As one more arrow in the “consultative sale” quiver, agents might find it beneficial to advise customers on best practices for business continuity and disaster recovery. Helping customers to be prepared when disaster strikes – whether a cable cut, natural disaster or even viral outbreak – is a great way to not only get on their good side, but also, perhaps, set yourself up for some additional sales.
“Enterprises with multiple data centers have business continuity planning down to a science, and other businesses can learn a lot from them. Having a plan that ensures business as usual in the wake of a natural or manmade disaster will instill confidence among your customers and partners,” said Janet Wong, senior product manager, at IP data, voice and security services provider MegaPath. “While adjustments will be made to daily operations, it doesn’t mean that work comes to a full stop. With the right voice and data solutions in place, employees can still communicate internally or with external third parties.”
In an effort to help organizations of all sizes better prepare for disruptions in business operations, MegaPath has released its Business Continuity Planning Checklist to help customers be sure to have the proper people, processes and failover options in place in the event of a disaster.
MegaPath’s Business Continuity Planning Checklist
- Designate a team: An effective business-continuity plan should involve input from management, the chief security officer, the IT department, Web developer and human resources. These key departments have the ability to ensure the company runs smoothly in times of crisis, while taking into account the needs of their employees.
- Identify key personnel: Determine which executives and employees are critical to operating the business (and supporting customers) that need to have access to key systems and information at all time. A business-continuity plan must ensure these employees receive the highest levels of support, even during the most disruptive events.
- Plan for spikes: Before an emergency occurs, businesses need to plan ahead for increased network bandwidth and secured remote access requirements. Implementing scalable solutions will enable organizations to add increased user licenses to the VPN and Internet connections in real time.
- Choose a flexible secure communications solution: There are many to choose from, but an SSL VPN is one of the leading solutions to provide flexible, remote access, which is essential to any business continuity plan. This technology enables access – via a Web browser – to sensitive corporate and customer data that exists on an enterprise network from remote locations. The SSL solution should be redundant and scalable to account for the increased spike in traffic, as well as integrated into the overall Disaster Recovery plan.
