What is a Business Continuity Plan?
A business continuity plan (BCP) contains strategies outlining prevention measures against disruptive cyber or physical threats, like malicious hacking, natural disasters and infrastructure failure. A BCP includes disaster recovery plans to maintain office productivity and minimise data loss.
Business continuity planning strives to protect and recover:
- Data: A BCP protects all data, such as sensitive business and customer information, financial details and patient records.
- Assets: Assets can refer to a physical workspace, electrical equipment and business vehicles.
- Finance: A BCP will also protect liquid assets such as cash with risk management strategies to reduce excess costs following a disaster.
- Reputation: Clients are more likely to return to a business if they feel safe handing over personal details.
Fundamentally, the business continuity planning process should identify all risks to regular operations. During a business continuity impact analysis, you may rate the severity of a risk based on the following:
- How long the disaster disrupts stable business operations
- The chances of the risk happening
- Which resources are affected
- Whether it directly impacts consumers
5 Components of a Business Continuity Plan
Before creating your business continuity plan, defining the main components is beneficial. The list below discusses five elements of a BCP and their importance:
List of Threats
Threats refer to any incident that disturbs any business function, which can have a knock-on effect on tangible outcomes and key performance indicators (KPIs).
Retail Industry Example: An online retailer’s primary KPI is daily sales figures. The retailer experiences issues with its eCommerce site, where customers can’t view bagged items at the checkout. The problem persists for two hours, meaning the retailer cannot make money during this time. Consequently, customers become frustrated with the issue and visit an alternate site to complete their purchase.
Although threats are subjective to the individual businesses, here are some common hazards:
- Cyber attacks, internet connectivity issues and malware
- Natural disasters like flooding, wildfires, earthquakes and landslides
- Physical threats like burglaries, power outages or equipment breakage
- Problems with supply chains causing material shortages
RTO and RPO
A recovery point objective (RPO) is the point at which data is restorative after a disaster. A recovery time objective (RTO) measures the duration of the disaster through to the final recovery point. So, how do they help?
While you may not have control over specific threats, you can easily regulate the RPO as part of your emergency response. For instance, if you’re a process manager who works with IT systems frequently, you can necessitate timely data backup to a cloud host or external hard drive. Depending on the severity of the data your team works with, you may request hourly or daily file saving.
Clear Communication
Business continuity plans should highlight the value of open communication. BCPs should facilitate communication via computer systems, like Teams, a cloud-based video conferencing and instant messaging service. It should also consider manual workarounds in case of a power outage. For example, you’d specify emergency meeting points near a physical workspace.
Emergency Management
Emergency management is the framework which outlines what process a business should take during an emergency. While it refers to obvious measures like fire drills, it also links to technical methods like penetration testing to find vulnerable areas of cybersecurity.
Change Management
As a business grows and develops, it may become a target for more advanced threats. An efficient change management approach aids in the smooth transition of new processes in resources, customer care or data management. Change management highlights specific adjustments and how they’ll improve current operations.
How to Create a Business Continuity Plan
Creating a successful business continuity plan is a meticulous process that must consider all essential business resources. Consider following these critical steps when creating a BCP:
1. Identify Critical Business Functions
Examine each department of your business and highlight minor processes that help specific teams with KPIs. Analyse your current computer systems for the following elements:
- Information technology security measures
- Operating systems
- Model
- Wireless connectivity
- Storage
A thorough physical security audit determines processes like emergency drills, locking systems and video security. You should also review the security precautions for storing and transferring business data. For instance, your current system may use end-to-end encryption and two-factor authentication to access digital resources.
Communication is another crucial area to review. Analyse the effectiveness of your current platform and determine whether more centralised hubs, like Microsoft 365, would better support productivity.
2. Conduct a Risk Assessment An All Business Processes
Once you’ve identified standard processes, you should assess potential threats along with a business impact analysis and set recovery priorities. As you identify critical business functions, define each hazard that could prove problematic.
Information Technology Department Example: As a process manager, you identify cyber attacks as possible risks. You decide that the likelihood of a successful attack is low because there’s a skilled, ethical hacker in the IT department who tests security measures. Despite this, a cyber attack would significantly impact total business operations and possibly damage public relations. Cyber security should remain a high priority because of the disruption an attack could have on business continuity.
Taking considerable time in the planning process improves your chances of developing a successful business continuity plan prepared for all possible outcomes.
3. Define Recovery Strategies
A disaster recovery plan (DRP) provides a structured solution to minimise business disruption and resume work as usual. Firstly, define several business internet solutions to help you stay connected to your team and customer base.
For instance, ensuring all software has an auto-save feature reduces overall RTO. Ensure your recovery plan enables offline working through applications that facilitate cloud sharing for easy access anywhere. Installing desktop versions as a backup minimises the need for an internet connection but continues to save your progress.
Manual workarounds should support each digital recovery strategy so you can continue operating with some normality when you can’t access online resources, such as handwriting invoices and using a mailing service to send them. Consider gaining professional help in devising a backup and disaster recovery plan.
4. Assign a Recovery Management Team
Curate a team of process managers, human resources, key stakeholders and other relevant parties like departmental managers to develop a contingency plan which outlines:
- Chain of command
- Individual responsibilities
- Available resources during each business disruption
- Recovery strategies
Communicate which business continuity management team member should report to during a specific situation. For instance, employees should consult departmental managers on minor issues with computer systems but work with company leaders and stakeholders during a more significant crisis. Open communication will streamline recovery, enabling people to continue operating as usual. As a business continuity team, review recovery strategies frequently to stay ahead of potential threats:
- Small-sized businesses: Annual review.
- Medium-sized businesses: Two times per year.
Benefits of Business Continuity Planning
Business continuity plans ensure longevity in the field. The frequency with which you should review your strategy helps you stay aware of even minor business moves, allowing you to grow and expand.
Minimisation of data loss: Setting appropriate RPOs protects data, which helps maintain relationships with repeat customers. Employees will also spend less time recollecting data and doubling up on tasks they’ve already completed, boosting overall productivity.
Trading hours remain uninterrupted: Disaster recovery allows customers to interact with businesses as usual, improving user experience and maintaining steady profit margins.
Budgeting stays on track: Emergency management reduces the risk of forking out for hefty bills replacing IT equipment, for example, during a disaster. Businesses can prepare a mini-budget to accumulate sufficient emergency funds to respond to a threat instantly.
Sustained business reputation: Business continuity fosters trust with prospective clients. Satisfied clients are more likely to spread positive news via word-of-mouth, helping your business gain organic attention. Similarly, it’s a great way to reduce staff turnover, as business continuity plans nurture a sense of security. Good retention alone reaps numerous benefits, like a more skilled employee base and saving on recruitment costs.
Streamlining of business processes: A continuity plan with accurate risk management is more likely to have less disruption to workflow. Employees with fewer distractions can sustain better concentration and deliver higher-quality output. They’re also less likely to feel stressed, improving overall employee morale.
FAQs About Business Continuity
Here are two frequently asked questions about BCPs:
What is the Main Goal of Business Continuity?
The main goal of a business continuity plan is to support individual business functions during a crisis. The aim is to minimise the disaster recovery time to protect the integrity of human life assets, finances, equipment and the work site.
Who Needs Business Continuity Planning?
No matter the size, every company, organisation and enterprise needs a business continuity plan. Our research suggests that 60% of companies shut down after losing data during a disaster. While any establishment should dedicate a business continuity team, every member needs sufficient training on what to do during a crisis.