A Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is a plan to help businesses continue operations in the event of a disaster or emergency. When a disaster or emergency occurs, businesses can face:
- Reduction in customers and cash flow
- Compromised customer service
- Staff shortages due to illness or quarantine
- Inability for employees to get to the office
- Interruption of mail processing
- Physical damage to the facility
- Technology, communications, or systems downtime
A well planned BCP can give you the ability to respond in a wide variety of situations, so your organization can continue to function with as little disruption as possible.
Assess Your Risk
Can your employees work remotely if access to the physical office has been compromised?
Risk assessment can be determined by your geographical location, type of industry, and the physical logistics of your facility. A restaurant business may face more risk of being able to get supplies as opposed to an IT company. The American Red Cross recommends that you research the types of disasters that are common to your region.What about workplace safety? Your business must comply to OSHA standards, but that may not be enough to protect your employees. Always have an action plan in your employee handbook that lets your employees know what to do in the event an emergency happens. Any business can be affected by a health crisis, national disaster or cyber-attack, so it is critical to have a BCP in place.Is Your Business Prepared for an Emergency?
Almost every day there’s a disaster in the news. Pandemics. Cyber Attacks. Wildfires. Hurricanes. Floods. Earthquakes. Even relatively small events, such as local storms or blackouts, can interrupt your business operations. It is critical to have a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) in place – and just as important, a trusted partner you can rely on for support.
For more than 50 years, Scantek has helped businesses migrate from paper and microfilm to digital images- A Digital Transformation. We provide back file, day-forward, and inbound/outbound mail conversion services to clients both regionally and nationally.
Develop and Validate a Plan
A good Business Continuity Plan recognizes potential threats to an organization and analyzes what impact they may have on day-to-day operations. It also provides a way to mitigate these threats, putting in place a framework which allows key functions of the business to continue even if the worst happens.
Validating the Business Continuity Plan ensures that the solutions and response structure are current, accurate, effective and complete. Some examples that could interrupt operations are:
- Natural Disasters: Earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods… Natural disasters can cause physical damage to buildings, power outages, destroy physical documents, and render information systems inoperable for an extended period. Hurricane Sandy revealed what businesses could face with a catastrophic event. Having your documents scanned and available digitally removes the need for physical storage and provides remote access to all scanned files. Confidential information will be protected, and valuable records will be preserved.
- Pandemics: A pandemic such as COVID-19 (coronavirus) can affect your employee’s safety and your company’s sales, and it can require related expenses to keep your employees safe. Pandemics also create panic and misinformation. Executing a Business Continuity Plan will enable you to transition your entire organization from onsite to remote without skipping a beat. Scantek’s digital services are key to implementing a comprehensive BCP.
- Cyber-Attacks: Digital attacks are on the rise. Common threats include phishing, malware, data and identity theft, and password attacks. The 2018 Hiscox Small Business Cyber Risk Report found that many businesses experienced more than one cyber-attack a year, with some businesses reporting as many as five or more. The report estimated the average cost of cybercrime to be $35,000 a year for small businesses, and millions of dollars a year for larger companies. Losing your customer’s confidence in your security can cause severe financial hardships to your business. Ways to protect your business include updating IT systems, backing up data to the Cloud, and training employees on good internet security practices.
How We Can Help
Our scanning and electronic document management solutions are an integral component for your organization’s Business Continuity Plan. Our digital services include:
Business Process Outsourcing (BPO): By digitizing your documents and implementing workflow solutions, Scantek will ensure your critical files are accessible anytime, from anywhere. Key functions such as accounts payable, payroll, human resources, customer service, and industry-specific applications can be digitized and automated for secure and remote access.
Outsourced Digital Mailroom: An organization’s Inbound and Outbound mail can be severely impacted during a crisis. With Scantek’s Digital Mail solution, employees can work remotely and still process incoming mail and email, even if your office is not open. You will also eliminate paper-based approval processes and expedite the processing of critical documents.
- Archival Storage & Retrieval: With our Backfile Scanning and Document Management Solutions, companies have instant and secure access to their critical, and often irreplaceable, legacy documents while maintaining full regulatory compliance. Key records in every department (HR, Legal, Finance, Administrative) can be digitized and indexed for instant access at your fingertips in seconds, through a secure cloud document management system.