Business Continuity Planning: An IT Checklist for Businesses

• List the systems your business cannot work without, such as email, files, business applications, phones and internet.
• For each one, decide how long the business can work without it and how much recent data it can afford to lose.
• Rank the systems in the order they should come back.
• Note who depends on each system and who can make decisions about it during an outage.

• Back up servers, key applications and Microsoft 365 email and files, not only shared drives.
• Keep at least one copy separated from your main network. See our guide to ransomware protection.
• Store the settings and documentation needed to rebuild critical systems.
• Confirm that restores meet the recovery targets you set, and record how long they take.

• Make sure employees can reach email, files and key applications from outside the office.
• Give laptops instead of desktops to people who must keep working during an office closure.
• Require multi-factor authentication on remote access and cloud applications.
• Plan how the main business number will be answered if the office is closed.

• Keep a current contact list for employees, key customers, vendors, your IT provider and your insurer, stored somewhere that does not depend on your own systems.
• Decide who leads the response and who speaks to employees and customers.
• Have a second way to reach staff if email is unavailable, such as text messages.
• Prepare short messages for customers about delays or outages.

• List the vendors and cloud services you depend on, with support contacts and account details.
• Consider a backup internet connection for offices that cannot work offline.
• Know how quickly key vendors restore their own services and what their agreements commit to.
• Keep warranty and support details for critical equipment up to date.

• Walk through a scenario with your leadership team at least once a year, such as a ransomware attack or a closed office.
• Test restores of whole systems, not only individual files.
• Update the plan after major changes, such as a new office, a new application or a new IT provider.
• Record what worked, what did not and who owns each fix.

Our backup and disaster recovery services set recovery targets with you for each critical system, put backups and recovery steps in place and test them. Remote monitoring watches servers, workstations and network devices around the clock, so many failures are caught early.

Business continuity and technology risk are part of the planning in our IT consulting and virtual CIO services, and our 24/7 help desk supports employees wherever they work. We support businesses nationwide from offices in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and New York.