Start a business continuity plan for your SME (Ho Chi Minh City)

Have you ever wondered what would happen if a natural disaster, epidemic or a widespread power failure affected the operation of your business? Do you think your company is ready to face this kind of adversity, without stopping its production processes?

If the answer is no, it’s time to think about implementing a business continuity plan. A BCP is a program of actions aimed at protecting the critical processes of the companies and of generating activities for risks and contingencies.

The continuity unlike what many people think, is not limited to creating mechanisms to react to the loss of sensitive information. It is also not exclusively a response to events that violate the technological infrastructure of business, or to create backups or backups of data – as envisaged by the disaster recovery plan – but to trace the guidelines for action if every segment of the business face risk.

Experts note that the BCP is not only designed for corporations, but also for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), regardless of their order or their specific characteristics.
The business continuity plan seeks to make events, such as those discussed earlier, have the least possible impact on the assets, human factor and finances of the company.

Some of the risks covered or that should be covered by a business continuity plan are: infrastructural damage phenomena or natural disasters such as floods, high winds, explosions or fires, the loss of confidential information, computer breakdowns and diseases that threaten the health and productivity of workers.
To develop this program, you must follow this process:

1. Define processes and potential risks. The first step in creating a BCP is to analyse the operation of your business. Determine which are essential to generate profits and those you think are at most risk, so you can time the project activity after an unforeseen event. Identify weaknesses and work on them.

2. Know your infrastructure. Check your facilities and equipment. Determine what its significance is for the purposes of your productivity and evaluate their strength.

3. Fix critical needs. Imagine you experience any of the events described above and think about what you need for your business to remain active. Create multiple scenarios and define the activities that are most important for your business to remain standing.

4. Solution Document. Create a document of possible solutions to the likely risk scenarios and include mechanisms you can use to implement them.

5. Test the plan. You need to run simulations of dangerous events and define the roles of each area and make the necessary corrections. Remember that all staff must be capable of performing the practices mentioned in the plan.

It should be added that while the development of this should be encouraged and promoted by the company management, the staff are key in detecting vulnerabilities and the subsequent execution of the program.