Disaster Recovery Journal

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Preparation Pays Off:
A Business Continuity Guide

Do you have a plan in place that allows your business to continue operations if there’s a disruption? Whether it’s a one-day traffic jam, a snowstorm, a flood, or H1N1, your business can be affected by high absenteeism.

A recent poll by LogMeIn of 400 businesses found that the majority of small and medium businesses don’t have a business continuity plan in place for the possibility of a flu outbreak or other events that could prevent employees’ from getting to the office.

Business managers and owners are starting to think about the impact that business disruptions like the flu could have on their employees, as well as on their business. It doesn’t take a pandemic to disrupt your business, and everything from winter storms to road work can cause lost work days and lower productivity. Being prepared and having a plan in place can make a big difference.

“What swine flu has done is reminded us all of the necessity to plan for threat scenarios that affect people more than they do physical corporate facilities,” wrote Stephanie Balaouras, principal analyst with Forrester Research in an April 2009 blog post titled Swine Flu? What It Means For IT Professionals. “In these scenarios your workforce recovery strategy must rely on remote access solutions or virtual workforce solutions.”

Consider the following tips to keep your business healthy:

1. Identify the essentials. Make sure essential employees have the access they need to critical business functions and applications so operations can continue in the event of a disruption.
2. Develop a clear policy and communicate it. Be sure to cover family sickness, telecommuting, employee compensation and available services.
3. Educate your workforce, partners and suppliers. Take a proactive approach and provide up-to-date resources and training to promote health and personal hygiene.
4. Be flexible. Life happens so make arrangements that allow employees to continue working in the event of office or school closings. Leverage technology and use remote access, conference call and online collaboration tools to continue business operations.

You can prepare your business with secure remote access that can be set up in minutes without IT expertise at low cost. With LogMeIn Central you can deploy remote access to an unlimited number of computers, providing anytime, anywhere access to files and programs you and your employees need to stay productive.

For more information visit the LogMeIn Business Continuity Resources Page .

Start your preparation now with a free trial of LogMeIn Central .