There are any number of crises and situations that can impact your business. As we all know, the world is currently reacting to the issue of COVID-19 – whether you live in a geographical
hot zone or not. In addition to the obvious healthcare concerns on a personal level, many businesses are wondering about impacts to their operations.
The Coronavirus issue is prompting many discussions and some quick decisions:
- What happens if a team member requires quarantine?
- Do we suspend travel temporarily?
- And many organizations are questioning how prepared they are in a time of potential crisis – could we continue, business as usual, if our community recommends limitations on personal contact?
The good news? Today’s technology does allow for most, if not all, employees to work remotely. Have internet? Work away.
The bad news? Many businesses have never considered this scenario for their entire team and may not be prepared to put a plan into action at a moment’s notice.
First Step: Having a Crisis/Business Continuity Plan
Business continuity/crisis planning is in important part of ensuring your organization can continue to operate effectively under any number of, often unpredictable, circumstances. And that planning
must involve potential impacts to your technology environment, operations and data security.
Hopefully your business has taken the time to create a crisis plan. If not, here are some handy resources you can use.
Using Technology to Your Advantage
As part of your planning efforts you need to assess how technology can play a role in keeping your operations going in the face of a disaster or disruption. In the case of a health crisis, like with COVID-19, having access to cloud-based business services, like Microsoft Office 365 for example, can help you maintain business operations from anywhere with connectivity.
There are many options for your team to connect virtually and continue working, however you do need to make sure that:
- Team members have sufficient Internet service at home that allows for business operations to continue
- Your team has a secure connection that doesn’t jeopardize organizational data security in any way.
- You have the right tools in place for virtual interaction, meetings, videoconferencing etc.
- You remind the team, that despite having to work remotely, company security policies still apply.
Have Questions?
If you have questions about:
- A work from home strategy for your team
- Security concerns around working from home
- Disaster Recovery Planning and Data Backup
- Assessments of your existing network infrastructure & security protocols
We can help. If you are an existing Fully Managed customer, please don’t hesitate to contact your account representative or Virtual CIO with any questions or concerns. For any other inquiries, please contact the Fully Managed team at
info@fullymanaged.com
For additional information on how
Fully Managed is prepared for situations (like COVID-19) please click here.