Here’s a great question posed recently by a Datto Partner, ThinkGard, to their customers, “Is IT running your business?”  We’ve all talked about the connection of IT value and business value, but this is a new approach.  And when the customer replies that everything is “OK”, is that the end of the conversation?   How far can you really push a customer?  Aren’t they always right?  Below is the original article …

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When you ask your IT person if he or she is confident that the business continuity, backup & disaster recovery plans that they have in place are sufficient, do they often reply with “Everything is OK”? Does this response give you confidence? Do you take their word for it? After all, they are the technology experts.

Have you ever challenged them when they say, "Everything is OK”? Have you asked them to prove that their data is being backed up, tested both locally and in the cloud? Have you conveyed to them the importance of costs associated with downtime in their business? Do they know that 40 percent of companies whose Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity plans fail, go out of business within a year? They may or may not know this. It’s not that they take their job lightly, but most IT department managers/directors haven’t been told how much downtime would really cost. That’s why it’s important that the CEO/business owner take the lead in Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery instead of the IT department.

We’ve gone into why you should take the lead; now let’s talk about how:

Step 1: Form a group or committee within your business that consist of both executives and IT staff.

Step 2: Pose these three key questions to your customer, and make sure both executives and members of IT are present.

1. How much will it cost if we are down? Most CEOs or business owners know how much per hour it will cost if their business is down due to technology failure or a disaster.
2. How long can systems remain down before it starts to negatively impact your business? We call this Recovery Time Objective or (RTO).
3. How much data can we afford to lose? We call this Recovery Point Objective or (RPO). Try using this Recovery Time Calculator. It will be a good starting point.

Step 3: Define a solution that meets the business objectives, based on the answers in Step 2. Being a CEO and a technology specialist, I know this may seem like a daunting task. And the IT staff at your customer site may think they don’t have the time to research and define the right solution. Maybe they don’t. If not, it exemplifies the needs for a MSP, or consultant, who can specialize in business continuity. Someone who can bring the IT team up to date on the latest options in technology that they may not have had time to research. Many people call on outsourced IT companies to help. The catch, those companies staff, like your own, do not have the time and resources dedicated for the tasks associated with business continuity.

That’s why we got out of the all need outsourced IT business and decided to focus solely on the one single piece of IT that may not make, but could certainly break a company.

Paul Franks is CEO and Co-founder of ThinkGard, based in Pelham, AL. He has over 20 years of Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Services experience.  You can contact Paul by email at paul@thinkgard.com or 205.564.2726