Business Continuity Planning - Are You Prepared?

Business Continuity Planning is the preparation for an unforeseen disruption or disaster to your business such as a natural occurrence, a human act or an environmental circumstance.  It is essential to plan ahead in order to prevent financial losses, as well as your firm's reputation and keeping in compliance with regulations. 

Business Continuity Planning is the act of defining resources, actions, tasks and information required to recover business processes and functions in the event of a disaster. 

The costs of not having a Business Continuity Plan and execution strategy in place are numerous.  Based on a recent study by The Meta Group, the average cost of one hour of downtime to financial institutions is $1,495,134.  However, the costs associated with a disruption in business operations can be even greater than just financial impacts.  Business downtime, even for just one hour, can result in damage to public image, customer satisfaction issues, unfulfilled contractual obligations as well as many other negative consequences.  According to The Institute For Business and Home Safety, 43% of all businesses involved in a local disaster never reopen, an additional 29% are gone within two years. 

With recent weather disasters, we should all review what our back-up plan is and how we would run our businesses or homes in the event of an emergencey.

For further information or questions, please feel free to contact me at dave@isi-1.com or go to www.isi-1.com