Every business should have a Business Continuity plan in place.  To clarify, a plan will help protect your data and your reputation should the worst happen.  Also, planning gives you a framework to ensure you are back up and running as quickly as possible.  Therefore if you don't think your business could operate if you had an unexpected disaster such as a fire or a flood, then contact us.  As a result, we can put a plan of action together on how your staff will operate in times of crisis.  Finally do you have a backup of all your data should the worse happen or devices are lost of stolen?

What is Business Continuity?

Business Continuity is when you continue to maintain critical business functions during a crisis.

  • Finding alternative Office Space
  • Allowing staff to work from home
  • Redirection of telephone calls and emails
  • Ensuring redirection of post and other crucial deliveries
  • Software as a Service

Disaster Recovery

What is Disaster Recovery?

Distaster Recover is the action of fixing a failing, degraded or completely damaged infrastructure. Examples of a disaster in the business place includes;

  • Electrical repairs and replacements
  • Cabling repairs and if necessary replacements
  • Repairing or replacing damaged technology
  • Repair of the building and its structure, painting, plastering, etc.

The current COVID-19 crisis is testing the continuity plans of many of our clients and we are helping them maintain their connectivity to their customers, suppliers and staff.  We ensure that their staff who are working from home are doing so safely, particularly the ones using their own computers and laptops as well as mobiles.  We are adding encryption and/or anti-virus software to the hardware of some staff whilst ensuring staff who do have access to company information online have uninterrupted access and all the information they need. Contact us if you are experiencing any issues around staff working from home or in managing your online presence.

Once in a Hundred Years

GNC Technology staff experienced this whilst working on-site for one of our clients.  A boiler burst causing a flood which resulted in no power to the building for over 7 days. Our on-site consultant instigated the Business Continuity Plan that we had written for them. All key services were restored within 24 hours and all services were restored within 48 hours. This ensured the business could still operate and service their clients whilst the work to remediate the damage caused by the flood was undertaken.

Statistics suggest that a full disaster event for a business, such as a fire or flood, is a once in a one hundred year event. Therefore, the effect of a disaster can be damaging to businesses.  As a result, surveys suggest as many as 80% of businesses who experience a disaster go out of business within 2 years. With the rarity of such an event, finding a trusted IT provider in this area can be tough. However, GNC Technology have actual experience of managing a client through such a disaster.  To clarify, one of our clients suffered a flood in their office resulting in no electric for their data centre and circa 30 staff members.

GNC invoked the Business Continuity plan which included;

  • Finding them alternative office space
  • Our staff sourced an alternative power to the server room
  • We installed new network cables that ran from existing server room to temporary office space
  • Post and telephony re-direction was put in place
  • Key services were restored within 24 hours
  • All services were restored within 48 hours

A major insurance company was fined £2,275,000 by the FSA in 2010 for the loss of 46,000 policy holders’ personal details. Every week companies are being fined for various breaches of compliance. If you have a disaster can you be sure your data is safe?