I think it is safe to say that coronavirus is a topic on everyone’s mind these days. In addition to the potential personal implications, the virus and attempts to contain it are impacting businesses worldwide. Dun and Bradstreet reports that more than 5 million businesses across the globe could be affected.

When it comes to disasters like coronavirus, small and mid-sized businesses are especially vulnerable because they have fewer resources to rely on. Fortunately, there are some steps you can take to increase your IT resilience.

Create a Business Resilience Plan

Resilience is the next evolution of business continuity. It focuses not just on how to get back to business after something goes wrong, but on positioning your organization to protect your brand, resources, and staff from threats in the first place. Having a plan in place will help your organization take the proper actions in the right sequence so you can save as much of the business as possible from damage and begin the process of recovery.

Your plan should identify essential functions, as well as delegation of authority if key decision makers become incapacitated. Here are some goals to consider when crafting your business resilience plan:

• Employee and stakeholder well-being
• Keeping Customers in the Loop
• Enabling Uptime
• Keeping the Business Moving, aka Recovery

Once you have your business resilience plan documented, make sure to share it with employees and stakeholders so that everyone knows their role.

Preserve IT Availability

If you are reading this newsletter, it is more than likely that your organization relies on computers in order to maintain core functions. Therefore, preserving IT availability is essential to putting your business resilience plan into action. Since none of us has a crystal ball to tell us when disaster might strike, the tools need to be put in place and available before a disaster occurs.

Secure Remote Access

Access to company data is critical, especially when essential employees are unable to get to your facility. If your email or data is stored locally on a server, make sure essential employees have access through a Virtual Private Network (VPN). Alternatively, you can consider cloud storage and availability. I recommend Datto’s Workplace as an elegant and secure solution for accessing company files securely at any time from any device.

Teleconferencing

As the spread of coronavirus prompts companies to limit business travel (see my earlier point regarding employee well-being), teleconferencing software is being used as an alternative. I read that shares in Zoom have skyrocketed recently. Here at Invario, we also have a large monitor with ScreenBeam for wireless presentations. We have deployed similar configurations at several customer sites along with cameras and speaker phones, and find it works well.

Voice Communications

If your facility is unavailable, the phone system is another consideration. I recommend a system that lets you simultaneously ring or forward calls to cellular phones. Some VoIP systems also have the option to take home desk phones. This allows your organization can maintain communications, even if everyone is working from a virtual office.

Computer Hardware

China’s impact on the global supply chain for hi-tech goods is high, meaning that we may see delays in the procurement of new computer hardware as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. Microsoft has warned that the company’s PC and Surface business would be negatively affected by coronavirus impacts. Dell has been less direct, but also indicated they expect coronavirus to impact the company’s ability to manage the supply chain in China and elsewhere. Keep this in mind and try to have plenty of lead time if you are considering new computer or server purchases.

Know How to Get in Touch

Your business resilience plan should include information on how to contact key vendors such as your Invario IT support team. You can reach us via email at help@invario.net, or by calling 703-528-0101. Each member of the Invario team can work remotely. This means we continue to support customers, even if our Virginia headquarters is out of commission.

We also back up our own data, monitor, and test regularly just as we do with other small and mid-sized businesses. Talk to us about business continuity and data recovery options. Restoring from a traditional backup may take several days, but we have solutions that can get your business up and running within minutes. For more information on how to protect your organization from natural disasters, check out our Natural Disaster Survival Guide for Businesses.

Feedback

If you have questions about this article, or if there is an IT topic you would like to know more about please email me your suggestions.

Referral$

If you know of a company that would be interested in the services of Invario, please email me the company name along with the phone number and email for the person we should contact.

That is all you have to do! Upon completion of the onboarding of a new customer, Invario will pay the equivalent of one month of Invario service to that customer. Recipients that cannot or do not wish to receive a referral payment may elect to have the referral fee donated to a charity of their choice or put into a company entertainment fund.

Dave Wilson

Referral$

If you know of a company that would be interested in the services of Invario, please email me the company name along with the phone number and email for the person we should contact.

That is all you have to do! Upon completion of the onboarding of a new customer, Invario will pay the equivalent of one month of Invario service to that customer. Recipients that cannot or do not wish to receive a referral payment may elect to have the referral fee donated to a charity of their choice or put into a company entertainment fund.

Dave Wilson