A solid business continuity plan (BCP) identifies risks that could potentially threaten a company or organization and provides a structure for building resilience and the means for an effective response to the identified risks. Business continuity (BC) assures continuous business processes during and after a business disruption. Having a BCP in place is a major factor in a company’s survival in today’s competitive and volatile world. Companies without a well-conceived and implemented BCP often fail to survive the unplanned business disruption. Good continuity management often makes the difference between success and failure.
Fires, floods, earthquakes, tornados, cyber crimes, terrorism, telecommunications and computer failures, fraud, theft, employee sabotage, collapse of a key supplier, Avian Flu, or sudden loss of a customer base are but a few of the concerns a business must plan for.
The Y2K, 9-11 tragedy, Tsunami flooding, and most recently, the Hurricane Katrina disaster has corporations developing and re-evaluating business continuity planning and network security in greater numbers than ever before. However, recent surveys show that most companies still do not have business continuity or solid security plans in place. In addition, among the companies with BC plans most have never taken the steps to actually test and evaluate the vital plans.
It is not surprising that general business requirements set by corporate boards, regulatory agencies, insurance agencies and auditing firms are all in various stages of stressing the importance of risk analysis and business continuity management (BCM).
The business climate today requires that everyone (from the board of directors to the companies customer service department) understands the nature and scope of proper BCM. The directors and top management needs to be in a position to effectively evaluate the business continuity plan and data for disaster preparedness. When required, they should enhance the BC management and infrastructure within their organization. Surveys show that most organizations have never tested their BC plan, and therefore, are not in a position to determine how effective it is.
The goal of BCM is to safeguard the company, it’s reputation, brand and value-creating activities as well as it’s key stakeholders. BCM identifies potential risks that threaten a company or organization and provides a framework for building resilience to the risks.
BCM is not just for large corporations and organizations. Small businesses actually have fewer resources to fall back on in a disaster, and are even more vulnerable without a critical BCP in place.
Many businesses make the mistake of thinking they don’t need to have a BCP because they have insurance. This has been a costly and fatal mistake for many companies. Understand the limits of the insurance coverage, especially after the impact of 9-11, and recent natural disasters. Re-evaluate the company coverage and potential risks before a disaster strikes. Also consider the fact that many insurance companies lower insurance premiums with the existence of a quality BCP.
Company management should set and agree upon a budgetary policy and budget for development and implementation of its BC management. The BC plan can then be developed to the availability of funds within the corporate budget. Any plan is better than no plan. In addition, the security systems and infrastructure are implemented in stages when corporate budgets are tight.
Most companies start with a working BC management team or steering group. This group holds regular meetings to deal with determining risks and developing BC recovery plans for the company. They ask critical questions of the department managers, the CIO and the IT director, etc., and develop a risk assessment for every department within the company.
One person on this committee should report regularly to the company’s board of directors. This person can be in-house management, or can be an appointed managing consultant holding the responsibility of reporting to the board.
A comprehensive approach, which is inclusive of all aspects of the business model, is required. Many companies ensure the BC process and solutions are comprehensive by employing BC consultants. These professionals can often point out common weaknesses in the planning and implementation, and are invaluable in critical BC planning and information security.
Next See: Risk Assessment
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