Bad Weather, Remote Working and Business Continuity
Neverfail's Andrew Barnes says it's the middle of winter (at least in the Northern Hemisphere) and cold weather is to be expected, but in various parts of the world cold now has a new meaning
The UK has been hit particularly badly with perhaps the worst weather for a generation and temperatures dipping to below -15C in many areas. However, not only is this an inconvenience, ice and snow have also become a significant barrier to travel, meaning many people are being forced to work remotely.
Remote to some may simply mean using BlackBerry's or other mobile devices to stay in touch, for others it means full access to corporate systems and setting up office from home. In either case it's good to check that business continuity plans are up to scratch and everything is being done to keep critical systems, especially email, available.
In times like this availability of critical applications is even more important than normal. It's vital to remain in touch with customers and suppliers to continue to process orders and prepare for future business.Yet if email goes down, BlackBerry servers fail, websites crash or content portals hang then end-user downtime becomes inevitable. And with remote working typically taking place in the home, it's all too easy for distractions to mean business grinds to a halt. Furthermore if IT staff can't aid recovery because they too are stranded, the impact can be severe.
So here are some top-tips that can minimise the impact of weather-related disruption on your business.
1) Encourage remote working where possible. Avoid forcing staff to make lengthy and dangerous trips to the office.
2) Try to preserve a "business as usual" approach when dealing with customers, partners and suppliers. Email is normally the lynchpin for this so make sure your email and BlackBerry systems are truly resilient
3) Identify which are your most critical IT applications and ensure IT staff can monitor the system performance and stability
4) Be prepared to instigate disaster recovery processes as power cuts may be around the corner.
5) Access high availability technology to protect critical systems and measure the cost against the potential loss in revenue that downtime would cause, as well as the impact on reputation
