Recently, we wrote about rethinking your print and mail business continuity strategy. It’s a good reminder that unexpected business interruptions happen, even to those who plan for everything. You really need to plan for the unexpected.

As you start thinking about your overall business continuity plan, you may want to start with a few baseline elements of your print and mail program before you get into larger initiatives like backup sites and failover.

There are a few changes you can make now that make business continuity much easier if and when you have to go down that path.

A good place to start is by considering the physical materials you’re using, like your paper and envelopes. What size paper do you print on? What type of envelopes do you use? Are you using common, standard sizes or very unique, custom pieces?

Remember that in addition to your main printing facility, whether it’s yours or a third party vendor/consultant, you also need to have enough supplies at your backup facility. If something happens and you need to switch production to your backup site, they have to be able to start printing and distributing for you immediately. It’s a much smoother transition if you’re using standard supplies. Custom sizes just don’t allow for good business continuity.

As important as it is to select a backup site and build your IT infrastructure to allow failover, it’s just as important to think through those perceived smaller areas like envelope type and size. Even if you have the best plan in place, if it’s slowed by your materials then it’s not efficient or streamlined - and during business interruptions it’s critical to be efficient and streamlined.

We’ve made discussions like this part of our onboarding process with new clients. We understand how great the impact can be on a decision that at first seems so simple, like using envelopes with windows or without. We also work closely with our partner network to continually update and test their capabilities. We focus on everything, so that if you have to use your business continuity plan, it’s executed seamlessly and quickly.