IT Relocation Services - preparing your Business Continuity Plan
Find out why a Business Continuity Plan is so important and what you need to consider to minimise disruption to your IT services when you move office
For most businesses, the ability to maintain seamless connectivity of business communications infrastructure throughout the office move is paramount and can often determine the success of the office relocation project.
If your IT or phone systems fail, or are unavailable for too long when you move office, it is likely to have a significant effect on your business. You should therefore take an active interest in ensuring you have an up-to-date Business Continuity Plan for your IT systems and include this as part of your office relocation planning.
A Business Continuity Plan will provide you with the procedures to minimise the effects of unexpected disruptive events such as network, power or connectivity failure or even delays caused by your relocation. The plan should enable your business to recover quick and efficiently with minimum disruption to your business.
As far as moving office is concerned, the most important elements of a Business Continuity Plan are: -
- Taking weekly backups of data and consider keeping backups and other important documents and copies of these in a secure offsite location.
- Consider how you will communicate any problems to staff, clients and stakeholders. Where will your employees work if they are not able to get to the new office because of a delay to your office relocation? How will your business continue to be in operation? How will you contact your customers and suppliers; or how will they contact you?
- Inventory all IT and phone equipment and the software you regularly use.
- Make a contact list of all critical service providers and IT contractors, as well as their 24 hours emergency response numbers – anyone you might need to call upon to assist with IT operational issues.
If you need help preparing your Business Continuity Plan, or would like to talk to an IT specialist in your area about your office relocation, why not get in touch with one of our approved, independent IT & Telecoms Consultants – click here to find one in your area.
Don’t forget to use the IT & Telecoms Checklist for more detailed information about what your Business Continuity Plan should include.
