And you need these answers 

With the new year here, it’s time to reassess all of your business protections, right?

That means reviewing insurances, new laws, existing compliance, updating the employee handbook. But you shouldn’t stop at being concerned with only your business’ coverage.  It’s just as critical that your vendors do the same thing to protect you!  

That’s why I’ve made this 5 blog mini-series. In each of the 5 parts, I’ll give you a question to ask your vendors to ensure that they are taking the right precautions and implementing the best processes to help and protect your business.

Question 1: What is your verified business continuity in the event of a disaster?  

It’s one thing to be paying for a business continuity solution. It’s another thing entirely to know that solutions works.

And it’s not just backups. There are also things like how quickly they can restore operations if you suffer an event like a building fire or flood.  A good vendor will provide:

• Server protection, both onsite and in the cloud
• Office365 backup
• Critical line of business applications natively backed up
• Power protection
• Redundant Internet connections

A better vendor will be able to prove that all of these solutions are working. Don’t expect vendor names, as information like that is often confidential with backup procedures, but get in writing that they acknowledge your questions and they are prepared with commercially feasible processes to help you if you have an emergency.

The bottom line is when you have a real emergency, they must be there for you.  I live in Southern California. That means we get everything from earthquakes to wildfires to rolling blackouts. But I must be ready to protect my clients while I am experiencing the same disaster they are.  No vendor is perfect, same as us, but we’ve mitigated risk to make sure our client’s data is safe. Anything less is not acceptable.

Part 2: here

Part 3: here

Part 4: here

Part 5: here