These days we are used to the idea that there is a mobile phone application for every problem presented by modern living. Need to pay a bill or transfer some money? There is a mobile phone banking app for that. Need to find your way to a new place? There is a mobile GPS app for that. Need to get some takeaway food delivered to your door. There is a delivery service app for that. Need to call a taxi late at night and pay on your credit card? There’s an app for that as well.
All successful mobile apps have a few things in common. First of all, they make complicated things simple and are very user friendly. Secondly, they connect the person with a need to the person able to satisfy that need. Thirdly, they are cheap or even free to download, and they provide a very cost effective service to the user. Finally, they are always with you, on your smart phone sitting right there in your pocket.
New research shows that only a quarter of small businesses have a business continuity plan in place and only a quarter of those that do have a plan regularly test it. This leaves over 90% of these businesses very exposed in the event of a business disruption incident. That should be a massive concern to anyone running a small business, with multiple business disruption threats out there, including power outages, hardware failure and most of all cyber crime. According to government figures cyber crime alone affected 90% of all businesses last year.
Small businesses are put off by the cost, the perceived complexity and the effort required to put the necessary BC arrangements into place. They know it is important, but they cannot summon the will to overcome these obstacles. Big business also knows that it is important, but they do have the resources to overcome the obstacles and three quarters of them do have a BC plan in place which they regularly test.
The trouble is that small businesses are exactly the ones who are most likely to suffer long-term damage to their business if they cannot respond effectively and recover quickly from a business disruption event. If they cannot respond fast enough and lose access to their data for any length of time, statistics show that they may even go out of business as a result.
What they could really use is a business continuity app. A device that makes business continuity very simple, connects them with the people they need to resolve their disruption incident and comes at a cost that they can afford.
Luckily for them, the Crises Control app does all of these things and a few more besides. It is low cost, designed to be easy to implement and is based on a robust multi-channel, cloud-hosted, communications platform. And, unlike other solutions on the market, it also offers a range of template incident specific action plans which are ideal for quick start small business BC planning.
Business continuity planning. Now there’s an app for that too.
