Technology is only half the solution. The other half is your people and your processes. When the office becomes unavailable, your team needs to know exactly what to do without waiting for an email that they might not be able to receive.
A solid Communication Plan should include:
- A “Trees” Contact List: A secondary way to reach everyone (personal cell phones or home emails) that isn’t dependent on your corporate server.
- Defined Trigger Points: Who makes the call to “go remote”? Is it at 6:00 AM after a heavy snowfall? Is it immediately after a power outage?
- Role Redundancy: If your office manager is the only person who knows how to update the “Office Closed” greeting on the phone system, what happens when a power outage leaves them offline? Cross-train multiple team members to handle essential continuity tasks so your business can respond quickly during an emergency.
- Manual Workarounds: Some tasks in specialized industries require an on-site presence. Identify those responsibilities and develop a clear “Plan B.” For example, can employees take orders on paper and enter them into the system later? Could you partner with another facility to handle emergency shipping operations if your primary location becomes unavailable?
Testing the Strategy
A plan that hasn’t been tested is just a wish. We recommend our clients perform a “Chaos Test” at least once a year.
Pick a Tuesday, tell your team the office is “unavailable,” and have everyone work from home using the backup systems. You will quickly find the gaps:
- Did the VPN handle the load?
- Did everyone remember their softphone login?
- Did the 5G failover work at the warehouse?
It’s much better to find these answers on a planned “test day” than at 8:00 AM on a Monday morning when a water main has broken.
Conclusion: Partnering for Resilience
At Peak Technology Consulting, we pride ourselves on ensuring our clients suffer virtually no loss of business stemming from IT issues. Whether it’s through proactive IT infrastructure evaluations or implementing robust disaster recovery solutions, our goal is to keep you moving forward.
Backups are important, but they are just the basement of your continuity house. To truly protect your business in New England, you need the cloud access, connectivity, and communication plans that allow your team to work from anywhere.
Is your business ready for the next Nor’easter? Contact us today for a consultation on building a hands-off, resilient IT experience.
