[Excerpt from guest article by Dale Rockell, Compu-Stor State Manager NSW, posted to Business Franchise Australia]
Business interruption can take many forms and can happen to any business irrespective of size or business model set up. The effects would largely be the same, potentially damaging your franchise, business reputation, respect from customers and suppliers, and even threatening the survival of your business.
Most modern businesses back up computer systems and customer data to avoid the disaster that would ensue if your server crashed and the data was unrecoverable. The inconvenience and financial costs of lost data would be felt immediately, while the ongoing headache of not having past documents and files could impact the business for months, perhaps even years.
But where do you store your data backups? Onsite, filed away at home or with the books? Is it well protected against fire, theft, damage or exposure to harmful environmental conditions? And what about your printed archives and files? What if your office was flooded or damaged, could you recover from the loss?
Many Australian and international franchises with business in Australia have gone to great lengths to become ISO accredited, an internationally recognised marquee of excellence. With ISO accreditation comes a set of guidelines on disaster recovery processes which recommends that businesses store backup data at a recognised and approved storage provider.
Business Continuity Management provides a planned approach to the recovery of a business which has been affected by a business interruption and can help minimise the impact on employees, customers and reputation. [Read full article at Business Franchise Australia]
