Most business disruptions do not come with sirens.

This could simply be the case where Monday morning comes with a lack of an Internet connection and no access to customer records. Or it could be that you are missing one of your key employees and the only one who knows how to process payroll is absent. Or, maybe, a file was accidentally deleted and the backup which hasn’t been checked for months doesn’t help.

While these are not disasters in a conventional sense, they disrupt the workflow, delay customer service and confuse your team.

Here is a list of the most common disruptions and preparation for them:

1. Cyber attacks and ransomware

In case of a cyber attack, your team may find it impossible to access the files and systems necessary for daily operations and serving clients effectively.

How to prepare:
• Develop an incident response plan: It is important that your team is aware of the individuals who will be contacted during the attack, decision makers and the prioritized systems affected.
• Test your backups: The ability to restore backups is only useful when you can perform it promptly when needed.
• Train employees on security basics: Hackers are more likely to target the employees rather than the firewall since it is easier to hack a person than technical means. It is therefore important that your employees have enough knowledge about security.

2. Hardware and software failures

There are cases where devices, applications and systems fail suddenly leaving your team at the mercy of technical experts in case of such an occurrence.

How to prepare:
• Backup regularly: Ensure that there are ways of restoring the data in case of any failure.
• Recovery procedures documentation: Ensure that your team is aware of the first actions to take.
• Restoration test: It is important to test restoration before it becomes necessary.

3. Human error

Mistakes happen all the time even if people try not to make them. Deleting of a file, sending an email that contains confidential information to an unintended recipient, changing settings will impede operations if there is no method for handling these situations.

Steps to prepare:
• Access restriction: Provide access only to the data necessary for employees.
• Recovery plan: Ensure that everyone in your team understands whom to contact and how to recover lost data/settings/system.
• Regular training of employees: Educate employees on proper handling of the critical information, when to be careful and when to ask for assistance.

4. Outage of the internet or cloud service

An outage of the internet or cloud service means that you suddenly find your team isolated from all the tools they use to perform their daily duties. Customer data, communication channels, and other systems may become inaccessible simultaneously.

How to prepare:
• Establish a secondary line: Having an alternative internet or mobile internet service can be helpful in case of a power failure.
• Think through offline activities: Figure out what activities can be done offline and prepare your employees for this.
• Create a communication strategy: Plan the way your team will communicate and inform your customers about the situation.

5. Inclement weather and disasters

Weather and natural disasters could close offices, cut off power supplies and prevent employees from getting to their workplace. The recovery process might take hours or even days, depending on whether your company has a back-up system beforehand.

Preparation steps:
• Enable remote work: Ensure that employees have the means to continue working elsewhere if needed.
• Safeguard your information: Save back-ups outside of the building or online so that any physical damage won’t cause the loss of your information.
• Prepare a business continuity plan: Make clear how your business will continue to function through disruptions.

6. Critical employee unavailability

This point tends to surprise companies. In case the person who performs payroll, manages a vendor account, or completes any other task is unavailable for some reason, everything can grind to a halt despite all other systems functioning normally.

How to prepare yourself:
• Document your processes: In case if some process is dependent on someone’s personal knowledge, make sure it is documented to be performed by another person.
• Cross train your team: Ensure that at least one other person is capable of performing the critical processes.
• Handle credentials properly: Do not store passwords and other credentials in a form of notes or stored locally by a certain person.

Plan ahead of time

There is no way to anticipate every possible problem, but you can always be prepared for anything.

Planning does not mean that you remove risks from the equation. Planning allows you to replace it with the certainty of being ready.

With the documentation of the procedures and responsibilities, the response becomes easy and efficient.

Book a 10-minutes consultation and see where your weak spots are.