Did you know that the 30th October is World Checklist day? Checklists can be a great way to help organise your day and help you remember all of the things that you need to get done.
Checklists are also a great way to help you plan and prepare and can help break down a significant job into manageable tasks.
So, we thought we’d take this opportunity to take a look at the things that need to be on your checklist when creating your disaster recovery plan.
What is a disaster recovery plan?
A disaster recovery plan will ultimately set out the steps you need to take to re-establish business critical systems and get your business operating as close to normal as possible, and as quickly as possible, following the impacts of a serious negative event.
Creating a disaster recovery plan can seem like a daunting task to many. Especially those working in smaller businesses who may have limited resources to draw upon.
Yet if you are prepared, creating a disaster recovery plan can be a lot simpler than you may first think.
What should be on your disaster recovery planning checklist?
If writing a disaster recovery plan seems like a daunting task, then a good place to start can be creating a checklist. This will help you ensure that you cover all of your key business areas and include all of the key information required.
Some of the key areas you should include on your disaster recovery planning checklist are:
- Establishing key staff – make sure you know who will be responsible for what in event of a disaster. The last thing you want is panic or people not knowing what they should be doing if the worst should happen
- Protecting your staff – what procedures will you follow to ensure the safety of your staff in the event of disaster?
- Key contact details – having contact details for your key employees, customers and suppliers will enable you to notify them quickly of a disaster. It’s also a good idea to have contact details for the suppliers of your gas, electricity and water in case you need to get in touch with them
- Your data backup and restore procedures – Your data is likely to be one of your most valuable business assets. You therefore need to ensure that it is protected and backed up, particularly if it is saved on your network. Keeping a record of this will be a vital part of your disaster recovery plan.
- Relocation premises – it’s a good idea to think about where you would relocate staff to if your premises are not habitable. Can staff work remotely for example and do you have the IT infrastructure to support this? At First Recovery, our service includes providing businesses with temporary offices to get them operational as quickly as possible, and within 24 hours after a disaster event.
- Your IT and equipment needs – consider how you would replicate your current business set up – the equipment you would need and the IT systems you require to run your business. It’s a good idea to have an inventory of all of your IT hardware and software requirements, along with any other machinery
- Your Insurance provider and contact details – as you’ll need to contact your insurer in the event of disaster, having their contact details to hand will be useful
- Reviewing and testing – a disaster recovery plan written 5 years ago, or which hasn’t been thoroughly tested is unlikely to accurately reflect your current business circumstances. Make sure to include in your checklist a timeline within which to review and also fully test your plan.
At First Recovery, we believe in making things as simple as possible for our customers. That is why we provide all of our customers with access to BRIO (Business Recovery Information Online) – an online disaster recovery planning tool. Not only does it walk you through creating a disaster recovery plan, you also get access to the BRIO app which means you can access your plan wherever you are. Get in touch with us today to find out more about how we can help you and your business.
