Admittedly there will be moments when we take for granted our most important asset in business, our people.  Spending one full day in the office can surprise any business owner every once in a while, there will be that moment where your staff will shine and impress you. That is exactly what happened at MyOffice last Tuesday. The staff found themselves in the middles of a “crisis” an intermittent internet service that has limited EVERYONE, clients included, from doing their daily business.  Losing internet service is really restrictive for MyOffice staff as most of the services we provide are dependent on an intricate and user friendly online system.  We had imagined the worst and actually entertained thoughts of closing and just calling it a day.  Good thing, MyOffice Supervisor Edna and the rest of the staff are well aware of our Business Continuity Plan (BCP).

BCP or Business Continuity Plan as defined by Wikipedia is “the activity performed by an organization to ensure that critical business functions will be available to customers, suppliers, regulators, and other entities that must have access to those functions. These activities include many daily chores such as project management, system backups, change control, and help desk.” It can easily be confused with Disaster Preparedness, but Business continuity is not something implemented at the time of a disaster. Business Continuity refers to those activities performed daily to maintain service, consistency, and recoverability. We have shared something about Disaster Preparedness in 2011; feel free to check back on our feature on a Richard Branson interview to get a clear perspective on Disaster Preparedness in business. For now it is about BCP and how the staff of MyOffice was able to put this into action and save the day.

Our staff was able to ensure that business functions will be available to customers and clients by taking into action Plans A, B and C so to speak. The issue at hand was no internet service. As soon as they found out about the loss of connection, follow up calls were made to the service provider with details (i.e. time of call, name of contact person, etc.) noted down. A 2^nd call was made to get in touch with a different service provider, to be an alternative. Now, while all these calls were being made, clients and guests were already online making use of USB modems that are kept in the office as back-up for these particular reasons. MyOffice staff took full advantage of mobile phone features and made use of “mobile hotspot” for their internet use. Plans A, B, C and it was as easy as 1, 2, 3!
 
Planning ahead and having a BCP in place is critical in assuring a positive customer experience in the midst of challenges. Having an effective team to implement this plan is critical in the success of any business, kudos to our staff.