Death has an immediate impact in more ways than most think. I wrote that a friend and client passed away recently. Beyond the immediate impact on his family or on me personally.
I think the biggest impact was on the company he worked at. He was the sole IT professional for a small to medium sized firm. He was tied into everything technology related with the company, from cell phones to servers to e-mails.
His absence was going to have a lasting impact on this company. When you have an internal guy and then don’t, you have a problem. If they quit there can and should be an orderly transition of the codes, logins and passwords.
With death you have systems that have to be cracked or wiped to factory settings. Especially if there was not checks or balances in place for an orderly transition.
When we made an IT switch, it could have gone smoother. But it could have gone worse as well. But when interviewing IT companies, we were embarrassed by what we did not have available ourselves. I have to believe this is the case with most small to medium sized businesses.
Who holds the keys/codes/logins/passwords to your company? What about your social media, who knows those passwords? It this included in your emergency plans someplace?