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The IT Challenges Faced by SMBs Today

March 21, 2016 by wccadmin

Small to mid-sized businesses (SMBs) face a unique set of challenges on a daily basis. These businesses must be creative and resourceful with their technology spending in order to continue to grow and flourish despite financial and human resource constraints. Following are a few of the main areas of concern experienced by SMBs.

Keeping Data Intact

Losing data can bring an SMB to its knees and, quite often, out of business altogether. Without a data integrity specialist on staff, it can be quite difficult to manage the complexities of data flow, storage, and security. Failing to have a solid backup process in place makes the situation worse by creating an unnecessary risk of business collapse should a loss occur.

Managing Outages

Downtime is an expensive problem, costing hundreds to thousands of dollars per minute. SMBs are much more vulnerable to such a large financial loss than are bigger companies, especially when faced with prolonged outages. In addition, these smaller organizations typically lack the IT resources usually committed to system administration and maintenance. Those running the business without these critical resources are often unsure of how systems should be built and integrated, so may construct them in a less than stable architecture, leading to frequent downtime.

Antiquated Solutions

A wide variety of robust technologies exist today. Unfortunately, many SMB teams have limited knowledge of these new systems and fail to take advantage of their power, which can limit efficiency and productivity. As smaller companies must do more with less, this is an unfortunate obstacle to growth.

Using the Wrong Tools for Sales

Sales can be particularly challenging for SMBs, as they need both the right pitch and the right clientele. Lacking tools that can provide valuable information may mean that the sales staff is misdirecting its efforts. Modern data analytics can show trends, insights, and results in an extremely timely manner, but SMBs may not be capitalizing on these tools.

Enterprise-Sized Solutions Do Not Fit All

So many useful tools in the marketplace have been constructed to serve the big money forum: enterprises and major corporations. These applications and systems are complex and costly, which makes them out of range for most SMBs. Businesses of all sizes need workflow solutions, and SMBs must scour the landscape for affordable ways to handle everything from sales to HR, purchasing, and compliance.

SMBs have a particular set of needs since they may be limited by available resources. Acquiring affordable and easily managed IT solutions will help these smaller businesses succeed in an increasingly technical world.

Filed Under: SMB Tagged With: Data, downtime, IT, outages, sales, SMBs

Understanding the Basics of Business Continuity Plans

October 22, 2015 by wccadmin

shutterstock_167173277Many businesses understand the need for a disaster recovery (DR) plan. Restoring operations after a disruptive event such as a power outage or a natural disaster is a critical business process required to sustain success. However, DR plans frequently fail to create a comprehensive risk management structure. Gaps leave certain aspects vulnerable after a major business interruption. But businesses can develop heightened protocols by including a business continuity (BC) plan that complements their DR plan, generally referred to as DR/BC.

While DR plans typically address issues related to communication and facilities recovery, BC plans provide more actionable procedures that are designed to sustain revenue-earning activities in the event of a disruption. BC plans provide contingency mitigations for natural disasters as well as problems related to key personnel absences and supply chain issues with vendors or logistics/warehouse providers and other business partners who experience operational difficulties.

Getting Started

Building a comprehensive strategy for BC is much like the process for developing a DR plan. The key is to establish communication as well as backup solutions for physical locations, IT, and human resources. The first step requires conducting a business impact analysis (BIA).

Businesses should identify the systems and resources (including employees) that are critical for generating revenue and the subsequent effects an outage would have on each. For example, an investment company might elect to establish a backup location with complete IT redundancy so that trading could continue immediately in the event of a disruption. A BIA will help establish a restoration sequence that restores operations in order of importance.

Developing a BC Plan

Business continuity plans should cover these critical aspects:

  • contingency personnel plans for executives and the CEO, CIO, and other chief officers;
    emergency training for all staff;
  • off-site emergency management/operations locations that pull power and utilities from an alternate grid source;
  • proper live-action tests to pinpoint weak areas;
  • comprehensive hardware backup that includes data centers (DC), servers, and laptops that store critical information;
  • emergency goods like meals ready to eat (MREs), paper products, and water supplies in case employees are trapped at work; and
  • alternative transportation plans.

A comprehensive DR model that includes BC aspects should outline recovery time objectives for systems and applications, documents, and facilities that will allow the business to continue operations after a disruption.

Utilizing Technology and Risk Assessments

Building BC contingencies is easier with increased virtualization. There are fewer devices to track and a smaller DC footprint so failover capabilities are simplified. Cost feasibility can be determined through the financial portion of the BIA, which allows businesses to make informed implementation decisions for their DR/BC plan.

Record a written form of the BC plan in a secure, redundant data center and ascertain risks in the following areas:

  • information,
  • communication infrastructure,
  • access and authorization,
  • physical operational environment, and
  • internal and external communications.

Many cloud service, telecom, and colocation providers offer evaluations on current DR plans and provide directional measures that help businesses create comprehensive BC supplements. However, the most important factor is preparation. Businesses shouldn’t ignore the need to develop a BC plan; the best time to address emergency tactics is before they are actually needed.

Filed Under: Business Continuity, Disaster Recovery Tagged With: Business Continuity, business impact analysis, data center, Disaster Recovery, disruption, DR/BC, emergency, outages, risk assessment

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