ECOMMERCE BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLANNING
When entrepreneurs start a business, one of the fundamental steps in creating a business plan. This plan lays out how the business will operate on a day to day basis in its community. But, what about what happens when disaster strikes? When unprecedented events take over and halt your business, what can you do then? Join us as we share a four-step process on how to create your (possibly) first Business Continuity Plan.
The Four Steps to ECBP Success
The following steps are directly sourced from Ready.gov, a website designed to provide resources for businesses of all classification and sizes. They have created a detailed guide of exact steps to follow that lead to an effective, strong ECBP plan.
Step One: Execute a Business Impact Analysis
Consider the Impact
At the time of this blog’s release, communities are dealing with the effects of COVID-19 on our economy. Many businesses are forced to close, while others are allowed to operate at a limited capacity. Each situation warrants a different level of impact, depending on your business. It is up to the owner to detail and determine the level of impact, which can be difficult, but necessary. Outline details such as loss or expiration of inventory, unemployment payouts, bills due when there is zero income, loss of brick and mortar space, etc. as it pertains to your operations.
Timing and Duration of Disruption
Disaster situations are never the same twice. From tornadoes to hurricanes to pandemics, the duration of disruption will reflect the magnitude of the disaster. From days to weeks to months or even years, it’s important to keep track of how long your business is disrupted prior to returning to regular operations. These identifiers could mean differences in financial support, including insurance policies or state or locally-funded grants. Though it may be strenuous, having such a detailed paper trail of your experience during this time is integral for future recovery.
Conducting the BIA
Now that top-level disruptions are identified, it is important to survey with your management team and their staff, if it extends as such, to determine if there are any missing points or issues that need addressing and itemization. FEMA has provided a detailed worksheet survey to help assist with this process. Though brief, this exercise can be extremely beneficial.
BIA Report
Now that you’ve gathered all the information, whether it be actual or potential, it’s time to lay out your research in the form of a report. This report includes monetary definitions for each itemized disruption or loss, which will help better communicate the financial burden of your business’s loss. These costs should be compared with the costs for possible recovery strategies. The BIA report should prioritize the order of events for the restoration of the business. Business processes with the greatest operational and financial impacts should be restored first.
Business Disruption Scenarios
If you need a reference point to help get started, feel free to reference these provided points to get your analysis going.
Physical damage to the building(s)
Damage to or breakdown of machinery, systems, or equipment
Restricted access to a site or building
Interruption of the supply chain including failure of a supplier or disruption of transportation of goods from the supplier
Utility outage (e.g., electrical power outage)
Damage to, loss, or corruption of information technology including voice and data communications, servers, computers, operating systems, applications, and data
Absenteeism of essential employees
Step Two: Define Recovery Strategies
Use your eCommerce Business Continuity Plan to strengthen your business from your physical storefront to the digital back-end of your website.
Now that impact has been determined, it’s time to detail your plan to recover as a business. This could mean many tasks, or very few, depending on your business. The resources to build this plan can come from the following points:
Employees
Allocation of equipment and operation space
Technology, including computers and payment terminals and software or data, used to manage operations
Any vital records, both physical and electronic
Inventory, including pre-production raw materials, finished goods, and items in production
All utilities, as mentioned previously
Any and all third-party services
In addition to strategies, you will want to conduct a Gap Analysis as well. This analysis will help you better understand the amount of time it will take to fully recover.
If you’re looking for more resources, these two points are great places to get started:
Step Three: Develop a Plan
That’s right, you guessed it. It’s time for MORE PLANNING! At this point, we’ve identified the disaster, the effects it has had or can have on your business, what it will take to recover from said disaster, as well as how long. Now it’s time for the plan of attack, as it were. This framework explains which departments and individuals are responsible for which improvements or important tasks. This consists of anything that might have to do with a relocation plan, including moving your brick and mortar store to a virtual marketplace, either temporarily or permanently. If this means starting a virtual marketplace, we have a detailed list of recommendations to choose from that are affordable and easy to maintain.
Step Four: Practice and Test
The final step in building a successful ECBP involves the practice of and overall testing of your detailed plans. For some, especially during our current environment under COVID-19, there is no time for practice, only implementation. Think of our current situation as the ultimate testing environment, a space that demands innovation and critical thinking on your feet. What a great opportunity for growth! As daunting as it may be, practicing these plans will subsequently strengthen the resilience of your brand and your team.
Conclusion
Whether it’s the first, fourth, or fourteenth business, planning from all aspects of a business is vital to the sustainability of your brand and its future. The Business Continuity Plan, one would hope, should be thought of more like a last will and testament: the surrounding circumstances are difficult and sometimes uncomfortable to deal with, but having a plan of reference makes the entire process run smoother, and hopefully, with less stress and pain than without one.
