It’s amazing how many businesses still turn a blind eye to the repercussions behind potential disasters. Even if they think they’re ready for a foreseeable disaster, many note what’s foreseeable isn’t always accurate. As noted by Inc., disasters can come in many unexpected forms, including everything from cash flow problems to scandals.
All of these need looking at carefully to see what the impact potential to your business if or when they occur. With that comes a vital question you and your team have likely asked recently: What is a business impact analysis?
Otherwise known as a BIA, a business impact analysis enables you to predict what the potential consequences are if some or all of your business processes suddenly go down. Having a BIA in place helps you assess what steps you’ll take to put together a recovery strategy.
As part of this, you’ll put together a risk assessment to see what your potential loss scenarios are. First, though, assessing what the initial impact is on your business during known disasters needs top priority.
Do You What Kind of Impact Do You Face?
The first element for any BIA is looking at every potential impact to your business from any cataclysmic scenario you can imagine. How much lost sales and income would you have from a natural or man-made disaster? Would the lost income just be delayed, or would it be more damaging?
Increased expenses can become another factor to consider, including overtime labor or outsourcing you have to do to keep your business alive. Look at all angles and departments where costs could rise in areas you hadn’t previously considered.
Regulatory fines aren’t pleasant either, which can become problematic if you didn’t back up or protect data requiring government compliance. Contractual penalties could also occur due to considerable downtime to your business infrastructure.
Plus, consider customer satisfaction above all since they could defect from being loyal buyers due to ordering delays.
Figuring the Duration of the Disruption
Do you really know how long a business disruption could occur before getting back to normal? A power outage, for instance, might only last a short time, yet could still create a major concern for you in lost customers.
A BIA can help you plan for the right equipment like uninterruptible power systems from dependable Cyber Power. Their UPS rack and tower systems keep you running for hours with extended battery performance.
Consider other tools like cloud backup for your data. If you have anything other than the cloud, you may find out a disruption could go on for days without quick data accessibility.
Intronis provides an excellent cloud backup system giving you fast access and with total protection for all your infrastructure.
Going Into More Depth on Business Disruptions
It’s important to put together a BIA questionnaire to give to various departments in your company. By doing this, you can find out more information from department managers and other superiors about what impact a disaster would have.
Otherwise known as a BIA worksheet, this document can easily get organized into three boxes asking for timing/duration of impact, operational impacts, and the potential financial impacts.
Through this, you can scope out possible physical disruptions in your business. Situations like the breakdown of machinery, restricted access to your building, damage to extensive IT equipment, or absent employees are never out of the picture.
You need good guidance to help you sort out the right equipment and plans to make a BIA worth the effort.
Let us provide the proper equipment and planning necessary for surviving the worst possible incidents.
Contact us here at TIE National, LLC to see how comprehensive our tech services are.
