Planning is important
Many of us are thinking about how to prepare our businesses for a pandemic. While this isn’t a new question, dealing with the risk of a pandemic was often done with minimal effort in business continuity planning. Unfortunately, we are hearing that it will take at least a year to have an effective vaccine for COVID-19 available to the public. So, while governments are planning on health management, businesses need to plan for business continuity today. There is no single solution for a business continuity plan for the risk of a pandemic. The solution or solutions depend on industry and the jobs of workers.
Office based industries and jobs
The good news is that for office based administrative, customer service and sales roles (white collar jobs) technology has been moving in the direction to help us deal with pandemics and much of the tools that we can use are commonly used today. These include all of tools that allow workers to work remotely and collaboratively from different locations. Some businesses have had formal work at home programs for years and many assume that it is an acceptable way to work at least part-time.
There are some new trends in information security technology that align well with work at home pandemic plans. It is something of a coincidence that the growth in use of mobile devices and cloud applications and infrastructure has driven these solutions. The new technology trends for mobile and cloud security are based on a new assumption. This new assumption is that mobile devices and the information they send and receive need to be protected as part of the business regardless of their location. This approach offers a new way of thinking about security safeguards inside the office, working at home and for mobile devices in temporary locations.
Other industries and workers
There are many industries that have required that people work together. China’s isolation approach to COVID-19, while it has helped to control the spread of the virus has created other problems. It has reduced manufacturing output and has created some economic issues. Physical isolation of people, without alternative ways to deliver work and services clearly isn’t the best business continuity plan. Some industries, because of new ideas, are already changing and these changes may be accelerated because of pandemics. For instance, every industry that is moving to home or electronic delivery – groceries and prepared food, consumer retail, video entertainment, gaming – will likely accelerate because of a pandemic. Some legacy service industries may benefit by a transition to a home delivery model with new safeguards, e.g., home delivery of beauty services.
Other industries that require person to person contact need to be planning for measures that minimize unsafe contact. These would include healthcare, daycare, fitness centers, real estate. The bottom line is that while there may be some new ways to limit the impact of a pandemic, every organization needs to review their business continuity plan.
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