Services
Business Continuity Plans
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The principal deliverable of a Gem-Consult Business Continuity Management exercise is a written Business Continuity Plan (BCP) that is specific to your company and formulated in your business's context. This is bound in loose-leaf format so that it can be updated periodically as the result of changing business circumstances, environmental influences, and fine-tuning after test exercises.
1. Content of the BCP
The main sections of your Business Continuity Plan will cover at least the following matters;
- Organisational details
- Defined purpose of Plan
- Assumptions, processes, responsibilities
- Activation and stand-down parameters
- Critical success factors
- Outage time definitions and targets
- Compliance responsibilities
- People's roles and responsibilities
- Internal and external contact details
- Continuity arrangements such as backup resources
- Workarounds and alternate solutions
- Continuity management tasks
- Communications facilities and alternatives
- Checklists, maps, other plans, etc.
The document will be comprehensive but written with brevity of style that makes it easy to use in the heat of a disruptive event. Above all, the requirements in the plan must be achievable in the circumstances likely to be prevailing when the plan is deployed.
The BCP is of course Confidential to you.
It is intended to be an active document that is kept easily at hand for access by those in the company who may have cause to activate any segment.
2. The Framework of Plans
The different kinds of crisis events that may impact the business typically require at least two Business Continuity Plans. For example, one that addresses the range of business-specific events (typically internal incidents) such as fire or financial crisis; and another for more general environmental disasters like earthquake or tsunami (external emergencies).
Multi-location/division organisations may also need entity-specific plans although these will share many characteristics and are likely to be interdependent. For example, geographically close branches may provide mutual backup for each other.
Activation
The trigger points for each of the agreed crisis events need to be carefully defined so that the appropriate BCP sub-plan is activated in good time.
Similarly, the stand-down points need to be clearly designated - i.e. when the emergency has finished.
3. Disaster Kits
As an option, if it is appropriate to your company, we can assist you to establish 'disaster kits'. These are one way of helping to ensure essential information and materials are available when an incident occurs.
4. Maintenance and Testing
Plans can date very quickly - particularly contact lists - and need to be maintained. Changes in key personnel can also necessitate an update, as can business developments.
To maintain your Business Continuity Plan in a ready state we suggest the following actions;
- We recommend that you have an internal administrative procedure that reviews plan data such as contact information on a very regular basis.
- Have a clearly understood management commitment to review, test and audit the plan internally on, say, a quarterly basis.
- Communicate the plan to all staff regularly to cover staff changes as well as to reassure them that your company does have an active plan that takes their well-being into consideration. This meeting also provides an opportunity for ongoing staff input to the continuity plan.
- Conduct an annual review with an outside agency in order to gain an objective appraisal of your readiness for crisis management.