What is Business Continuity and Why Do You Need It

Natural disasters, power outages, data breaches, terrorism, and pandemics are part of our lives. They’re not enjoyable, we don’t want them, but they happen. Business continuity planning helps your organization not only to navigate through these unfortunate events, but also to continue to thrive. 

Business continuity isn’t just for regular businesses, it’s also important for higher education organizations. There are unique needs and problems faced by higher ed that need to be prepared and planned for to help the organization quickly re-open or stay open in times of crisis. 

What Is Business Continuity? 

Business continuity is about having a plan to deal with difficult situations. It's more than just a disaster response plan—it’s about creating as little disruption as possible to your normal operations. Business continuity focuses on keeping your business, organization, or institution up and running, even when there are disastrous circumstances that would normally stop you. 

Why Do You Need a Business Continuity Plan? 

Many organizations and companies are one disaster away from becoming financially crippled and shut down. Business continuity planning helps reduce the amount of downtime there is after an emergency or disaster. This reduces loss and helps create the opportunity for faster recovery. 

Business continuity planning changes how emergencies, or even less catastrophic adverse events, affect your organization. Rather than being reactive to the emergency, you are being proactive. This cuts down on decision making time in a time of crisis and provides a quick path back to productivity and normal operations. 

How Can Business Continuity Planning Help? 

Why do you need a business continuity plan? You need it to keep your doors open and operations running even in times of crisis. But there’s more to it than that. Here are three more reasons to have a business continuity plan.

1. Peace of Mind

A major benefit of business continuity planning is that it provides your organization with peace of mind. In case of an emergency, you can have the peace of mind that the plan is already established and tested so you aren’t forced to make rash last-minute decisions.

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2. Protect the Customer

Business continuity helps protect your business or organization, and it also protects the customer. It safeguards the customer’s physical wellbeing as well as their information or data. Higher ed serves several “customers”, and their safety is the utmost importance.

3. Save Money

Emergencies and disasters are costly. Having a continuity plan isn’t just about what you need to do in case of emergency—it’s about identifying and gathering together the supplies needed in those emergencies. When a flood hits, the power goes out, or a cyberattack happens, businesses and organizations with a continuity plan will have the resources to solve the problem and get back to work as soon as possible. 

Kuali Ready Can Help

Finding the right business continuity software with the understanding of the diverse needs of higher education can be complicated. That’s why we streamlined all of this with our software buying guide.

Kuali Ready can help your business or organization create, manage, and organize a business continuity plan that’s tailored to the complex needs of each higher ed department. For more in-depth information on continuity planning in higher ed, download the ebook, How To: Business Continuity Planning Basics for Higher Ed, or contact us today to find out how Kuali can help you build a culture of resilience.

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