Partner Article

Preparing your business for disruption

Neil Stephenson, CEO of North East technology firm Onyx Group, on the need for business leaders to steel their empires for unforseen circumstances.

AFTER airports across the UK were affected by volcanic ash from the eruption which began in Iceland a month ago, Britain’s business community is starting to count the cost of the disruption.

Recent news reports detail that this issue isn’t set to disappear anytime soon, with experts warning that the recent air space closures could continue off and on for years or as long as the Icelandic volcano continues to erupt.

Indeed, it could become a way life from us, with suggestions that a second volcano, Katla, which lies next to Eyjafyoll, may follow suit. The last time Eyjafyoll erupted in 1821-23, Katla followed shortly afterwards. The same pattern occurred in 1612.

The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) believes the UK economy stands to lose £100m for every day that planes have been, and continue to be, grounded. It is not just the airline industry that is bearing this cost, however. The wider economy is also suffering making approximately a £25m loss, at its worst.

The crisis has disrupted small business and corporate supply chains alike. The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) is worried that some could encounter cash flow problems unless normal flight operations resume. There is also concern that firms could miss a VAT payment, for example, because their financial controller is stranded abroad.

In Ireland alone, one of the places worst hit, seven out of ten Irish businesses have been affected by the travel disruption according to a new iReach/Bank of Scotland (Ireland) survey. Two in five firms lost revenue, while 20 per cent of staff was stranded because of flight cancellations.

With this in mind, alongside statistics from IBM stating that 80 per cent of those firms that do not have a business continuity plan will go out of business, it’s clear that contingency planning for every eventuality is fundamental to the lifeblood of any company, to ensure they can survive during periods of crisis.

Businesses need to create resilient business continuity plans. This includes planning for staff absences, making arrangements for facilities and services to enable your business to continue to function, as well as catering for systems failures.

In order to manage the impact on business productivity, small firms need to look at technology and how it can help to alleviate pressure on a business. Remote working, in particular, can be an asset in the wake of a disaster.

The opportunity to work from anywhere across the world, should definitely be a component of any small firm’s business contingency plan. Remote working allows employees to be operational and productive despite not being in the office.

As an IT provider, we are seeing more and more businesses looking to improve efficiencies with smarter working practices. Desktop virtualisation is one technology that is being increasingly adapted by firms as the need to work from any geographic location becomes ever more essential in the world we live and do business in today. Desktop virtualisation allows employees to work collaboratively when they’re not in the same place, and also helps cash flow as resources can be shared and allocated to users on an as-needed basis. This is just one example of remote working technologies which provide businesses with greater flexibility and better working practices.

In the case of the volcanic ash crisis, employees unable to work in their normal building would still be able to access files and information over the internet and continue operating as normal via remote working technologies.

The convergence of communication technologies is also helping businesses deal with crises of this kind - many firms we work with for example are using Microsoft’s Office Communications Server which provides video conferencing, internet telephony, instant messaging and other communications capabilities, ensuring they can fully operate anytime, anywhere regardless of where employees are based.

Although time will need to be taken now to ensure companies can work remotely from a technology perspective, it is time well spent. This would avoid the potential situation of having a severely depleted workforce who cannot come into the office as a result of a natural disaster, but, equally, cannot work from another location due to no remote working facilities.

We work closely with a range of small companies, advising small business owners on appropriate business continuity strategies. Our consultants advise them on the importance of having in place the correct contingencies in the event of a disaster - be that physical such as the ash cloud crisis or an IT issue like power failure or data loss.

One of the main trends we have witnessed is that small firms don’t take business continuity seriously enough, and it falls down the ‘to do’ list. Although most are aware of how critical it is that they are prepared for the worst, not many will be able to operate as normal if a crisis was to happen, and this is something we need to continue to educate and advise small businesses on as business continuity directly impacts bottom line and, ultimately, the longevity of a business.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .