How you complete and answer that question could be the difference between your firm’s survival or not. Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery plans are designed to ensure that your firm is able to provide critical services during a time of crisis and also survive and recover from disasters. An effective plan must be designed to meet your firm’s and your clients’ specific needs While it is impossible to plan for every event, there are some predictable ones that firms can prepare for that will improve their chances of surviving and retaining their customer base.
Inclement weather, from flooding and high winds that often accompany significant storms can destroy or expose your records. Snow and ice can cause power outages and make your office inaccessible. Weather events tend to make up a significant portion of business continuity/disaster recovery plans, however, weather is not the only culprit. Denial of service and ransomware attacks continue to increase and the threat of fire and pandemic outbreaks should also be components of your plan.
In recent months, we have also had the unfortunate need to make sure our clients are ready for other types of disruptions. Cities like Charlottesville, VA and Durham, NC had to temporarily close businesses due to political unrest. Are you prepared with well thought out plans to keep your employees and client records safe during these types of events?
Oyster Consulting has many small firm clients, and even independent rep practices affiliated with broker-dealers, who often need additional measures to not just serve clients during a time of crisis, but to retain value. Having a plan for key person disability or death can make a big difference. These plans require specific analysis and time to develop in order to achieve real value. Who will fill your chair and serve your clients if you cannot? What is your book worth, and how will it get transferred if needed? These decisions should be made with careful consideration—not in a time of crisis.
We often see clients with business continuity / disaster recovery plans with only the most basic of components. Oftentimes, the plan has not been customized to meet their specific needs. The only way to be certain you are ready is to have a customized plan for your firm, train your employees and test the plan regularly.
Oyster professionals have first-hand experience as firm leaders in business continuity / disaster recovery management, design, development and implementation. This includes incident/event management, technology infrastructure resilience and recovery, and operations management. Oyster understands how to help identify, prioritize critical activities and develop and deliver testing plans to further mitigate the impacts of business disruptions. Our solutions are practical and tailored to your firm’s business model.
