Business continuity is one of those terms that many small construction company owners might see as something larger corporations do, thinking “it doesn’t apply to me.” But, just as business liability insurance or vehicle insurance applies to any size company, so does business continuity planning.
Without proper precautions in place, you can suffer costly setbacks such as downtime, loss of equipment, and breaches of confidential data. Whether you’ve been hit with a major disaster that causes loss of your server or have suffered a cloud credential breach, loss of data can mean loss of business.
60% of small businesses close their doors for good within 6 months of falling victim to a cyberattack.
To ensure your Boston construction firm is properly protected in case of an unexpected downtime disaster, it’s important to understand and implement a business continuity plan.
What Is Business Continuity Planning?
Business continuity planning is about preparing for the unexpected so your company can stay operational in the midst of an unexpected challenge. Since technology is now vital for business operations, it’s often at the heart of a business continuity strategy.
This type of strategy has two distinct purposes:
- To mitigate the risk that could cause your technology systems to go down; and
- To put systems in place that can get your company back up and running quickly should a disaster occur.
An example of using both strategies would be putting your internet service provider on automatic bill payment to ensure no one forgot to pay the bill causing a loss of service (mitigation). And also having a backup internet provider in place that you could switch to in minutes should your main ISP go down for some reason (fast recovery).
Why Do You Need to Plan for the Unexpected?
Downtime is one of the biggest costs of any unexpected event, from ransomware to storm damage to your server. The average cost of IT downtime is $5,600 per minute.
It’s important to plan for the unexpected and put a business continuity plan in place to reduce your costs in the case of an unexpected work-stopping event.
One of the most recent unexpected events that most companies experienced during the early part of 2020 was the global COVID-19 pandemic. Companies that already had cloud communication and productivity tools in place, were able to adjust much faster and get operations running with remote employees working from home.
Companies with mainly on-premises systems experienced higher costs for downtime and had to scramble to put systems in place that others already had.
If you don’t plan for the unexpected, including the loss of critical data needed to run your business, you could end up unable to recover from something like a ransomware attack.
Steps to Creating a Business Continuity Plan
Some companies put off creating a business continuity plan and putting the necessary protective systems in place because they don’t know where to begin.
Here’s a quick step-by-step to help you get started.
Identify Risks to Your Business
First, you’ll want to identify the various risks that could cause your business operations to go down. These include things like:
- Natural disasters
- Ransomware attack
- Equipment crash or malfunction
- Theft of equipment
- Loss of internet or mobile service
- Account takeover through credential theft
- Data loss through accidental or malicious deletion
- Insider attacks on your network and data
- Insider attacks on your network and data
- Loss of internet or cloud services
Evaluate Systems You Have in Place Now
Next, you’ll want to evaluate the systems you have in place now to see which ones are addressing both mitigation and fast recovery for each of the events you identified.
Fill the Business Continuity Gaps
Create a plan to fill the gaps in what you currently have versus what you need. You want to mitigate your risk and be resilient to the potential crisis events that could cause business operations to stop.
Implement & Review Regularly
Implement your plan to put the needed systems in place to ensure your construction business is properly prepared for any potential unexpected event in the future.
Review your business continuity plan regularly to ensure it continues to evolve along with risks and technology advances.
Best Technology Choices for Business Continuity
Backup and Recovery
One of the most robust platforms to ensure all your data is captured from multiple sources and can be restored quickly is Datto.
Attain Technology works with Datto for our clients and it’s a multi-layered application that securely protects and defends against malicious attacks. It protects data both on devices and in the cloud.
VoIP & Other Cloud Technologies
Cloud technologies like VoIP phone systems are vital to keeping your business operating from any location. If something unexpected happens to your office and your employees can’t come in, cloud technologies allow you to answer calls and keep operations going virtually.
Vulnerability Scanning
Vulnerability scanning can help you keep your cybersecurity systems properly updated against the newest threats by identifying any points of weakness. This helps to mitigate the risk of falling victim to an attack by giving you a chance to address the weakness before a hacker does.
Get Help Getting Started With Your Business Continuity Plan
Don’t get caught without proper recovery systems in place when the next disaster strikes. Attain Technology can help your Massachusetts business get started putting together a robust business continuity plan.
Click Here to schedule a construction technology audit today!
