Business Continuity Planning

This can be an essential tool for getting a business up and running within hours to days instead of weeks to months, if at all, in the event of a disaster. Of course, if important company records are in electronic format instead of paper copies, it can be far easier and quicker to get a business back on its feet, particularly if off-site back up copies are kept or an on-line hosted service is used.

– What are the benefits of using a specialist document scanning and data capture specialist?

“80% of businesses suffering a major disaster go out of business in three years.”

“40% of businesses that suffer a critical IT failure go out of business within a year.”

A significant number of businesses fail not because of a major disaster such as fire or flood, but because of something as simple as the failure of a key piece of equipment, or the loss of critical data.

Advance planning for the possibility of a catastrophe will determine whether they survive.

The key component that marks out the survivors is a plan for disaster recovery or a business continuity plan.

Generation of a Business continuity plan (BCP) is a process that an organisation follows towards the creation and validation of a practiced plan for how they will recover from an interruption to their business. Interruptions are generally one of two categories; restriction of access to property or a specific loss of a function/activity/specific machinery or equipment.

In plain English, Business Continuity Planning is working out how to stay in business in the event of a disaster. Incidents include local incidents like building fires, regional incidents like floods, snow or traffic incidents, or national situations like pandemic illnesses.

General steps to follow for Business Continuity Planning

- Identify the of the business continuity plan. Provide an idea of the limitations and boundaries of the plan (what won’t it cover?)

- Conduct a business impact analysis. Look at your organisation and identify what it does and what key activities and resources are required to deliver that. Think about the effects to the organization in the event of a loss or degradation of business/mission functions resulting from a destructive event. Such loss may be a restriction of access to, or a specific loss of a piece of equipment, resource or activity/function. Clearly state the impact to your business.

- Ensure senior management support the aim of the Business Continuity Planning exercise and obtain organisational and financial commitment.

- Communicate with everyone involved. People will need to understand their role in the plan and the organisation will need their support to maintain it. In case of disaster, each department has to be prepared for the action. To recover and to protect the critical functions, each department has to understand the plan and follow it. It is therefore important for each department to help in the creation and maintenance of its portion of the plan.

- Following the business impact analysis, the BCP team should consider and plan appropriate recovery control measures to achieve stated recovery targets. Recovery targets can be stated in terms of business results targets and should be time bound. Control measures are steps or mechanisms that can reduce or eliminate the impact of potential incidents

- The Business Continuity Plan must be a written document, easily communicated to those involved, with clear instructions of what the priorities are, and the steps that must be taken to achieve them. The Business Continuity Plan document must be available when needed.

- A good Business Continuity Plan is tested. “No battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy.”: Field Marshall Helmuth Carl Bernard von Moltke

With the increasing importance of information technology for the continuation of business critical functions, the importance of protecting an organization's data and IT infrastructure in the event of a disruptive situation has become an increasing and more visible business priority in recent years.

It is estimated that most large companies spend between 2% and 4% of their IT budget on disaster recovery planning, with the aim of avoiding larger losses in the event that the business cannot continue to function due to loss of IT infrastructure and data. Of companies that had a major loss of business data, 43% never reopen, 51% close within two years, and only 6% will survive long-term.

For more information on Business Continuity Planning, we would highly recommend MSD International who helped us through the process of developing our Business Continuity Plan and testing it!

The Business Continuity practitioners lament

Oh God please, don’t let it happen yet,
Because my business continuity objectives are not met.
I meant to have it done and put to bed,
But all I have is a Millennium plan that was never read.

The chief execs won’t understand or care,
Until their world looks like a pear.
And then they’ll shout and rant and groan:
“Where’s my plan, the press are on the phone”

And we will smile and gently say,
The time has passed to go our way.
A BC plan is what you needed,
Our strained voices were never heeded.

We tried and tried for a BIA.
But the managers did not join the fray.
Other priorities are on their mind.
To achieve great things for mankind.

Forgotten were mere resilience matters,
To keep the business from going to tatters.
When circumstance beyond all control
Conspire to send our business down a hole,
Please spend some time to think it through
So in advance you know what to do.
We wore our fingers to the bone.

You didn’t listen, YOU’RE ON YOUR OWN !

by Stuart Young