Ensuring your technology is ready

At Allstream, we recommend a five-step process to developing the IT and networking elements of your business continuity strategy.

Build a planning team featuring key resources – including expertise in business continuity (BCP) or emergency planning, network technology, IT support, training, and facilities management. Set team goals in mitigating business continuity risks and build assumptions around acceptable level of service you need to deliver during an emergency or a disaster. Get executive support and buy-in. Your key stakeholder and your business continuity plan owner ultimately has to be a senior executive. Identify your key processes and resources. (data, tools, facilities, people) Define business recovery time objectives/priorities in an emergency. Some of your key processes need to be continued at any cost and others can be assigned a lower priority. Define data recovery objectives. Map internal/external process interdependencies. Define risks and constraints that has to do with technology, partners, customers, and employees. Define level of impact, e.g. financial, brand, customer service, contractual, etc.

Review IT infrastructure to determine capability and robustness. Identify risks that pose the greatest threat to business assets and operations. Recommendations to mitigate risks of greatest impact and significance. Ensure you have network, security and workforce productivity solutions that will enable remote working in an emergency. Define the resources, actions, tasks and data required to manage the business and the IT response and recovery process in the event of an interruption. Ensure procedures and policies are in place for deploying emergency teleworking solutions, satellite offices, or other operating models. Define recovery goals for your IT/networking infrastructure/services. Develop a crisis management structure – a group ready to take control of response and recovery operations in disasters. Quickly implementing a plan of action can prevent the loss of life and minimize injury and property damage. Run simulation activities to test preparedness/plan effectiveness. Update plans with “lessons learned” from simulations/real events. Continuously review and update procedures/policies. Manage changes in infrastructure/resources/IT team. Keep informed of technology innovation in order to update your virtual workplace solutions with newer or richer capabilities.

A business-continuity strategy is multi-dimensional, requiring cross-functional teamwork across key business functions. The challenge for the IT team is to have a solid plan and technology in place to ensure both network and workforce continuity. In the event of a disaster, you need to:

• Maintain what’s mission-critical – continue operations, drive revenue and maintain acceptable levels of service and support for your customers.
• Minimize the impact of the event – helping your people to stay connected, collaborating and productive wherever they’re working.
• Recover fast - by turning to alternative ways to carry out business.
• Restore operations as quickly as possible – making sure your IT plan has a long-term recovery strategy.

Providing productivity tools

To keep essential employees working virtually – no matter what the situation – you need to provide them with productivity tools. While every organization is unique, these are examples of virtual workplace needs you need to plan for:

• Leadership continuity – connecting a management team and/or support staff who are forced to disperse during an emergency.
• Enabling teleworkers – simulating a physical workplace by enabling your workforce to work from home.
• Mobile collaboration – enabling your workforce to function and collaborate on the move.
• Satellite office – relocating and bringing online rapidly an alternate workplace when employees need to be in the same physical location to do their jobs.

A building-block approach with Virtual Workplace Solutions

In today’s information economy, it’s essential to take a strategic approach to workforce continuity that goes beyond the traditional VPN-based network connectivity.

In addition to ensuring your network is always operational and secure, new technological capabilities are required to allow your people to easily connect, collaborate, share ideas and scale knowledge virtually.

That’s where Allstream Virtual Workplace Solutions come in. Our solutions will address your evolving needs for flexible working environments through enterprise mobility and teleworking.

View our building-block approach