.
Doing that every year should ensure your BCP stays up to date, keeping your business secure in the event of any risk.
Not Sharing the Plan
Another classic mistake that BCP creators make is not sharing it with employees. Every single worker should know it, even the janitor. Remember that one of your plan’s primary purposes is to allow your company to work without major disruptions.
You can’t achieve that if your employees don’t know how to behave in certain situations. Share your BCP companywide, and make sure every employee knows it. Only doing that will make everything work the way it should.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are many things you need to consider when creating an efficient continuity plan. Only by ensuring everything works properly will your company have a chance to survive in the ruthless world of potential threats.
But besides improving your company’s security, a BCP also comes with many more benefits, like:
- More efficient data protection
- Downtimes reduction
- Reduced disruption costs
- Increased customer trust
In short, a business continuity plan enhances the quality and efficiency of your company’s operations.
And sure there are threats that you can’t predict, like the coronavirus pandemic. Still, creating a BCP will help you minimize any negative outcome, allowing your business to work and grow the way you want.
