Importance Of Business Continuity Plan After COVID

Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is a document for tracing the procedure and protocols for ensuring continuity of the business during and post-Covid crisis. It has every possible thing for business processes, assets, human resources, etc, and has a plan for every aspect of the business.

The plan has the checklist of supplies and equipment details, data backups, site locations, site providers, the contact information of plan administrators, key personnel, and more. It has detailed strategies on how the business operations can be maintained while long and short-term crises.

As Covid has caused a lot of disruptions in the operations of most of the businesses because of the lockdown the companies are not able to carry out their normal business functions and thus they have to resort to BCP to ensure that the functionality and get back on track.

Digital Transformation

 Because of Covid-19, there is a huge need for businesses to make a shift from traditional to completely digital systems for managing affairs. Business meetings should be available on various digital platforms also they have to adapt to online marketing and digital transformation in the transactions.

The main focus should be on digital marketing, chatbots, social media marketing, and email marketing to create a larger demand for products and services. eCommerce Development Company in Noida can help in developing apps to help you.

Companies should expand flexible work arrangements to allow people to work remotely and safely. Also, the employees should be provided with sufficient infrastructure for efficient work from home.

Identification and Documentation

There should be detailed analyses of business by identifying the key products or services, revenue generated, amount of clients demanding products, and negative financial results. Having a thorough knowledge of the key products would help the businesses to analyze and create a better strategy.

Impact Evaluation

Once you have identified the key business processes and the products, you should evaluate the potential disruptions caused because of pandemics. Some examples are employee absence due to health conditions, Government restriction on movement and customer’s ability to access the products, Supply chain disruptions because of termination of modes of transport.

Devising Strategies

Now is the time to develop strategies to overcome the disruptions. These would include:

• Organizations limiting contact points and ensure safety and sanitization measures. Offices should adapt social distancing standards and there should be new shift arrangements for reducing the number of employees in the office at one time.
• There should be alternative supply chains. Sourcing materials from less affected areas to fulfill the short-term requirements would be great. There should be arrangements with various suppliers to meet the demand post-pandemic.
• Customers should understand the enhanced safety systems for delivering the product. Discuss with the customers about the new regulations in order to instill confidence.
• Businesses should also lookout for new opportunities that might emerge in this situation. Just like most of the textile companies are now also producing masks and PPE kits and many distilleries started producing sanitizers.

Liquidity Situation and the Working Capital

Businesses should have introduced a cash flow monitoring discipline to predict the cash flow pressure timely and take the necessary action. Strict control has to be maintained over working capital, especially around collecting receivables and managing inventory. Businesses can consider availing of a loan.

Maximize Use of Government Policies

There are various economic stimulus measures by Government to help businesses to cope. Following are some for MSMEs:

• Emergency credit line to business/MSME from banks up to 20%
• The new definition of MSMEs – investment limit revised upwards
• No global tenders for up to INR 200 crore government contracts

Covid-19 has created a huge and unique impact on various aspects of our lives and businesses. And to overcome this situation, businesses have to formulate a broad Business Continuity Plan after considering all the above points and restore their processes in order to revitalize the business activities.

At CHL Softech, a Mobile Application Development Company in Noida, we have helped numerous clients smoothly deal with the pandemic. From implementing an eCommerce to launching an app, we have enabled them to minimize the disruptions of COVID-19.