By Caitlin Hines on August 20, 2018
It could be a burst pipe, a fire in a neighboring work suite, or even a weeklong power outage, it doesn’t have to be a natural disaster that could shut down your business or affect its reputation.
What we are referring to falls into the threshold concept of business continuity or disaster recovery. Planning for the rainiest of rainy days.
What would you do if your operations were completely halted because of a natural or man-made disaster? Moreover, how long would it take for you to get up and running again?
One of our customers is SGS Polymer Solutions Incorporated (SGS PSI). They are an independent testing lab that is part of the global SGS network of inspection, verification, testing, and certification facilities. They serve medical device and pharmaceutical companies, so not only are they ISO 17025 Accredited, they are also FDA Registered. Cynthia Rancourt, the general manager of SGS PSI explained,
“For some clients, we consistently provide analysis to confirm a product or material is within specification, which allows it to be sold on the market. That is why in some of the audits we get from clients they will ask, “‘if you lose this lab how soon will you be able to start testing again.’” That is one thing I took into consideration when considering a cloud-based Quality Management System.”
Business continuity was a major part of Cynthia’s justification and decision to move towards our hosted software from our on-premise version. She shared, “If all our documentation is in the cloud we can access it from any computer–regardless of if the building is standing or not. I realized it was more cost effective to go to the cloud for business continuity.”
It is our hope that horrible situations and disaster level events are never experienced by any of our clients, but there is still significant value in being hosted as a way to address and prepare for smaller and more common disruptions to business. For example, if there is flood-level rain or trenches of snow, employees could still access critical documentation and processes from home, with ease, by being on our hosted platform. It puts quality assurance and business processes at their fingertips!
We recently aligned with a business continuity expert to present an educational workshop on this exact topic–we want our customers informed, educated, and equipped! Kathy Scourby is the principle of KNS Consulting, LLC. She is a certified business continuity professional and has more than thirty-seven years of experience in the legal industry. In this webinar, we discussed items such as IT recovery and cybersecurity protection, alternate workspace options, risk management and compliance, crisis communication systems, and comprehensive written business continuity plans. We also shared insight into how our software supports business continuity and disaster recovery with its core functionality–truly taking you beyond compliance.
Take a moment to watch the webinar and consider if your organization is well positioned for business continuity and please let us know how we can help!
Category: Testing Labs