Business continuity plans must include a solution that enables employees to work remotely. For that reason, remote access software should be a part of every company’s plan to ensure a continuity of operations. Remote access gives users the ability to access their computers from another device.
Full Answer
What is a business continuity plan?
A business continuity plan to continue business is essential. Development of a business continuity plan includes four steps: Conduct a business impact analysis to identify time-sensitive or critical business functions and processes and the resources that support them. Identify, document, and implement to recover critical business functions ...
Who should complete the business continuity resource requirements worksheet?
The Business Continuity Resource Requirements worksheet should be completed by business function and process managers. Completed worksheets are used to determine the resource requirements for recovery strategies.
What is business continuity impact analysis?
Business continuity impact analysis identifies the effects resulting from disruption of business functions and processes. It also uses information to make decisions about recovery priorities and strategies. The Operational & Financial Impacts worksheet can be used to capture this information as discussed in Business Impact Analysis.
What is your telecommuting strategy?
This strategy requires ensuring telecommuters have a suitable home work environment and are equipped with or have access to a computer with required applications and data, peripherals, and a secure broadband connection. In an emergency, space at another facility can be put to use.
What is remote work BCP?
A BCP should include the eventuality of working offsite. Due to COVID-19, employers are aware that many workers must now work remotely. Therefore, if not already included, the plan must be adapted to cover the event of working away from the office.
What are the 5 components of a business continuity plan?
Fundamental Components of a Business Continuity PlanWorkspace Recovery.Cyber Resilience.Data Backup, Replication, and Recovery.Personnel.Third-Party Service Providers.Telecommunications.Change Management.Communication and Notifications.
What should a business continuity plan include?
Anatomy of a business continuity planIdentify the scope of the plan.Identify key business areas.Identify critical functions.Identify dependencies between various business areas and functions.Determine acceptable downtime for each critical function.Create a plan to maintain operations.
What are the 3 elements of business continuity?
A business continuity plan has three key elements: Resilience, recovery and contingency. An organization can increase resilience by designing critical functions and infrastructures with various disaster possibilities in mind; this can include staffing rotations, data redundancy and maintaining a surplus of capacity.
What are the 7 steps of continuity management?
7 Steps to an Effective Business Continuity StrategyStep 1 – Find the right partner. ... Step 2 – Conduct a risk assessment to identify potential threats. ... Step 3 – Complete a business impact analysis. ... Step 4 – Design and develop policies and standards. ... Step 5 – Create contingency plans. ... Step 6 – Test and implement.More items...
What are the three continuity strategy plans?
There are three phases to comprehensive continuity planning:resolve;respond; and.rebuild.
What is a business continuity plan template?
A business continuity plan is a written document outlining how a business will operate during an emergency. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) provides employers with a business continuity plan template. The following instructions and resources from DHS can be helpful in completing this template.
What are the seven elements of a business continuity plan?
The following seven elements are essential parts of any effective business continuity strategy:A clearly defined team. ... A detailed plan. ... Effective testing. ... Crisis communications. ... Employee safety. ... Uninterrupted access to business resources. ... Continuous IT operations.
What is the first step of business continuity planning?
Step 1: Risk Assessment Assessment of the potential impact of various business disruption scenarios. Determination of the most likely threat scenarios. Assessment of telecommunication recovery options and communication plans. Prioritization of findings and development of a roadmap.
What are business continuity strategies?
Business Continuity Strategy is a phase within the BCM planning process. It is the conceptual summary of preventive (mitigation) strategies, crisis response strategies and recovery strategies that must be carried out between the occurrence of a disaster and the time when normal operations are restored.
What is the first step of business continuity planning?
Step 1: Risk Assessment Assessment of the potential impact of various business disruption scenarios. Determination of the most likely threat scenarios. Assessment of telecommunication recovery options and communication plans. Prioritization of findings and development of a roadmap.
What does business continuity involve?
Business continuity planning involves identifying any and all risks that can affect the company's operations. The plan should also determine how those risks will affect operations and implement safeguards and procedures to mitigate the risks.
Laying the Groundwork
Softchoice has always had a business continuity plan in place as part of our responsibility to customers. However, the last several years has seen the IT organization lay the groundwork for remote work with a focus on people, process and technology.
Putting All–Remote Work to the Test
On test day, the biggest concern for the IT team was the stability of the VPN infrastructure. This had never been tested for the load about to be put on it. While VPN connection is not necessary to access all work applications, this would be the area where strain would be most visible.
An Integrated Approach
Jeff and Lester attribute the success of the business continuity plan, to people and process, then technology. They described the approach as “very collaborative,” involving many departments outside IT, including Human Resources, Operations, Risk Management, Facilities and Communications.
Applying Lessons Learned
Jeff and Lester acknowledged that there are likely some organizations living their lessons learned around remote work right now. Some may be wishing they’d had a few months to prepare for this situation.
Where to Start with Remote Work
In an unexpected event, complexity and confusion threaten to impede the return to business-as-usual. Our team of experts and product specialists are on hand to help you identify, deploy and adopt the right approach to support your users for all-remote work.
Why is it important to develop a business continuity plan for remote workers?
Since remote working is a practice that is fairly new to most employees and businesses , it is important to develop a business continuity plan for remote workers so the business can be stirred in the right direction . Here is how one can write a business continuity plan if everyone will be working remotely: 1. Scope Of The Plan:
How to write a business continuity plan?
Here is how one can write a business continuity plan if everyone will be working remotely: 1. Scope Of The Plan: The first thing to determine when planning business continuity is the scope of the plan.
What is the goal of remote working?
Setting goals is an integral component of business continuity planning steps for remote working. This helps identify the utmost priorities and also lays a foundation for the work plan for the business. When setting goals , keep both short term as well as long term goals in mind. When working remotely, the goals also need to be flexible that can be changed as needed and adapt to the needs of the business.
What is a business dependency?
Identifying Dependencies: A business or a company is a functional unit that comprises many departments coming together. Since everyone will be working from home and the collaboration in real time will not be possible, notice the inter dependencies of the different units of the company.
What is disaster management manual?
In a nutshell, it is simply a disaster management manual that helps mitigate losses and ensure that the business can continue striving even in disasters. It is a comprehensive manual that covers business resources, processes, goals and future plans etc.
Is remote working a necessity?
Although remote working is something that was mainly considered an experiment in the past and not many people opted to work from home, given the current scenario, it has become a necessity and one can rightfully assume that it is indeed the “new normal”.
Can you be sure if your remote business continuity is working?
As a business owner, you can never be sure whether your remote business continuity techniques are truly working or not. The planning phase of the continuity plan is only theoretical in nature. Therefore, it has to be put into action to be able to assess its efficiency and highlight the loopholes.
How to develop a business continuity plan?
Development of a business continuity plan includes four steps: Conduct a business impact analysis to identify time-sensitive or critical business functions and processes and the resources that support them . Identify, document, and implement to recover critical business functions and processes. Organize a business continuity team ...
What is a periodic review of a business continuity agreement?
Periodic review of the agreement is needed to determine if there is a change in the ability of each party to support the other. There are many vendors that support business continuity and information technology recovery strategies.
Why should recovery strategies be developed for information technology?
Therefore, recovery strategies for information technology should be developed so technology can be restored in time to meet the needs of the business. Manual workarounds should be part of the IT plan so business can continue while computer systems are being restored. Resources for Business Continuity Planning.
What should be distributed to business process managers?
The worksheets Operational and Financial Impacts and Business Continuity Resource Requirements should be distributed to business process managers along with instructions about the process and how the information will be used. After all managers have completed their worksheets, information should be reviewed. Gaps or inconsistencies should be identified. Meetings with individual managers should be held to clarify information and obtain missing information.
What is a completed worksheet?
Completed worksheets are used to determine the resource requirements for recovery strategies. Following an incident that disrupts business operations, resources will be needed to carry out recovery strategies and to restore normal business operations.
What is recovery strategy?
Recovery strategies are alternate means to restore business operations to a minimum acceptable level following a business disruption and are prioritized by the recovery time objectives (RTO) developed during the business impact analysis.
What happens when a business is disrupted?
When business is disrupted, it can cost money. Lost revenues plus extra expenses means reduced profits. Insurance does not cover all costs and cannot replace customers that defect to the competition. A business continuity plan to continue business is essential. Development of a business continuity plan includes four steps:
What is remote access plan?
A remote-access plan is a key part of an organization’s digital transformation. It sounds obvious, but prior to the pandemic, 80 percent of companies did not have a remote access plan in place. It’s been a year of playing catch up, but now that many companies are coming out of crisis mode, they are looking at the future ...
Do remote users need MFA?
While you might decide to allow users on the network to log in with single-layer authentication, remote users should need to pass through MFA almost universally. If you have a preferred MFA provider, be sure to design it into your remote access solution. And if you do not, it’s time to think about getting one.
Is remote access necessary?
Remote access isn’t just necessary for productivity ; it’s a strategic decision as well. With a robust remote access plan in place, you can recruit or bring on talent from anywhere in the world. You’ve heard the stories of workers moving out of commuting distance during the pandemic.
Is MFA part of remote access?
But resources exposed for remote access absolutely must be locked up securely, and MFA should be part of your remote access plan.
How to create an emergency plan for disasters when employees are all over the world
Disasters happen all the time. Earthquakes strike whether we're ready for them or not. Disease outbreaks happen. Let's not downplay human-caused disasters, either, such as riots, acts of war, and terrorism. They all have unpredictable consequences for the people around them.
Include Remote Workers in Your Accountability Plan
You could easily see how organizations with remote workers might assume they don't need any special considerations for their employees in the face of a disaster. "They're at home! We'll account for them using the same tools and methods we would on any other day."
Learn From Others
I asked a few all-remote companies whether they had plans in place regarding what to do in the event of an emergency. Many had simple contingency plans in the form of service-level agreements with companies that host their data. They were "keep the lights on" plans related to running servers.
Make a Plan
Let's say your organization already has some type of "keep the lights on" business continuity plan in place. You know what you'll do if there's a server outage, for example. Ideally, you should review and update that plan from time to time.
Distribute and Verify the Plan
After developing some guidelines, distribute the plan as a work in progress to the core team. Do they understand it? Do they see holes in it? Is each person clear on what she or he should do in different types of situations?
Test the Plan
Running a simulated disaster is an eye-opening experience. A few years ago, I sat down with about a dozen colleagues and did a tabletop emergency preparedness exercise. We were in an office with mostly on-site employees, but people worked from home occasionally.
Laying The Groundwork
- Softchoice has always had a business continuity plan in place as part of our responsibility to customers. However, the last several years has seen the IT organization lay the groundwork for remote work with a focus on people, process and technology. The underpinnings of native business continuity at Softchoice came out of a strategic decision to ou...
Putting All–Remote Work to The Test
- On test day, the biggest concern for the IT team was the stability of the VPN infrastructure. This had never been tested for the load about to be put on it. While VPN connection is not necessary to access all work applications, this would be the area where strain would be most visible. “We felt good about what we had designed on paper and implemented, but as is often said, ‘the proof of t…
An Integrated Approach
- Jeff and Lester attribute the success of the business continuity plan, to people and process, then technology. They described the approach as “very collaborative,” involving many departments outside IT, including Human Resources, Operations, Risk Management, Facilities and Communications. Decisions needed to be made and were guided by our company values. Keepi…
Applying Lessons Learned
- Jeff and Lester acknowledged that there are likely some organizations living their lessons learned around remote work right now. Some may be wishing they’d had a few months to prepare for this situation. Their advice? “Keep challenging yourself on the what-ifs,” said Jeff. They agreed that there is a responsibility for certain leaders in an organization to consider different scenarios an…
Where to Start with Remote Work
- In an unexpected event, complexity and confusion threaten to impede the return to business-as-usual. Our team of experts and product specialists are on hand to help you identify, deploy and adopt the right approach to support your users for all-remote work. The Softchoice Remote Work Preparedness Workshop is a structured workshop addressing the most common end-user enabl…
Business Continuity (BC) and Remote Access
Determine User’s Needs
- An organization is a combination of many departments or functional areas. Each organizational component has its own unique needs. The first step towards a robust BC and remote accessibility solution is understanding the needs of your users, such as:-
How The Cloud Fits The BC profile?
- Now that we have outlined the key areas of your BC mechanism, let’s discuss how the cloud is a perfect fit for any such system. We will further focus this discussion on the BC capability of the solutions offered by leading Cloud Service Provider (CSP) dinCloud. 1. dinCloud offers Cloud Hosted Virtual Desktops (dinHVD), which can be accessed by users from the workplace, home o…