Could your team get back to work after an outage?
A backup can help you recover lost information. But getting back to work also depends on the applications, devices and people your team needs.
You can start a useful recovery conversation with three simple questions. Pick one everyday task, such as opening the appointment list or processing an order, and work through these together.
1. What do we need to do first?
Choose the task your business would need to restart first after an outage.
Ask the person who does that work what they need: the application, current information, a working computer, account access and an internet connection. Keep the list short and specific.
For example, restoring customer files may not help much if staff still cannot sign in to the application that uses them.
2. Have we checked that we can restore it?
Ask your IT provider what your backup arrangements cover and when the relevant information was last restored successfully in a test.
A completed backup notification is useful. A restore test provides more evidence that the information can be recovered and used.
Let your IT team plan the test safely. Do not restore over live records or disconnect business systems to try it yourself. Ask someone who normally performs the task to confirm that the restored result is usable.
3. Who takes the next step?
Know whom to contact if the task stops working.
Confirm who reviews backup failures, who coordinates recovery and who tells staff what to do. Ask what support is available outside normal business hours rather than assuming someone is always watching.
Keep those contacts somewhere the right people can reach if your usual system is unavailable.
One small step this week
Write down your priority task and the three answers above. If an answer is missing, make that the next question for your IT provider.
That gives your business a practical starting point without trying to solve everything in one meeting.
Advanced Consulting Enterprises can help you discuss your business IT priorities. Contact the team.
Source: NIST's Small Business Quick-Start Guide recommends maintaining an inventory, backing up data and testing backups.
By CompuAce Team —