How prepared is your business for the unexpected?

No matter where your business is located, disasters, emergencies, events, and pandemics can potentially cause significant business disruptions. Having long- and short-term business continuity plans can be a critical business component that can help you recover quicker from an unexpected event. Even though COVID-19 has disrupted our daily lives, activating your business continuity plan if you have one already can help keep your business connected and running with as few disruptions as possible. But don’t worry—even if you don’t have a plan in place, it is not too late to use our planning guide for business continuity. 

Here are five short-term tips that can help you today with crisis management and communications:

1. Set up a call-forwarding service to a predetermined backup location – Set up a single or multiple hotline number(s) for employees, employees’ families, customers, and vendors to stay informed with the right information your business wants to share.
2. Protect hardware/software/data records/employee records, etc. with cloud back up – Backing up files to an off-site location means they are better accessible when you need them. Cloud services can remove the burden of offsite data storage and ensure faster recovery from temporary or remote locations.
3. Outline detailed plans for evacuation and shelter-in-place plans – A backup location for your business and a safe meeting place for all employees can help when staff may need to evacuate or shelter in place.
4. Create a remote access plan – Equip business-critical staff with remote work access, so they can access applications and databases from remote locations when working from home or away from the central office.
5. Assemble a crisis-management team – Coordinate efforts with neighboring businesses and building management to outline a plan for supply chain continuity.

For more suggestions and a business continuity checklist, download our planning guide to explore what to do before, during, and after unexpected events. For additional resources and information, check out our AT&T Business Continuity site. And remember, we are here for you, and we are all in this together.