Coming up with a business continuity plan is just half the battle. This is because a solid BC strategy requires more than just a well-laid out theory. There are a few concerns that will be associated with your business continuity plan such as if your plan will work in a real-world disastrous situation? Is your backup system strong enough to bear a cyber attack? Are your employees aware of the emergency procedures? To know the answer to these questions, you will need to test your business continuity plan. If you don’t do that then you will never know if your organization is able to withstand a disaster.
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Why Should You Test Your BCP?
There are a lot of reasons why you should consider testing your business continuity plan. Some of them are as follows
- Helps you identify weakness or gaps in your BCP
- Confirms that the BCP objectives are met
- Improves processes and systems based on test findings
- Let’s you update your BPC accordingly
If you avoid testing your business continuity plan then you will be putting both your organization and employees at risk.
Business Continuity Plan Testing Scenarios
While you think about testing your BCP, you will need to decide how detailed you want the process to be. Testing can sometimes become a challenge for companies and will require both resources and time. If you want to go ahead with the process then have a look at different business continuity plan testing scenarios.
#1. Data Breach
This is one of the major workplace disasters. There are various factors that can lead to a data breach like cyber attacks, ransomware, and data center outage. Data as everyone knows is a valuable asset of any organization and losing it can get you into some serious trouble. The goal here is to regain access to the data as soon as possible. This can be done by restoring a backup. But who will be responsible for that? Are priorities going to be defined? What will be the communication plan and who will be contacted first in such a situation? Will there be any vendors involved? You will get the answers to all of these questions during the test.
#2. Network Outage
A network outage can be caused by a power outage. However, it can still happen even if you have access to electricity. And here is the scary part, such outages can last indefinitely. So, in such a situation, businesses usually opt for work from home strategy. While performing the test, make sure that you verify these points
- Does your employee know what security measures to take when they are working off-site?
- Have you provided work systems to your employees?
- Do you have a plan for network restoration?
Your business continuity plan should have the answer to the above-mentioned questions.
#3. Power Outage
Let’s suppose that your company has been hit by a power outage due to a storm and the providers have notified you that it will take them 5-6 days to deliver you the electricity service again. What will you do? Well, the first thing that you should do is to create an incident response team. That particular team will then communicate with the rest of the organization to notify them about the situation. Here are a few questions that your BCP should have the answers to
- Which department is likely to get affected the most and how will you provide them immediate relief?
- Have you installed a backup generator at the office and do you have anyone at the office who knows how to use it?
- Do you have a mobile recovery location or an arranged office?
#4. Emergency Communication
If you are able to communicate with your employees during a disaster then this can provide you with a lifeline. However, in most extreme cases such as tornadoes, and floods, there are chances that you will not be able to reach out to your workforce. Therefore, in such situations, you will need to work on a solution that can allow everyone to interact. One way you can do this is to take the help of emergency notification software. This tool will allow you to send notifications to your staff without any hassles, allowing everyone to be updated about the situation.
Conclusion
A business continuity plan is really important if you want your venture to progress even in the hardest of circumstances. And when you do work on your BCP then don’t forget to test it. This will allow you to find the answer to some concerns that can otherwise harm your business.
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