Business Continuity
Business Continuity Management helps you manage the business risks inherent in today's technologies and business processes.
With a defined strategy in place, the pro-active management of these threats allows your organisation to detect, respond to, and protect and continue the value-creating operations in the event of disruption.
The most advanced way to help your business successfully recover from a crisis is to help them from the start.
How a Business Continuity Plan Can Help Protect You and Your Business
Why Your Business Needs a Plan
Recent years have thrown up a lot of upheaval and uncertainty.
Smart businesses are creating a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) to offer a less disrupted service and process to clients and staff, if and when the unexpected happens. And importantly, so you can get back into business faster with a lot less drama.
A BCP is a strategy outlining specific details and actions a business will take to keep essential operations functioning in the event of a disaster.
While the pandemic might spring to mind when we talk about disruptions to business, a disaster can be anything that threatens the ongoing running and viability of your company such as a fire, a severe weather event or a cyberattack.
A BCP provides a step-by-step guide for actions different people (and departments) should take in a crisis. Specifically designed to keep your business functioning, it also aims to keep the shutdown to the shortest possible time period and has a post-disaster recovery plan that outlines how to get everything back to normal.
As well as providing some peace of mind to all staff who have lived through previous disruptions to operations, a BCP has other benefits.
Any type of enforced slowing or stoppage of operations can have serious consequences including loss of money, time and reputation, which can lead to permanent loss of business.
Through the process of creating a comprehensive BCP, businesses are able to identify areas of operational weakness and security limitations that might be leaving the business open to attack.
By pinpointing the most essential areas of a business to ongoing operations, there is an opportunity to rethink and redesign outdated processes that could be serving the business better every day, not only when there's a crisis.
A BCP also encourages directors to ensure all regulations are up to date and security measures are where they need to be at all times.
Whilst the outcomes will be different for many businesses and be affected by your particular industry, service and even location, a basic BCP should always include the following:
- Summary including clear objectives, key-point people and distribution list
- Risk management plan including highlighting the most essential and/or vulnerable areas to protect
- Disaster plan including clear guidelines on what must be done and in what order to keep primary operations running including named people and their responsibilities and contact details
- Recovery plan which outlines what happens after the disaster plan has been triggered and the next steps
- "Live fire" testing schedule, i.e., specific dates and times your business will test the BCP and troubleshoot the process.
It can take time to create a comprehensive BCP but you and your business will never regret it.
We can help you create a BCP that is specific to your business needs and ensure your company and staff can keep working when disaster strikes.
Contact Paul Murphy BCP facilitator at Australian Risk Advisers for information and assistance to implement a Business Continuity Plan for your business.