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What is a business continuity plan (bcp), and how does it work.

business continuity plan (bcp)

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What Is a Business Continuity Plan (BCP)? 

A business continuity plan (BCP) is a system of prevention and recovery from potential threats to a company. The plan ensures that personnel and assets are protected and are able to function quickly in the event of a disaster.

Key Takeaways

  • Business continuity plans (BCPs) are prevention and recovery systems for potential threats, such as natural disasters or cyber-attacks.
  • BCP is designed to protect personnel and assets and make sure they can function quickly when disaster strikes.
  • BCPs should be tested to ensure there are no weaknesses, which can be identified and corrected.

Understanding Business Continuity Plans (BCPs)

BCP involves defining any and all risks that can affect the company's operations, making it an important part of the organization's risk management strategy. Risks may include natural disasters—fire, flood, or weather-related events—and cyber-attacks . Once the risks are identified, the plan should also include:

  • Determining how those risks will affect operations
  • Implementing safeguards and procedures to mitigate the risks
  • Testing procedures to ensure they work
  • Reviewing the process to make sure that it is up to date

BCPs are an important part of any business. Threats and disruptions mean a loss of revenue and higher costs, which leads to a drop in profitability. And businesses can't rely on insurance alone because it doesn't cover all the costs and the customers who move to the competition. It is generally conceived in advance and involves input from key stakeholders and personnel.

Business impact analysis, recovery, organization, and training are all steps corporations need to follow when creating a Business Continuity Plan.

Benefits of a Business Continuity Plan

Businesses are prone to a host of disasters that vary in degree from minor to catastrophic. Business continuity planning is typically meant to help a company continue operating in the event of major disasters such as fires. BCPs are different from a disaster recovery plan, which focuses on the recovery of a company's information technology system after a crisis.

Consider a finance company based in a major city. It may put a BCP in place by taking steps including backing up its computer and client files offsite. If something were to happen to the company's corporate office, its satellite offices would still have access to important information.

An important point to note is that BCP may not be as effective if a large portion of the population is affected, as in the case of a disease outbreak. Nonetheless, BCPs can improve risk management—preventing disruptions from spreading. They can also help mitigate downtime of networks or technology, saving the company money.

How To Create a Business Continuity Plan

There are several steps many companies must follow to develop a solid BCP. They include:

  • Business Impact Analysis : Here, the business will identify functions and related resources that are time-sensitive. (More on this below.)
  • Recovery : In this portion, the business must identify and implement steps to recover critical business functions.
  • Organization : A continuity team must be created. This team will devise a plan to manage the disruption.
  • Training : The continuity team must be trained and tested. Members of the team should also complete exercises that go over the plan and strategies.

Companies may also find it useful to come up with a checklist that includes key details such as emergency contact information, a list of resources the continuity team may need, where backup data and other required information are housed or stored, and other important personnel.

Along with testing the continuity team, the company should also test the BCP itself. It should be tested several times to ensure it can be applied to many different risk scenarios . This will help identify any weaknesses in the plan which can then be corrected.

In order for a business continuity plan to be successful, all employees—even those who aren't on the continuity team—must be aware of the plan.

Business Continuity Impact Analysis

An important part of developing a BCP is a business continuity impact analysis. It identifies the effects of disruption of business functions and processes. It also uses the information to make decisions about recovery priorities and strategies.

FEMA provides an operational and financial impact worksheet to help run a business continuity analysis. The worksheet should be completed by business function and process managers who are well acquainted with the business. These worksheets will summarize the following:

  • The impacts—both financial and operational—that stem from the loss of individual business functions and process
  • Identifying when the loss of a function or process would result in the identified business impacts

Completing the analysis can help companies identify and prioritize the processes that have the most impact on the business's financial and operational functions. The point at which they must be recovered is generally known as the “recovery time objective.”

Business Continuity Plan vs. Disaster Recovery Plan

BCPs and disaster recovery plans are similar in nature, the latter focuses on technology and information technology (IT) infrastructure. BCPs are more encompassing—focusing on the entire organization, such as customer service and supply chain. 

BCPs focus on reducing overall costs or losses, while disaster recovery plans look only at technology downtimes and related costs. Disaster recovery plans tend to involve only IT personnel—which create and manage the policy. However, BCPs tend to have more personnel trained on the potential processes. 

Why Is Business Continuity Plan (BCP) Important?

Businesses are prone to a host of disasters that vary in degree from minor to catastrophic and business continuity plans (BCPs) are an important part of any business. BCP is typically meant to help a company continue operating in the event of threats and disruptions. This could result in a loss of revenue and higher costs, which leads to a drop in profitability. And businesses can't rely on insurance alone because it doesn't cover all the costs and the customers who move to the competition.

What Should a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) Include?

Business continuity plans involve identifying any and all risks that can affect the company's operations. The plan should also determine how those risks will affect operations and implement safeguards and procedures to mitigate the risks. There should also be testing procedures to ensure these safeguards and procedures work. Finally, there should be a review process to make sure that the plan is up to date.

What Is Business Continuity Impact Analysis?

An important part of developing a BCP is a business continuity impact analysis which identifies the effects of disruption of business functions and processes. It also uses the information to make decisions about recovery priorities and strategies.

FEMA provides an operational and financial impact worksheet to help run a business continuity analysis.

These worksheets summarize the impacts—both financial and operational—that stem from the loss of individual business functions and processes. They also identify when the loss of a function or process would result in the identified business impacts.

Business continuity plans (BCPs) are created to help speed up the recovery of an organization filling a threat or disaster. The plan puts in place mechanisms and functions to allow personnel and assets to minimize company downtime. BCPs cover all organizational risks should a disaster happen, such as flood or fire.  

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5 Step Guide to Business Continuity Planning (BCP) in 2021

A business continuity plan provides a concrete plan to maintain business cohesion in challenging circumstances. Click here for the key steps that can help you formulate a formidable BCP.

A business continuity plan (BCP) is defined as a protocol of preventing and recovering from potentially large threats to the company’s business continuity. This article explains what a business continuity plan is today, its key benefits, and a step-by-step guide to creating a formidable plan.

Table of Contents

What is a business continuity plan (bcp), key benefits of having a business continuity plan, step-by-step guide to building a formidable business continuity plan (bcp) in 2021.

A business continuity plan (BCP) is a protocol of preventing and recovering from potentially large threats to the company’s business continuity. Such a plan often aims to address the need for updated business norms and operational standards in unpredictable circumstances such as natural disasters, data breach/ exposures, large scale system failures etc. The goal of such a plan is to ensure continuity of business with no or little damage to regular working environments, including job security for its employees.

It covers everything from business processes, human resources details, and more. Essentially a BCP provides a concrete plan to the organization to maintain business continuity even in challenging circumstances. 

Below are key reasons why businesses need to have a BCP today:

  • BCP’s relevance has gone up considerably after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and was also a major testing time for organizations that did have such a plan in place. The organizations which had a business continuity plan in place were better able to cope during these unprecedented circumstances better than those who did not have any such plans.
  • The recorded number of natural disasters has increased from 375 in 2016 to 409 in 2019 Opens a new window . Globally, the loss because of natural disasters was $232 billion in 2019, according to a study by Aon Opens a new window .
  • The number of cyberattacks has also increased in all geographies and all business verticals. MonsterCloud reported that cyberattacks have skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic. All this means that the organizations have to be better prepared to fight disasters. The importance of BCP can hardly be exaggerated in this context. Preparing a BCP is imperative for any enterprise, big or small, today. 

The end goal of a BCP is to ensure that the essential services continue to run in the event of an incident. For instance, if there is an earthquake where your customer service representatives operate from, your BCP will be able to tell you who will handle customer calls until the original office is restored.

Also Read: What Is Disaster Recovery? Definition, Cloud and On-premise, Benefits and Best Practices

Difference between a business continuity plan (BCP) and disaster recovery plan (DCP)

A BCP is often confused with a disaster recovery (DR) plan. While a DR plan is primarily focused on restoring the IT systems and infrastructure, a BCP is much more than that. It covers all areas and departments of the organization, including HR, marketing and sales, support functions. 

The underlying thought behind BCP is that IT systems can hardly work in silos. Other departments also need to be restored to cater to the client or for meeting the business demands. 

“Many people think a disaster recovery plan (DRP) is the same as a business continuity plan, but a DRP is only a small, yet essential, a portion of a full BCP. A DRP focuses solely on restoring an organization’s IT infrastructure while minimizing data loss. On the other hand, a BCP is a comprehensive guide on how to continue the mission and business-critical operations during a time of an unplanned disruption (natural disasters, pandemics, or malware),” says Caleb Pipkin, a security expert at Logically . 

Whether a business is small, big, or medium-sized, it needs a ‘plan B’ to recover quickly in the event of a natural disaster or a crisis and can survive the disruption. BCP helps you dust yourself and get back to business quickly and easily. It means that the enterprise will be better placed to address their customers’ needs even in the wake of a disaster. 

On the other hand, the lack of a plan means that your organization will take longer to recover from an event or incident. It could also lead to loss of business or clients. Let’s look at some key benefits of BCP.

1. It is a roadmap to act in a disaster

A well-defined business continuity plan is like a roadmap during a disruption. It allows the firms to react swiftly and effectively and maintain business continuity. In turn, this leads to a faster and complete recovery of the enterprise in the shortest possible timeframe. It brings down the business downtime and outlines the steps to be taken before, during, and after a crisis and thus helps maintain its financial viability. 

2. Offers a competitive edge

Fast reaction and business continuity during a disruption allow organizations to gain a competitive edge over its business rivals. It can translate into a significant competitive advantage in the long run. Further, your clients will be more confident in your ability to perform in adverse circumstances allowing you to build a long and sustainable relationship with your business partners.

Developing competence to act and handle any unfavorable event effectively has a positive effect on the company’s reputation and market value. It goes a long way in enhancing customer confidence. 

Also Read: Top 8 Disaster Recovery Software Companies in 2021

3. Cuts down losses

Disasters have a considerable impact on all types of business, whether big or small. Business disruption can lead to financial, legal, and reputational losses. Failure to plan could be disastrous for businesses. You may lose your customers while trying to get your business on track. In the worst circumstances, you may not be able to recover at all. A well-defined business continuity strategy minimizes the damage to an organization and allows you to bring down these losses as much as possible. 

4. Enables employment continuity and protects livelihoods

One of the most significant consequences of a disaster is the loss of employment. The loss of livelihood can be curtailed to an extent if the business continues to function in the event of a disaster. It leads to greater confidence in the workforce that their jobs might not be at risk, and the management is taking steps to protect their jobs. It helps build confidence in senior management’s ability to respond to the business disruption in a planned manner. 

5. Can be life-saving

A regularly tested and updated BCP can potentially help save the lives of the employees and the customers during a disaster. For instance, if the BCP plan for fire is regularly tested, the speed with which the workforce acts can help save lives. 

6. Preserves brand value and develops resilience

Possibly the biggest asset of an organization is its brand. Being able to perform in uncertain times helps build goodwill and maintain its brand value and may even help mitigate financial and reputational loss during a disaster. 

BCP curtails the damage to the company’s brand and finances because of a disaster event. This helps bring down the cost of any incident and thus help the company be more resilient. 

Also Read: 10 Best Practices for Disaster Recovery Planning (DRP)

7. Enables adherence to compliance requirements

Having a BCP allows organizations to have additional benefits of complying with regulatory requirements. It is a legal requirement in several countries.

8. Helps in supply chain security

A precise BCP goes a long way in protecting the supply chain from damage. It ensures continuity in delivering products and services by being able to perform critical activities.

9. Enhances operational efficiency

One of BCP’s lesser-known benefits is that it helps identify areas of operational efficiency in the organization. Developing BCP calls for an in-depth evaluation of the company’s processes. This can potentially reveal the areas of improvement. Essentially, it gathers information that can benefit in enhancing the effectiveness of the processes and operations. 

Also Read: 7 Ways to Build an Effective Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Plan  

The COVID-19 pandemic has put the spotlight on preparing for a disaster like never before. We make the job easier for you by listing out the key steps in building a formidable business continuity plan: 

How to Build a Business Continuity Plan

How to Build a Business Continuity Plan

Step 1: Risk assessment 

This phase involves asking crucial questions to evaluate the risks faced by the company. What are the likely business threats and disruptions which are most likely to occur? What is the most profitable activity of your organization? It is vital to prioritize key risks and operations, which will help mitigate the damage in the event of a disaster. 

Step 2: Business impact analysis

The second step involves a thorough and in-depth assessment of your business processes to determine the vulnerable areas and the potential losses if those processes are disrupted. This is also known as Business Impact Analysis . 

Essentially, Business impact analysis (BIA) is a process that helps the organization define the impact if critical business operations are interrupted because of a disaster, accident, or emergency. It helps in identifying the most crucial elements of the business processes. For instance, maintaining a supply chain might be more critical during a crisis than public relations.

While there is no formal standard for a BIA, it typically involves the following steps: 

  • Collating information: As a first step, a questionnaire is prepared to find out critical business processes and resources that will help in the proper assessment of the impact of a disruptive event. One-on-one sessions with key management members may be conducted further to gain insights into the organization’s processes and workings.
  • Analysis: This is followed by analyzing the collected information. A manual or computer-assisted analysis is conducted. The analysis is based on an interruption in which crucial activities or resources are not available. Typically it works on the assumption of the worst-case scenario, even when the chances of a risk likelihood are low. This approach is followed to zero in on the systems that, when disrupted or interrupted, threaten the organization’s very survival. This way, these processes are prioritized in the business continuity plan. 

The analysis phase helps identify the minimum staff and resources required for running the organization in the event of a crisis. This also allows the organizations to assess the impact on the revenue if the business is unable to run for a day, a week, or more. There might be contractual penalties, regulatory fines, and workforce-related expenditure which need to be taken into account while finding out the impact on the business. Further, there might be specific vulnerabilities of the firm, and they need to be considered in the BIA. 

  • Preparing a report: The next step is preparing a BIA report, which is assessed by the senior management. The report is a thorough analysis of the gathered information along with findings. It also gives recommendations on the procedure that should be followed in the event of a business disruption. The BIA report also shares the impact on the revenue, supply chain, and customer delivery to the business in a specific time frame. 

The business impact analysis report may also include a checklist of all the resources, such as the names of key personnel, data backup , contact information, emergency responders, and more.

  • Presenting the report: Usually, this report goes through several amendments before being cleared by the senior management. The involvement of senior management is crucial to the success of the business continuity plan. It sends out a strong signal in the organization that it is a serious initiative. 

Also Read: Will Extreme Weather Events Affect Your Business? Lessons From the Texas Winter Storm

Step 3: BCP Testing

Several testing methods are available to test the effectiveness of the BCP. Here are a few common ones: 

  • TableTop test: As the name suggests, the identified executives go through the plan in detail to evaluate whether it will work on not. Different disaster types and the response to them are discussed at length. This type of testing is designed to make all the key personnel aware of their role in the event of a disaster. The response procedure is reviewed, and responsibilities are outlined, so everybody knows their roles.
  • Walk through: In this type of testing, the team members go through their part in the plan with a specific disaster in mind. Drills or a simulated response and disaster role-playing are part of this. This is a more thorough form of testing and likely to reveal the shortcoming in the plan. Any vulnerabilities discovered should be used to update the BCP accordingly.
  • Disaster simulation testing: In this type of testing, an environment that simulates an actual disaster is created. This is the closest to the actual event and gives the best case scenario about the plan’s workability. It will help the team find gaps that might be overlooked in the other types of tests. Document the results of your testing so you can compare the improvement from the previous tests. It will help you in strengthening your business continuity plan. 

Frequency of testing – Typically, organizations test BCP at least twice a year. At the same time, it depends on the size of your organization and the business vertical you operate in.

Step 4: Maintenance

A business continuity plan should not be treated as a one-time exercise. It needs to be maintained , so the organization’s structural and people changes are updated regularly. The key personnel might move on from the firm, and this would need to be updated in the Business Impact Analysis and BCP. The process for regular updating of the documentation should be followed to ensure that the organization is not caught on the wrong foot in case of a business disruption. 

Also Read: Offsite Data Replication: A Great Way To Meet Recovery Time Objectives

Step 5: Communication

Sometimes executives tend to ignore communication while preparing a BCP. It is a crucial aspect, and your BCP should clearly define who will maintain the communication channels with the employees, regulators, business partners, and partners during the crisis. The contact information of the key people should be readily accessible for the BCP to work without any trouble.

In the end, the organizations should accept that despite preparing a formidable business continuity plan, several factors beyond your control may still affect its success or failure. The key executives might not be available in the event of a crisis; both the primary and the alternate data recovery sites might have been affected by the event; the communications network might be damaged, and so on. Such factors are common during a natural disaster and may lead to the limited success of the business continuity plan. 

The success of a business depends on it acting swiftly and efficiently when confronted with an unanticipated crisis. Any failure to do so results in a financial and reputational loss, which takes up a long time to recover. It can be avoided if the organization quickly gathers itself during a disaster. A business continuity plan is then of paramount importance for a business of any size. At the same time, it is crucial to ensure that the BCP is not a one-time exercise. It needs to be continuously evaluated, tested, amended, and maintained so it doesn’t let you down when you need it the most. 

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What Is A Business Continuity Plan? [+ Template & Examples]

Swetha Amaresan

Published: December 30, 2022

When a business crisis occurs, the last thing you want to do is panic.

executives discussing business continuity plan

The second-to-last thing you want to do is be unprepared. Crises typically arise without warning. While you shouldn't start every day expecting the worst, you should be relatively prepared for anything to happen.

A business crisis can cost your company a lot of money and ruin your reputation if you don't have a business continuity plan in place. Customers aren't very forgiving, especially when a crisis is influenced by accidents within the company or other preventable mistakes. If you want your company to be able to maintain its business continuity in the face of a crisis, then you'll need to come up with this type of plan to uphold its essential functions.

Free Download: Crisis Management Plan & Communication Templates

In this post, we'll explain what a business continuity plan is, give examples of scenarios that would require a business continuity plan, and provide a template that you can use to create a well-rounded program for your business.

Table of Contents:

What is a business continuity plan?

  • Business Continuity Types
  • Business Continuity vs Disaster Recovery

Business Continuity Plan Template

How to write a business continuity plan.

  • Business Continuity Examples

A business continuity plan outlines directions and procedures that your company will follow when faced with a crisis. These plans include business procedures, names of assets and partners, human resource functions, and other helpful information that can help maintain your brand's relationships with relevant stakeholders. The goal of a business continuity plan is to handle anything from minor disruptions to full-blown threats.

For example, one crisis that your business may have to respond to is a severe snowstorm. Your team may be wondering, "If a snowstorm disrupted our supply chain, how would we resume business?" Planning contingencies ahead of time for situations like these can help your business stay afloat when you're faced with an unavoidable crisis.

When you think about business continuity in terms of the essential functions your business requires to operate, you can begin to mitigate and plan for specific risks within those functions.

business continuity plan (bcp)

Crisis Communication and Management Kit

Manage, plan for, and communicate during your corporate crises with these crisis management plan templates.

  • Free Crisis Management Plan Template
  • 12 Crisis Communication Templates
  • Post-Crisis Performance Grading Template
  • Additional Crisis Best Management Practices

You're all set!

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Business Continuity Planning

Business continuity planning is the process of creating a plan to address a crisis. When writing out a business continuity plan, it's important to consider the variety of crises that could potentially affect the company and prepare a resolution for each.

Business Continuity Plan

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Business continuity plan: how to structure it according to iso 22301.

Advisera Dejan Kosutic

In my experience, companies usually find two things in their business continuity or information security management to be the most difficult: risk assessment, and business continuity planning. Here I’ll give you some tips on business continuity plans (BCP).

ISO 22301 business continuity plan should include Purpose, scope and users, Reference documents, Assumptions, Roles and responsibilities, Key contacts, Plan activation and deactivation, Communication, Incident response, Physical sites and transportation, Order of recovery for activities, Recovery plans for activities, Disaster recovery plan, Required resources, and Restoring and resuming activities from temporary measures.

What is a business continuity plan?

According to ISO 22301 , business continuity plan is defined as “documented procedures that guide organizations to respond, recover, resume, and restore to a pre-defined level of operation following disruption.” (clause 3.5)

This basically means that BCP focuses on developing plans/procedures, but it doesn’t include the analysis that forms the basis of such planning, nor the means of maintaining such plans – all these are required elements of business continuity management that are necessary for enabling successful contingency planning.

To read more about analysis, see Five Tips for Successful Business Impact Analysis , and to find out how to interpret the analysis, read Can business continuity strategy save your money? .

Business continuity plan example

Here’s what I found to be the optimal structure for the business continuity plan for smaller and midsize companies, and what each section should include:

Purpose, scope and users – why this plan is developed, its objectives, which parts of the organization it covers, and who should read it.

Reference documents – to which documents does this plan relate? Normally, these are Business Continuity Policy, Business Impact Analysis, Business Continuity Strategy, etc.

Assumptions – the prerequisites that need to exist in order for this plan to be effective.

Roles and responsibilities – who will be responsible for managing the disruptive incident, and who is authorized to perform certain activities in case of a disruptive incident – e.g. activation of the plans, urgent purchases, communication with media, etc.

Key contacts – contact details for persons who will participate in the execution of the business continuity plan – this is usually one of the annexes of the plan.

Business Continuity Plan (BCP) Structure According to ISO 22301

Plan activation and deactivation – in which cases can the plan be activated, and the method of activation; which conditions need to exist to deactivate the plan. Communication – which communication means will be used between different teams and with other interested parties during the disruptive incident. Who is in charge of communicating with each interested party, and the special rules of communication with media and government agencies.

Incident response – how to react initially to an incident in order to reduce the damage – this is very often an annex to the main plan.

Physical sites and transportation – which are the primary and alternative sites, where the assembly points are, and how to get from primary to alternative sites.

Order of recovery for activities – list of all the activities, with precise Recovery Time Objective (RTO) for each.

Recovery plans for activities – description of step-by-step actions and responsibilities for recovering manpower, facilities, infrastructure, software, information, and processes, including interdependencies and interactions with other activities and external interested parties – these are very often annexes to the main plan. To read more about them, see How to write business continuity plans?

Disaster recovery plan – this is normally a type of recovery plan that focuses on recovering the information and communication technology infrastructure. To read more about the relationship between disaster recovery and business continuity, see Disaster recovery vs business continuity .

Required resources – a list of all the employees, third-party services, facilities, infrastructure, information, equipment, etc. that are necessary to perform the recovery, and who is responsible to provide each of them.

Restoring and resuming activities from temporary measures – how to restore business activities back to business-as-usual once the disruptive incident has been resolved.

What I like about ISO 22301 is that it requires all the elements that are necessary for this plan to be useful in case of a disaster (or any other disruption in a company’s activities). However, no standard can help you unless you understand this task seriously – a properly written and comprehensive plan can save your company in tough times, while a superficially written plan will only make things worse.

Click here to see a sample  Business Continuity Plan .

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The Backbone of Resilient Organizations: Demystifying Business Continuity

What is business continuity.

No matter what business you’re in, unexpected disruptions can happen. Outages, natural disasters, supply chain failures, cyber incidents, equipment failures, and other physical and technical issues can all disrupt your ability to function and thrive.

To ensure your business is ready for unexpected events, you need to know what to do when things go wrong—and this is where business continuity comes in. Read on to learn more about business continuity, including disaster recovery, and what to include in your business continuity plan. Also, find out about business continuity management and business continuity solutions.

What is business continuity and why is it important?

Business continuity is an organization’s readiness to continue functioning during times of disruption. Business continuity is important because it reduces the potential impact of a disruption on customers, employees, and partners.

Having a business continuity plan (BCP)—which includes the analysis, technology, documentation, training, key team members, and procedures involved in resolving potential crisis situations—is vital for ensuring business continuity. A BCP includes goals focused on minimizing the potential impact of a crisis on a company’s financials and reputation—and maintaining industry, regional, and global compliance standards and regulations.

What’s the difference between business continuity and disaster recovery?

While business continuity and disaster recovery are often used interchangeably, they’re not the same thing.

Disaster recovery is a key part of a business continuity plan and is focused specifically on systems, data, and IT infrastructures. It includes technology, strategies, and processes for saving, restoring, and recovering data and protecting against cyber threats.

For a BCP to be successful in reducing downtime, mitigating risks, and remediating issues like data loss and corruption, disaster recovery measures are crucial. While both involve processes, people, and technology, business continuity offers a much wider scope to encompass the steps necessary for maintaining operations across every part of a business.

What should be included in a business continuity plan?

There are three components of a business continuity plan to consider:

  • Resilience—developing business functions and infrastructures to be prepared for an unexpected situation.
  • Recovery—setting up backup and recovery solutions for your applications, systems, and networks; determining what systems should be prioritized in the event of a disaster; and choosing a third-party vendor for additional help and resources if necessary.
  • Contingency—creating steps for what to do if a disruption occurs. This includes setting up a chain of command with key people and defining their responsibilities when it comes to communication, technology, third-party contracting, and coordinating temporary spaces. Keep these in mind at every step in the planning process to help ensure your BCP covers the full scope of your business.

With these three key components in mind, take the following steps to start building your business continuity plan:

  • Run a business impact analysis (BIA), which examines your current business functions, processes, and technology. An analysis will uncover potential vulnerabilities, risks, and threats you might encounter. Doing so helps identify areas of improvement and what to prioritize. After an analysis, you may consider making additional technology investments as well.
  • Outline and assign responsibilities for who will delegate, act, and support in the event of a crisis. These individuals will execute any necessary steps, be points of contact, gather resources, and guide efforts to minimize downtime for affected business functions.
  • Determine alternative forms of communication in case your standard means of communication are impacted by an outage or downtime.
  • Prepare backup equipment in case of damage or outages to prevent business-critical functions from stopping.
  • Understand and follow business continuity standards, which are legal and regulatory requirements determined for an industry. These are helpful when determining what steps you need to take in scenarios such as a breach or data loss. Creating a plan isn’t the last step—to make business continuity an important part of your organization, you also need business continuity management.

What is business continuity management?

Business continuity management includes the processes you put in place to set up and maintain your business continuity plan. It should include the following:

  • Creating policies that define the scope, objectives, and principles of business continuity. These should always keep the customer in mind to ensure you’ve documented what business-critical functions may impact customers and who is involved in customer service communication in the event of an outage or disruption.
  • Assembling business continuity teams throughout your organization who can communicate and enforce policies and procedures that are put in place. These employees will take part in ongoing reviews and tests to make sure everything and everyone is properly prepared for an incident.
  • Supporting a culture of business continuity by educating your entire organization about risks, policies, and documentation available. Offering ongoing training is an important way to increase awareness and gather data to see if there are any gaps or areas in need of improvement.
  • Maintaining up-to-date compliance standards and best practices to make sure your processes, workflows, and employees all work within the correct industry standards as they relate to data. If a business doesn’t keep up and an unexpected disruption occurs, there’s the risk of increased financial damages, legal costs, and fines.

Keeping track of all the continuously developing parts of a business continuity plan can be daunting for a growing organization. To reduce the time and effort involved, many businesses invest in business continuity solutions.

What kind of business continuity solutions should I consider?

The business continuity solutions you choose should be based on your organization’s needs. Depending on the industry you’re in, the size of your company, and your business-critical functions, you’ll find a range of software and resources available. These options include:

  • Cloud-based storage solutions, which provide a secure, remote location to back up and run workflows and applications, as well as store data. If there’s a breach or error causing data loss, you can access what you need from the cloud.
  • Backup and recovery tools for making copies of the data, applications, and systems within your IT infrastructure. If anything is deleted, corrupted, or shut down during a disruption, you can restore them and minimize downtime. These solutions offer different options for running backups, including automatically on a schedule, instantly, or as needed.
  • Virtualization tools that replicate environments and workspaces. If there’s an outage or device issues, employees can still access their applications and run processes as normal, reducing downtime that may affect services.
  • Contracts with third-party providers, such as disaster-recovery-as-a-service (DRaaS) and backup-as-a-service. Based on your agreement, a provider can run data backups, host your IT infrastructure, and offer support in the event of a disaster. These services are typically offered with a subscription or a pay-as-you-use model and include support from IT and cybersecurity experts.
  • Unified communication tools to support collaboration across your entire organization. With one platform for connecting frontline workers, customer service agents, and other key members of your continuity teams, it’s easier to keep everyone up to date on disruptions and manage shifts and schedules to make sure the right people are available.

Business continuity should be a priority for any growing business looking to ensure the safety and security of their employees, technology, and data. To support the planning process, there are several solutions available to make business continuity planning easier. Though you can’t predict or prevent every disruption, with the right tools, a solid plan, and an educated team, business continuity can save you time, money, and resources across your organization.

Learn more • Developing your business continuity plan • Business continuity and disaster recovery

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How to create an effective business continuity plan

A business continuity plan outlines procedures and instructions an organization must follow in the face of disaster, whether fire, flood, or cyberattack. Here’s how to create a plan that gives your business the best chance of surviving such an event.

Professional Meeting: Senior Businesswoman and Colleague in Discussion

The tumultuous events of the past several years have impacted practically every business. And with the number of extreme weather events, cyberattacks, and geopolitical conflicts continuing to rise, business leaders are bracing for the possibility of increasingly more frequent impactful incidents their organizations will need to respond to.

According to PwC’s 2023 Global Crisis and Resilience Survey , 96% of 1,812 business leaders said their organizations had experienced disruption in the past two years and 76% said their most serious disruption had a medium to high impact on operations.

It’s little wonder then that 89% of executives list resilience as one of their most important strategic priorities.

Yet at the same time, only 70% of respondents said they were confident in their organization’s ability to respond to disruptions, with PwC noting that its research shows that too many organizations “are lacking the foundational elements of resilience they need to be successful.”

A solid business continuity plan is one of those foundational elements.

“Every business should have the mindset that they will face a disaster, and every business needs a plan to address the different potential scenarios,” says Goh Ser Yoong, head of compliance at Advance.AI and a member of the Emerging Trends Working Group at the professional governance association ISACA.

A business continuity plan gives the organization the best shot at successfully navigating a disaster by providing ready-made directions on who should do what tasks in what order to keep the business viable.

Without such as a plan, the organization will take longer than necessary to recover from an event or incident — or may never recover at all.

What is a business continuity plan?

A business continuity plan (BCP) is a strategic playbook created to help an organization maintain or quickly resume business functions in the face of disruption, whether that disruption is caused by a natural disaster, civic unrest, cyberattack, or any other threat to business operations.

A business continuity plan outlines the procedures and instructions that the organization must follow during such an event to minimize downtime, covering business processes, assets, human resources, business partners, and more.

A business continuity plan is not the same as a disaster recovery plan , which focuses on restoring IT infrastructure and operations after a crisis. Still, a disaster recovery plan is part of the overall strategy to ensure business continuity, and the business continuity plan should inform the action items detailed in an organization’s disaster recovery plan. The two are tightly coupled, which is why they often are considered together and abbreviated as BCDR.

Why business continuity planning matters

Whether you operate a small business or a large corporation, it’s vital to retain and increase your customer base. There’s no better test of your capability to do so than right after an adverse event.

Because restoring IT is critical for most companies, numerous disaster recovery solutions are available. You can rely on IT to implement those solutions. But what about the rest of your business functions? Your company’s future depends on your people and processes. Being able to handle any incident effectively can have a positive effect on your company’s reputation and market value, and it can increase customer confidence.

Moreover, there are increasing consumer and regulatory expectations for both enterprise security and continuity today. Consequently, organizations must prioritize continuity planning to prevent not only business losses, but financial, legal, reputational, and regulatory consequences.

For example, the risk of having an organization’s “license to operate” withdrawn by a regulator or having conditions applied (retrospectively or prospectively) can adversely affect market value and consumer confidence.

Building (and updating) a business continuity plan

Whether building the organization’s first business continuity plan or updating an existing one, the process involves multiple essential steps.

Assess business processes for criticality and vulnerability: Business continuity planning “starts with understanding what’s most important to the business,” says Joe Nocera, principle in the cyber risk and regulatory practice at PwC, a professional services firm.

So the first step in building your business continuity plan is assessing your business processes to determine which are the most critical; which are the most vulnerable and to what type of events; and what are the potential losses if those processes go down for a day, a few days, or a week.

“This step essentially determines what you are trying to protect and what you are trying to keep up for systems,” says Todd Renner, senior managing director in the cybersecurity practice at FTI Consulting.

This assessment is more demanding than ever before because of the complexity of today’s hybrid workplace, the modern IT environment, and the reliance on business partners and third-party providers to perform or support critical processes.

Given that complexity, Goh says a thorough assessment requires an inventory of not only key processes but also the supporting components — including the IT systems, networks, people, and outside vendors — as well as the risks to those components.

This is essentially a business impact analysis.

Determine your organization’s RTO and RPO: The next step in building a business continuity plan is determining the organization’s recovery time objective (RTO), which is the target amount of time between point of failure and the resumption of operations, and the recovery point objective (RPO), which is the maximum amount of data loss an organization can withstand.

Each organization has its own RTO and RPO based on the nature of its business, industry, regulatory requirements, and other operational factors. Moreover, different parts of a business can have different RTOs and RPOs, which executives need to establish, Nocera says.

“When you meet with individual aspects of the business, everyone says everything [they do] is important; no one wants to say their part of the business is less critical, but in reality you have to have those challenging conversations and determinations about what is actually critical to the business and to business continuity,” he adds.

Detail the steps, roles, and responsibilities for continuity: Once that is done, business leaders should use the RTO and the RPO, along with the business impact analysis, to determine the specific tasks that need to happen, by whom, and in what order to ensure business continuity.

“It’s taking the key components of your analysis and designing a plan that outlines roles and responsibilities, about who does what. It gets into the nitty-gritty on how you’re going to keep the company up and running,” Renner explains.

One common business continuity planning tool is a checklist that includes supplies and equipment, the location of data backups and backup sites, where the plan is available and who should have it, and contact information for emergency responders, key personnel, and backup site providers.

Although the list of possible scenarios that could impact business operations can seem extensive, Goh says business leaders don’t have to compile an exhaustive list of potential incidents. Rather, they should compile a list that includes likely incidents as well as representative ones so that they can create responses that have a higher likelihood of ensuring continuity even when faced with an unimagined disaster.

“So even if it’s an unexpected event, they can pull those building blocks from the plan and apply them to the unique crisis they’re facing,” Nocera says.

The importance of testing the business continuity plan

Devising a business continuity plan is not enough to ensure preparedness; testing and practicing are other critical components.

Renner says testing and practicing offer a few important benefits.

First, they show whether or how well a plan will work.

Testing and practicing help prepare all stakeholders for an actual incident, helping them build the muscle memory needed to respond as quickly and as confidently as possible during a crisis.

They also help identify gaps in the devised plan. As Renner says: “Every tabletop exercise that I’ve ever done has been an eye-opener for everyone involved.”

Additionally, they help identify where there may be misalignment of objectives. For example, executives may have deprioritized the importance of restoring certain IT systems only to realize during a drill that those are essential for supporting critical processes.

Types and timing of tests

Many organizations test a business continuity plan two to four times a year. Experts say the frequency of tests, as well as reviews and updates, depends on the organization itself — its industry, its speed of innovation and transformation, the amount of turnover of key personnel, the number of business processes, and so on.

Common tests include tabletop exercises , structured walk-throughs, and simulations. Test teams are usually composed of the recovery coordinator and members from each functional unit.

A tabletop exercise usually occurs in a conference room with the team poring over the plan, looking for gaps and ensuring that all business units are represented therein.

In a structured walk-through, each team member walks through his or her components of the plan in detail to identify weaknesses. Often, the team works through the test with a specific disaster in mind. Some organizations incorporate drills and disaster role-playing into the structured walk-through. Any weaknesses should be corrected and an updated plan distributed to all pertinent staff.

Some experts also advise a full emergency evacuation drill at least once a year.

Meanwhile, disaster simulation testing — which can be quite involved — should still be performed annually. For this test, create an environment that simulates an actual disaster, with all the equipment, supplies and personnel (including business partners and vendors) who would be needed. The purpose of a simulation is to determine whether the organization and its staff can carry out critical business functions during an actual event.

During each phase of business continuity plan testing, include some new employees on the test team. “Fresh eyes” might detect gaps or lapses of information that experienced team members could overlook.

Reviewing and updating the business continuity plan should likewise happen on an ongoing basis.

“It should be a living document. It shouldn’t be shelved. It shouldn’t be just a check-the-box exercise,” Renner says.

Otherwise, plans go stale and are of no use when needed.

Bring key personnel together at least annually to review the plan and discuss any areas that must be modified.

Prior to the review, solicit feedback from staff to incorporate into the plan. Ask all departments or business units to review the plan, including branch locations or other remote units.

Furthermore, a strong business continuity function calls for reviewing the organization’s response in the event of an actual event. This allows executives and their teams to identify what the organization did well and where it needs to improve.

How to ensure business continuity plan support, awareness

One way to ensure your plan is not successful is to adopt a casual attitude toward its importance. Every business continuity plan must be supported from the top down. That means senior management must be represented when creating and updating the plan; no one can delegate that responsibility to subordinates. In addition, the plan is likely to remain fresh and viable if senior management makes it a priority by dedicating time for adequate review and testing.

Management is also key to promoting user awareness. If employees don’t know about the plan, how will they be able to react appropriately when every minute counts?

Although plan distribution and training can be conducted by business unit managers or HR staff, have someone from the top kick off training and punctuate its significance. It’ll have a greater impact on all employees, giving the plan more credibility and urgency.

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  • Business Continuity Plan

What is a Business Continuity Plan (BCP)?

A  Business Continuity Plan (BCP)  is a detailed strategy and set of systems for ensuring an organization’s ability to prevent or rapidly recover from a significant disruption to its operations. The plan is essentially a playbook for how any type of organization—such as a private-sector company, a government agency or a school—will continue its day-to-day business during a disaster scenario or otherwise abnormal conditions.  

Examples of such disruptions include a fire, a major earthquake or other a natural disaster, a disease outbreak, a cyberattack and many other scenarios that could upend “business as usual.” When such events significantly disrupt an organization’s normal routines, it turns to its business continuity plan for instructions, processes and tools it needs to continue to operate or to quickly recover from downtime. 

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Why is a business continuity plan important.

Risks can be managed, but they can’t be eliminated. Business continuity planning is critical because without it, an organization faces downtime and other problems that could damage its financial health. In major disasters, a lack of a business continuity plan could cause irreparable financial harm that might ultimately force a company to permanently close. 

How to create a Business Continuity Plan?

There are many frameworks for creating an effective business continuity plan. Most of them cover three overlapping phases: 

  • Analysis : In this phase, you identify and evaluate the various functions of your business and its operations. Then, you determine how those different functions will be affected by a disaster. This phase usually entails prioritizing different areas or departments in terms of how important they are to your operation, so that your plan ultimately ensures the continuity of your most critical functions first. Business continuity  professionals often conduct a Business Impact Analysis (BIA) at the outset of developing a new plan. A BIA estimates the consequences of different disaster scenarios in terms of lost revenue and other business-specific metrics.
  • Planning : Once an initial analysis is complete, the next phase entails all facets of developing an actual plan for continuing to operate in a disaster, or rapidly recovering from a disruption to normal operations. During the planning phase, organizations:  
  • Develop protocols for potential needs such as a rapid relocation or shift to  remote work . 
  • Strategize temporary staffing changes or needs. 
  • Implement  IT disaster recovery  tools to ensure continuity of critical systems. 

A key part of this phase is to name a continuity or crisis management team, comprised of executives and stakeholders who will lead the plan’s implementation if necessary. 

  • Training and Testing : Even the most robust BCP must be put through regular testing to ensure it will work if needed. This includes educating employees on their roles and responsibilities in these scenarios, as well as conducting trials of various elements of the plan. An example would include a short-term rollout of a remote work scenario to identify issues and opportunities for optimization.  

Key features of a business continuity plan

Some features of a BCP will be industry or business-specific, but there are components that are common to almost any plan: 

People : A BCP will clearly define roles and responsibilities, not just for the crisis management leadership team, but also for any units responsible for implementing different pieces of the plan in a disaster scenario. Some BCPs will also define “essential personnel”—for example, people whose job requires them to report to work even in periods of heightened risk. 

Technology : Almost all modern business continuity plans will also clearly outline the role that information technology will play in ensuring critical data, applications and services remain available or are quickly restored after an interruption. These include: 

  • Data backup and recovery tools 
  • Cloud computing infrastructure  and services 
  • Remote work platforms

Service Delivery : A BCP should also describe which services are most critical and how they will continue to be delivered to customers, employees, partners, the public and other stakeholders. 

Health & Safety : Finally, a strong business continuity program will include criteria and guidelines for ensuring the health and safety of all people involved—employees, customers, partners—as the plan is implemented and managed. 

Business Continuity Plan checklist

Many organizations create a checklist as part of their business continuity planning. This is a list of all of the key steps in the BCP. It can be used in two ways:  

  • Conception : First, it can be used as part of the initial creation of the plan. In this context, the BCP checklist would describe in detail the steps necessary to develop the plan, from analysis through testing.  
  • Implementation : Second, a BCP checklist can be used for testing and/or actually implementing the plan. In this context, the BCP or crisis management team would use the checklist to ensure that it addresses all of the plan’s tools and processes and communicates them effectively throughout the organization. 

Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Planning

Business continuity planning and disaster recovery planning are often mentioned in similar contexts, but they are not interchangeable terms. A business continuity plan is an overarching strategy for operating in disaster scenarios or recovering from a major disruption. 

A disaster recovery (DR) plan refers more specifically to the IT processes and tools you can rely on to retain or restore access to mission-critical data, applications, and services in these scenarios. A DR plan would detail, for example, how you could restore access to a revenue-generating web application in the event of a flood in the data center that powers that service. 

How often should a Business Continuity Plan be reviewed?

Most experts recommend that business continuity plans be reviewed regularly and updated as needed. This helps ensure that the plan will still meet the organization’s needs in the face of evolving risks and threats. 

The frequency with which you review a business continuity plan depends on many factors, including the nature of the organization, its industry and its particular risks. As a general rule of thumb, such plans should be reviewed annually or at least every other year. However, there are multiple scenarios where an organization may want to consider more frequent reviews, including: 

  • Significant changes to the business or its operations 
  • Location in a region at greater risk for natural disasters or other potentially disruptive events 
  • Any organization or agency that provides essential services to the public 

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Home  >  Learning Center  >  Business continuity planning (BCP)  

Article's content

Business continuity planning (bcp), what is business continuity.

In an IT context, business continuity is the capability of your enterprise to stay online and deliver products and services during disruptive events, such as natural disasters, cyberattacks and communication failures.

The core of this concept is the business continuity plan — a defined strategy that includes every facet of your organization and details procedures for maintaining business availability.

Start with a business continuity plan

Business continuity management starts with planning how to maintain your critical functions (e.g., IT, sales and support) during and after a disruption.

A business continuity plan (BCP) should comprise the following element

1. Threat Analysis

The identification of potential disruptions, along with potential damage they can cause to affected resources. Examples include:

2. Role assignment

Every organization needs a well-defined chain of command and substitute plan to deal with absence of staff in a crisis scenario. Employees must be cross-trained on their responsibilities so as to be able to fill in for one another.

Internal departments (e.g., marketing, IT, human resources) should be broken down into teams based on their skills and responsibilities. Team leaders can then assign roles and duties to individuals according to your organization’s threat analysis.

3. Communications

A communications strategy details how information is disseminated immediately following and during a disruptive event, as well as after it has been resolved.

Your strategy should include:

  • Methods of communication (e.g., phone, email, text messages)
  • Established points of contact (e.g., managers, team leaders, human resources) responsible for communicating with employees
  • Means of contacting employee family members, media, government regulators, etc.

From electrical power to communications and data, every critical business component must have an adequate backup plan that includes:

  • Data backups to be stored in different locations. This prevents the destruction of both the original and backup copies at the same time. If necessary, offline copies should be kept as well.
  • Backup power sources, such as generators and inverters that are provisioned to deal with power outages.
  • Backup communications (e.g., mobile phones and text messaging to replace land lines) and backup services (e.g., cloud email services to replace on-premise servers).

Load balancing business continuity

Load balancing  maintains business continuity by distributing incoming requests across multiple backend servers in your data center. This provides redundancy in the event of a server failure, ensuring continuous application uptime.

In contrast to the reactive measures used in failover and  disaster recovery  (described below) load balancing is a preventative measure.  Health monitoring  tracks server availability, ensuring accurate load distribution at all times—including during disruptive events.

Disaster recovery plan (DCP) – Your second line of defense

Even the most carefully thought out business continuity plan is never completely foolproof. Despite your best efforts, some disasters simply cannot be mitigated. A disaster recovery plan (DCP) is a second line of defense that enables you to bounce back from the worst disruptions with minimal damage.

As the name implies, a disaster recovery plan deals with the restoration of operations after a major disruption. It’s defined by two factors: RTO and  RPO .

disaster recovery plan

  • Recovery time objective (RTO)  – The acceptable downtime for critical functions and components, i.e., the maximum time it should take to restore services. A different RTO should be assigned to each of your business components according to their importance (e.g., ten minutes for network servers, an hour for phone systems).
  • Recovery point objective (RPO)  – The point to which your state of operations must be restored following a disruption. In relation to backup data, this is the oldest age and level of staleness it can have. For example, network servers updated hourly should have a maximum RPO of 59 minutes to avoid data loss.

Deciding on specific RTOs and RPOs helps clearly show the technical solutions needed to achieve your recovery goals. In most cases the decision is going to boil down to choosing the right failover solution.

See how Imperva Load Balancer can help you with business continuity planning.

Choosing the right failover solutions

Failover  is the switching between primary and backup systems in the event of failure, outage or downtime. It’s the key component of your disaster recovery and business continuity plans.

A failover system should address both RTO and RPO goals by keeping backup infrastructure and data at the ready. Ideally, your failover solution should seamlessly kick in to insulate end users from any service degradation.

When choosing a solution, the two most important aspects to consider are its technological prowess and its service level agreement (SLA). The latter is often a reflection of the former.

For an IT organization charged with the business continuity of a website or web application, there are three failover options:

  • Hardware solutions  – A separate set of servers, set up and maintained internally, are kept on-premise to come online in the event of failure. However, note that keeping such servers at the same location makes them potentially susceptible to being taken down by the same disaster/disturbance.
  • DNS services  – DNS services are often used in conjunction with hardware solutions to redirect traffic to a backup server(s) at an external data center. A downside of this setup includes  TTL-related delays  that can prevent seamless disaster recovery. Additionally, managing both DNS and internal data center hardware failover solutions is time consuming and complicated.
  • On-edge services  – On-edge failover is a managed solution operating from off-prem (e.g., from the  CDN  layer). Such solutions are more affordable and, most importantly, have no TTL reliance, resulting in near-instant failover that allows you to meet the most aggressive RTO goals.

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What Does a Business Continuity Plan Typically Include? [Complete Guide]

Last Updated: September 19, 2023

Introduction

A business continuity plan (BCP) is your first line of defense against any challenge that threatens the core functionalities of your organization’s operations. When disaster strikes, your BCP should be there to reduce the time it takes to get things back up and running as usual again – as quickly as possible.

If you’re not able to react quickly to these types of incidents, your company could suffer physical harm, monetary losses, reputational damage, data integrity loss, litigation and much more.

Designing a BCP can feel overwhelming, as it’s such a critical document; where should you start? Who should be involved in the process? How should it be disseminated? These are all questions we’ll answer in this guide, including what is typically included in a BCP.

Bonus Material: Free BCP Checklist

How to Create a Business Continuity Plan

It’s important to actively invest time and energy into preparing for any potential risk before a potential event of a disaster so that if or when it does, your BCP directs you to the necessary resources to return to business as usual. That’s why creating and developing your BCP needs to involve a great deal of strategy and intention.

Taking a risk-based approach is the best way to go about developing your business continuity plan and avoid the need to use implement a disaster recovery plan. Through a risk-based approach, you follow the following steps: identify, assess, mitigate, monitor, connect and report. Here’s how to apply each of these steps during the lifecycle of your BCP:

  • Start by identifying your most critical processes. When a business continuity event occurs, taking a risk-based approach ensures that you understand what the most critical processes to your organization are that need to be prioritized first to get back up and running to minimize any impacts.
  • Next, assess your various risks. By evaluating all of the various types of risks that an incident could bring up – such as financial, reputational, customer, legal or strategic impact – you’re able to adequately determine which steps must be included in your BCP to minimize those impacts.
  • Be sure to implement strategic mitigations as part of your business impact analysis. Building a business continuity plan through a risk-based lens empowers you to design more effective policies and procedures that simultaneously minimize the impact of the disruption at hand.
  • Monitor the effectiveness of your controls over time. Otherwise, your BCP won’t align with your risks, leaving you likely to be caught off guard next time a business continuity event occurs.
  • Your BCP does not exist in isolation, so be sure to connect departmental efforts. This allows you to identify interdependencies that must be known if an event occurs to ensure all steps are taken.
  • Reporting is a key step in the risk-based approach, as it reveals patterns over time so that you can improve your BCP development where needed and keep your organization protected from any future disruption.

What Should my Business Continuity Plan Include?

Your BCP should include:

  • An analysis of all critical functions within your business. This will allow for preparation of resources.
  • A prioritized list of risks that pose a severe or even catastrophic threat to your business. These can be prioritized through risk tolerances and risk appetite so you can visualize which ones fall farthest out of that range.
  • A list of specific strategies (or mitigation activities) that help protect the critical components you identified earlier in the BCP.
  • Evidence that the strategies have been tested across critical business functions, using key metrics, indicators and financial scenarios.
  • Dashboards and reports that uncover challenges and allow you to update the plan and your business processes over time.

Examples of Potential Unforeseen Risks

Naturally, your BCP will include risks that you deem a threat to your business. It can be difficult to begin writing that list when you’re not sure exactly what should be on it. In Risk Management, it’s important to consider potential risks that others may not have ever predicted to become reality (many people today say they never imagined in their lifetime that they would experience a pandemic).

Here is a list of potential unforeseen risks that pose a threat to business continuity:

  • The sudden unavailability of a key vendor-provided service
  • A regional power outage
  • Abandonment in leadership
  • Data protection issue
  • Supply chain issues
  • Privacy policy issues
  • Getting sued
  • An industry strike
  • Pest infestation
  • Natural disasters
  • Winning the lottery
  • Receiving a life-threatening diagnosis
  • Getting in an accident
  • A threat to national security, such as a terrorist attack
  • Collapse of infrastructure
  • And perhaps the most timely example of all, a pandemic (check out our complete guide to building a BCP for COVID-19 here )

BCP Best Practices

Like we mentioned earlier in this guide, it’s important to take a risk-based approach when creating your BCP. This will help you better preserve your business reputation, build up customer confidence and allow you to gain a competitive advantage. It will also ensure that you can avoid situations of disaster recovery. (Read our full guide on Business Continuity vs. Disaster Recovery )

To receive these benefits, it’s best practice to leverage robust business continuity planning software . This enables you to inherently take a risk-based approach and demonstrates to customers and stakeholders that you are prioritizing business continuity planning. This is especially true today amidst our ever-evolving disruptive business environment and the See-Through Economy.

Your business continuity plan will be different from anyone else’s, which is why it’s important to dedicate time and resources to creating one that fits your unique needs and risk factors. Working with a professional risk consultant is just one added benefit that’s included with your partnership with LogicManager. With their help, you’ll be able to better leverage the tools and resources included in our integrated ERM software, as well as our solution package for business continuity development .

BCP Checklist

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What is a Business Continuity Plan (BCP)? Why do we need it?

  • August 11, 2022
  • BPO Insights
  • BPO , Business Process Management

WHAT IS BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLAN (BCP)?

Table of Contents

A Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is a protocol for preventing and recovering from potentially significant threats to the company’s business continuity. This article explains what this plan entails, its key benefits, and an easy step-by-step guide on how you can create your own Business Continuity Plan for Business Process Management .

What is a Business Continuity Plan (BCP)? What does a good BCP look like?

Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is an essential tool for keeping your operations running smoothly in the event of a major disaster. They identify processes and procedures that will help you maintain or restore them quickly , whether due to physical disasters (extreme weather) or technological ones such as cyberattacks.

Your business is only as good, fast, and efficient at recovering from unplanned disruptions when you have a plan. A lack of preparedness can lead to delays that will slow down your revenue recovery process, potentially impacting the health of your brand reputation.

WHAT IS BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLAN (BCP)?

Business Continuity Plan is about more than just disaster recovery. A successful program includes preventative measures and procedures for all types of disasters and the ability to continue operating during emergencies without any detrimental effects on productivity or customer service.

A business’s ability to weather difficult times externally impacts its prosperity internally too.

There are three primary aspects to a Business Continuity Plan for key applications and processes:

  • High availability is an essential component for any business. No matter what errors arise, you can be confident that your company has access to its applications and data through robust processes which are well protected against hardware or software failures in all areas – not just those related directly to IT infrastructure.
  • Continuous operations: You can continue your company’s operations in the event of a disruption and during planned outages such as backup and maintenance.
  • Disaster recovery: To avoid a disaster’s consequences, you must have an alternate site in mind. Your options for recovery include moving your entire operations over or restoring them from backups taken beforehand so that they can continue running as usual after any unexpected disruption – a process known appropriately enough as “ disaster prevention .”

What should a Business Continuity Plan include? 5 components of a Business Continuity Plan

Every company needs a plan to ensure that it can continue operating if there is ever an emergency on its end. This way, you’ll never have any customers feel frustrated or abandoned because something out of control happens within the business–and everyone will be safer too. The five critical components:

Risks and potential business impact

The goal of any Business Continuity Plan should be to protect the integrity and longevity of your company’s operations. Impact analyses identify external and internal vulnerabilities that could cause significant harm if they were activated. This way, you can take steps before something goes wrong.

A strong plan will use the output of your business impact analysis not only for risk assessment but also to anticipate the cost and time needed to recover.

Planning an effective response

Once you know what types of risks and threats your business may be vulnerable to, creating a plan to keep them safe is easy.

A comprehensive Business Continuity Plan is crucial to the success of any company. The document should identify which risks are most pressing and develop strategies for addressing them to minimize or prevent damage.

Roles and responsibilities

A Business Continuity Plan will document which key personnel need to be involved in the response . Senior staff members, but this depends on your company and the risk you are dealing with.

When disruption strikes, it’s essential to be prepared. Allowing for the prioritization and allocation of resources can save time in reacting efficiently – which could mean everything when trying to restore service as quickly and smoothly as possible.

Communication

During a business disruption, effective communication is vital. This means speaking with your team members and talking to anybody else who may be interested in what you’re doing – whether they work for the company or not.

The best way to prepare for a crisis is by having an effective Business Continuity Plan . This will ensure that your staff and external contacts are kept up-to-date with what’s happening, so they can continue providing excellent service during any natural or artificial emergency.

Testing and training

WHAT IS BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLAN (BCP)?

Business Continuity Plan must be tested and exercised regularly to work well. This final key component of a successful business continuity plan is “testing,” or exercising your project so it can stay on top form.

By testing and exercising your Business Continuity Plan , you can identify ways to improve it before a disruption occurs. This way, the company can respond quickly when something goes wrong with its plans.

Raising awareness of your company’s Business Continuity Plan is a critical first step in helping to ensure that employees are prepared and able to respond as needed during difficult times. Many companies run regular training sessions on how they can make pivotal decisions under pressure, including learning what steps must be taken should disaster strike.

Why do you need a Business Continuity Plan?

Maintaining business operations during a crisis can help you avoid financial loss and communicate that your company is stable. This will be important for maintaining employee morale and building trust with customers who may have worries about future work from this point on. It’s best if partnerships between all parts of an organization so they know what their roles entail in case something happens.

Building customer confidence is essential. Your customers want to know that you can respond quickly , so they don’t have any concerns about their order being delayed or if something goes wrong with the product when it ships out. Of course, this depends on whether other factors are involved in shipping timeframes.

Brands that can show themselves as strong, consistent, and graceful in the face of adversity will see their consumers as having a deep understanding of what they stand for and how it reflects on them. This is an opportunity to create deeper connections with customers through confident branding that showcases your ability to withstand any storm or challenge head-on without flinching.

Protect your supply chain. Supply disruptions are common because there’s so many ways they could happen! A pandemic can shutter manufacturing facilities, for example – or a natural disaster may paralyze transportation in a critical geographic area (which would effectively cut off points). A good plan will set out already-vetted options for circumventing supply chain issues.

With so many businesses being disrupted at once, your ability to quickly get things back on track will go a long way in showing consumers that you’re one of the few brands they can trust. In times like these, too – when people need help getting their lives back together.

Recover quickly from a business disruption. The key to mitigating financial risk is knowing what you should do in case of an emergency and how long it will take for your company to return up again after any unforeseen incident. The more extended downtime, the more significant potential that money could be lost through unchecked expenses or revenue disruptions which may lead to more severe consequences if left unattended too long without action being taken on their behalf accordingly.

4 Characteristics Guiding Your Continuity Planning

  • Comprehensive: There’s no way to plan for every possibility, but it is worth trying. Don’t assume your first idea will work; you’ll need backup plans and more! Make sure that any factor involved can be accounted for in case things go wrong – because they probably won’t just once (or twice) happen on multiple fronts simultaneously without causing some chaos among all parties concerned.
  • Realistic: When making plans, it is essential to be realistic and think of ways that things can go wrong . Ensure your project has as many contingencies for unforeseeable events , so there are no disasters when they least expect them.
  • Efficient: Making sure your Business Continuity Plan can be executed efficiently and with your resources will make any disaster or disruption easier to handle . The added stress from not having a proper strategy in place could cause problems for even regular tasks, so consider this when creating yours.
  • Adaptable: The best way to prepare for anything is by getting thrown curveballs. Your plan should account for constant monitoring of the situation and provide a good foundation from which you can pivot when necessary, as circumstances change minute-to-minute or even second by second.

How do you start a Business Continuity Plan? 7 steps of continuity management

WHAT IS BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLAN (BCP)?

A Business Continuity Plan can help your company recover quickly and efficiently in an emergency, which is why you need one.

Identify goals

Business Continuity Plan shouldn’t just be for the IT department. It’s essential to all of your critical business functions , including human resources and operations public relations, to keep them running or minimize disruption in case something goes wrong with either side.

You should identify what’s most important to your operations and ensure your risk assessment covers all areas in need. You’ll also do Business Continuity Plan and recovery strategies, so nothing gets left out when disaster strikes.

Establish an emergency team

To make this process more efficient and effective, select a few cross-functional managers or leaders from among those who may bring something valuable . Make sure someone is designated as the leader so they can keep things moving forward while making decisions when necessary.

Perform a risk assessment and business impact analysis (BIA)

The next step in identifying vulnerabilities is researching and analyzing potential threats. You’ll want your team on board with this to determine what would happen if certain services or functions were eliminated, reduced, or modified by removing them from consideration before deciding which option might be best for preserving critical aspects of the business operations.

Identify essential business functions

To ensure that essential services/functions continue during an emergency, you must determine how your organization will maintain them . Here are some of the essential services and functions that you’ll need to have a plan for.

Inventory management and supply continuity: The importance of inventory management cannot be overstated. If you don’t have enough on hand to meet demand, your business could suffer greatly and even fold entirely. This is why all companies must strive for efficient supply chain practices during times when there are disruptions in the market – like disasters or pandemics, which often cause shortages due to their severity.

Order fulfillment and shipping deadlines are crucial. If a crisis hits, can you still fill orders? It may be helpful to diversify the types of providers that offer services for your company because they will likely have different approaches regarding how quickly things get back up on track after either disaster or manufactured causes have triggered an emergency.

Functionality of your eCommerce platform: Can you handle a crisis if something happens, such as an increase in suppliers’ demand for products or services because they become more popular than expected? Would this lead to problems with out-of-stock items on your site, and would it make things difficult when suddenly increased supply due to new production rates coming online?

Customers need transparency and empathy during a crisis. You’ll want to provide your marketing/communications teams with an effective plan for responding so that they can keep the public informed of what’s happening while also communicating effectively through customer support channels when needed. You might consider adding staff members if necessary to answer any questions.

Prepare a plan

Your ecommerce engine runs as a combination of parts, including:

  • Team members
  • Suppliers/ subcontractors

Each of these parts has to have its own plan .

Review and make sure every function has been addressed

Including every aspect of your business in any plan for disruption is essential. Still, it is also true that certain elements will become more critical as you work through the process and make adjustments one step at a time. You’ll want to make sure you’ve documented the following:

  • Level of business risk.
  • Impact on employees and customers, and how you’ll communicate with them.
  • Emergency policy creation.
  • Financial resources can be tapped into in the event of a disaster.
  • External organization or community partners who can work together with you to be mutually beneficial.

Train staff, test, revise, and update the plan

To avoid potential problems, you must present the plan to all your stakeholders and suggest being proactive by performing trial runs. This will allow for a gut check on each part of our strategy before we implement them, which helps ensure everything works as expected ! Once updates are based on this feedback (or if new issues arise), training begins accordingly so everyone can get back up and running quickly after an emergency strikes.

Who is responsible for the Business Continuity Plan?

The business continuity steering committee, program sponsor, and manager are the individuals who should work together in identifying an approach for planning. They’ll determine which plans (crisis management or IT disaster recovery) are, among many other things, then decide on how many teams will be needed to own those specific types of activities/resources within your company’s scope.

Finally, we need people who know what needs to be done when it comes time to recover critical aspects, both externally facing ones such as customer service and internally focused ones, including inventory levels at stores.

What is Risk Assessment in Business Continuity Plan? How do you prepare a continuous Risk Assessment?

WHAT IS BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLAN (BCP)?

To be prepared for any emergency that might strike your business, you need a Risk Assessment . This is essential in creating the perfect continuity plan and ensuring all possible threats are identified before harming operations.

Business Continuity Plan is essential in ensuring that your company can keep running no matter what. Businesses should consider all possibilities for natural disasters like hurricanes and pandemics; manufactured such as cyber attacks-and plan accordingly with time to spare.

5 Steps in the Risk Assessment Process

Identify the hazards

Your organization’s workplace is a reflection of you and your team. It can be challenging to keep up with all aspects of work. Still, accidents/incidents serve as important pointers in determining what hazards could potentially harm an employer if not appropriately handled.

They might be natural disasters like hurricanes or fires or biological ones such as pandemics/foodborne illnesses which result in the loss of life. A workplace accident could also occur with all its risks, including slips from heights; transportation-related incidents caused by accidents while driving cars down busy streets.

Determine who might be harmed and how: Hazard identification is an important first step in Risk Assessment . To be thorough and efficient, you should identify who would come into contact with or become exposed to if the hazard suddenly occurred.

Evaluate the risks and take precautions: To determine the level of risk for each hazard, you need to evaluate how likely it is that a particular threat will occur and what kind or severity of consequences would result from such an event. This helps us decide where we should reduce our risks.

Record your findings: As a business owner, you must ensure that all employees are safe on the job. You can do this by implementing an effective risk assessment process which includes identifying potential hazards and how you plan for them to protect yourself and prevent accidents from happening with others around you.

Review assessment and update: Your workplace is constantly evolving, which means the risks to your business are changing too. New equipment or people may introduce new hazards you didn’t know about before. To protect yourself from these surprises and maintain a reputation, ask for help when necessary by updating Risk Assessment regularly, so they stay updated with current issues.

The following Risk Assessment steps will help you manage potential threats to your brand reputation. By partnering with an experienced specialist, the chances are slim that something could go wrong and unfairly affect business operations.

Thorough preparation is vital for maintaining uninterrupted service when disaster strikes— luckily, it never hurts too much to prepare ahead of time.

Is Business Continuity Plan part of Risk Assessment?

Business Continuity Plan is an integral part of Risk Assessment . The benefits of having a sound Business Continuity Plan in place are immense. From cyberattacks to fires and floods, all organizations will face unforeseen disruptions at some point – but with proper preparation, they can resume their most critical functions more quickly than ever before.

Pairing a Business Continuity Plan with other Risk Assessment techniques is an excellent way to mitigate all potential risks. This plan should be paired for maximum effectiveness and efficiency, such as through disaster recovery planning or by regularly assessing your organization’s strengths. Hence, you know what needs improvement before anything happens.

Businesses need to be prepared for the worst. Being fully aware of your level of risk and what needs to keep business moving is where you want to start. But that alone won’t give a competitive edge or help mitigate any financial risks involved with disasters like major disruptions from external factors.  Creating an entire plan will make everyone in your company feel more at ease; knowing they’re well trained on implementing it too means there’s the peace-of plan if disaster strikes.

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Business Continuity Planning

A guide to create an effective bcp.

Ensuring that your business can keep going when unexpected events happen has always been important, but the events of the year 2020 have brought the need for sound business continuity to the fore. This article will help you to understand what business continuity is all about, provide guidance on creating a business continuity plan and model that’s right for you, give you advice on an appropriate strategy, and help you to maintain the continuity of your business whatever the world might throw at you in the future.

Disruption to any organization’s business can be very costly, and in today’s online consumer choice marketplace, it can even lead to you losing business to your competitors. Using business continuity techniques to prepare for and plan your reaction to disruptions can help you to significantly mitigate risks, reduce any harm, and in turn, improve the experience of your customers.

What is Business Continuity?

Your business can be disrupted at any time by circumstances that are outside your direct control. Business disruption can be a dramatic as a natural disaster or seemingly unimportant such as one of your employees getting sick. Other examples include your premises being flooded by a water leak, one of your suppliers going out of business, or a transport strike that stops your workers from getting into the office. Disruptions like this to your business can happen at any moment, with no warning, and are out of your direct control. Without any emergency preparedness, the implications of these disruptions to your business can be severe.

Business continuity is all about having a plan to deal with these situations so that your organization can continue to function with as little disruption as possible. What is business continuity in detail will be different for each organization, as each organization is different, but each will use the same business continuity principles. Whether you run a commercial business, a public sector organization, a charity, or any other type of organization, you need to understand what is business continuity to help you to keep operating in unforeseen circumstances.

Business continuity doesn’t happen all by itself. Sometimes you might get lucky and be able to carry on as usual after an emergency, but more often than not, your business will be disrupted unless you have created plans for how to keep it going. This might be a high-level business continuity plan that sets up a crisis management team and lets them make the decisions about what to do next. Or it could be a set of more detailed plans that direct the different parts of your business in what they should do next. But trying to keep going without any form of business continuity plan will risk your organization’s survival.

The cycle of events for maintaining business continuity is mostly the same, irrespective of the organization or event that leads to it. Every cycle starts with something untoward happening. This is what should happen next:

  • Someone realizes that the issue can’t be quickly resolved and escalates.
  • A crisis management team is set up.
  • The crisis management team assesses the information about the emergency.
  • They invoke the business continuity plan and potentially a disaster recovery plan in parallel if the solution is in their control.
  • Staff follow the instructions in the business continuity plan so that they can continue to work as normally as possible.
  • The crisis management team monitors the situation.
  • When possible, they issue the instruction to go back to normal working.
  • A review is held to identify what went well and what needs improving.

Table of Contents

The difference between disaster recovery and business continuity.

Many people get confused between what is business continuity and what is disaster recovery. They are not the same thing and have different goals, but there are relationships between them. Business Continuity is concerned with keeping all essential functions of an organization going when there is a significant disruption to any part of the organization, including IT systems, essential infrastructure, people, and premises.

Disaster recovery (DR) is usually only concerned with the IT and technology infrastructures that support critical business functions. DR is aimed at restoring these critical technology-based systems and services in an emergency after a major event stops them from working.  This often involves switching services from the primary site to an alternative location, then switching back again once the emergency is over. Disaster recovery is often considered to be a subset of business continuity.

Consider a holiday booking company that takes orders both online and over the telephone. Both rely on IT systems hosted on the company’s premises. Disaster recovery preparations could include having back-up IT systems in another location, with the data backed up to it several times a day. If the primary IT systems fail, then users could rely on back-up systems.  Business continuity arrangements would, of course, include this but also extend to non-IT issues. For example, making preparations for staff to work from home if they were unable to get into the office for any reason.

What is a business continuity plan (BCP)?

A business continuity plan, often abbreviated to BCP, is a plan that outlines the actions to be taken when one or more defined events disrupt normal business operations.  Having a plan will help you to ensure business continuity. Business continuity planning is the process that helps you to create your BCP, designing a system for prevention and recovery from potential threats to an organization.

Having a well-designed business continuity plan will ensure that your staff and assets are able to get back to operation safely and quickly following a disaster. A BCP should be created using input from key staff and stakeholders, and should be regularly reviewed and updated, particularly if circumstances change. The plan should consider all risks that could materially affect operations, both internal and external. Hence business continuity planning is a key element of any organizations risk management strategy.

business continuity plan - business man looking ahead

  • How each risk could affect operations if it materialized.
  • What can be done to either fully mitigate each risk or reduce its impact.
  • How the plan will be tested.
  • Who is responsible for business continuity planning?

Every business, irrespective of its size, should have a BCP.  Disruption to normal operations will lead to loss of revenue and higher costs, contributing to reduced profitability.  Relying on insurance policies alone will not cover the costs of trying to win back the business that you have lost.

The complexity of the BCP will vary according to the size of the organization, how it is structured, the nature of its business, the risks to continuity, and any external regulatory requirements. The aim should be to create a BCP that is in enough detail to be easily followed but not so complex that it is difficult to understand.

What is the goal of BCP?

In order to keep the correct focus, it is important to understand what is the primary goal of business continuity planning. It is easy to get side-tracked and think that having a BCP is the primary goal. It isn’t. The purpose of your business continuity plan is to enable your business to continue in operation in as many circumstances as possible. That must be the primary goal of BCP for every organization.  The only reason why BCP is required is to keep your company operating. Your BCP strategy must ensure that this is the case.

There are a number of lower-level goals that can help you to understand what is the purpose of a business continuity plan, including:

Business Continuity Plan - Team looking at BCP

  • Minimize negative impacts on the organization, its operations, and its performance. One of the most significant benefits of having a business continuity plan is that it can minimize damage to the organization during disruptive changes, as well as during external events.
  • Assign roles, responsibilities, and tasks. Who is responsible for what will vary between organizations, but roles and responsibilities for all business continuity planning and execution activities must be clearly defined and communicated. This should include responsible for BCP operations covering who can invoke the plan and who will manage the execution.
  • Define how the plan will be communicated. Just having a plan isn’t enough. It is unlikely that you will maintain continuity for your business unless all staff are aware of its existence, its content, and what their roles and responsibilities are when the plan is executed.
  • Define how the plan will be tested. Every plan should be tested, as it’s only then that you will discover what doesn’t work. Testing a business continuity plan will need to use simulations, not real disasters, but your plan should define up-front how testing will be done.
  • Maintain continuity: This is an obvious goal for every plan that defines the actions that should be taken to maintain the continuity of the business for a number of different scenarios once the plan has been invoked.
  • Restore normal operations . This goal addresses a missing element in many business continuity plans. There will be a point when the business can return to its regular operating model. How this is done should be defined in the BCP.

How does a BCP help mitigate risk?

Creating a good BCP needs investment in time and money. A big part of justifying the value of business continuity planning is understanding how a BCP helps mitigate risk.

Every business faces risks to its continuing existence. While some of these may be unique to each organization, many of them are common. These include:

  • Natural disasters
  • Terrorist incidents
  • Failure of a supplier
  • Cyberattacks
  • Power blackouts
  • Data breaches
  • Staff availability

The process of creating a business continuity plan forces you to consider all these types of risk in the context of your own business operations. That includes assessing the likely impact and the probability of the risk actually materializing. For example, if your premises are on the top of a mountain, then the likelihood of flooding may be very low! This is why trying to adopt a business continuity plan from another organization without reviewing and updating it for your own circumstances isn’t a good approach. At a high level, it can provide a useful BCP plan checklist to act as a guide for your own business continuity requirements, but you need to do the thinking at a detailed level.

There’s an old saying that goes something like ‘Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t know.’ The activities necessary to create a BCP make you think about what those challenges are for you, then think about how you could deal with them.  That leaves you significantly better prepared when one of them jumps out at you. That will always help you to maintain business continuity.

As you work through the detail of each possible risk, it’s possible that you will identify actions you can take to mitigate against the risk fully. For example, if you operate a data center, your business continuity planning will identify a risk of total power supply failure. Depending on the likelihood and the cost of alternatives, you might decide to fully mitigate against this risk by investing in generators and fuel supplies. Many commercial data centers have taken this approach, even going to the level of paying fuel suppliers a premium to ensure that they get priority for fuel deliveries if there are fuel shortages. This is an excellent example of where BCP activities have considered every risk in detail.  

When you can’t fully mitigate against a risk, then there is a chance that it might materialize. The process for BCP makes you think about what you could do to maintain the continuity of your business if this happens, at worst reducing the impact but at best reducing it to zero.  In reality, this is just good risk management, but a business continuity model will give you a good structure and approach for identifying and then managing the risks.

How to write a business continuity plan

In this section, we will try to answer the question of what does a business continuity plan look like and what should a business continuity plan include, by providing you with a BCP plan outline setting out the elements of a business continuity plan. The detail of what goes into each section will, of course, depend on your own organization and its particular risks, but it should help you to learn how to write a simple business continuity plan.

Components of BCP

Developing a business continuity plan is a vital activity for any organization. Any BCP implementation is not trivial. Preparing a BCP is not an academic exercise just to tick a box in an auditors report or complete a BCP plan checklist. What should a BCP contain in detail will be different for each organization, but the structure can be very similar. This section provides an illustration of the structure for a typical BCP Plan should contain.

These typical components of a business continuity plan aren’t meant to be prescriptive, but following this outline will help you create your first high level business continuity plan that you can then develop and elaborate to suit your own circumstances.  An organization can have a single plan that covers all functions, or a hierarchy of plans within an overall business continuity model, with each function having its own BCP.  This approach helps to avoid an overly large plan that is difficult to follow, but it is a good idea that each individual plan follows the same general structure.

BCP - moving pieces on board

  • Version history – who signed off which version when.
  • Purpose of the plan – for example, ‘To provide a flexible response so that XYZ Corporation can respond to a disruptive incident, maintain delivery of critical services during an incident, and return to business as usual.’
  • Plan scope – which parts of the business, activities, and locations are covered by the plan.
  • Plan owner – who is responsible for maintaining the plan.
  • Review cycle – how often will the plan be reviewed.
  • Test history – When was the plan tested, and what were the outcomes?
  • Associated documents – links to any other documents that support the business continuity plan.
  • Circumstances – A list of all of the identified events that would lead to starting the BCP process. E.g., loss of key staff, loss of critical systems, denial of access to facilities, loss of a key resource such as a supplier.
  • Responsibility for activation– Who can invoke execution of the business continuity actions. In small organizations, this is often a single person in a senior role. A common approach in large organizations is to create a business continuity team with senior representatives from key functions.  When alerted to the situation, the team get together and decide whether to invoke the BCP or wait for more information.

Process Activation

  • Protect the safety of staff, visitors, and the wider community.
  • Protect vital assets, e.g., equipment, data, reputation, etc.
  • Ensure necessary communication takes place.
  • Support the Business Continuity phase.
  • Support the Recovery and Resumption phase.

This section is an essential requirement for BCP implementation, as it lists the actions that should be taken in enough detail so that they can be followed if the BCP is invoked. Determining which actions are needed is a key part of developing a business continuity plan. These and all other actions in a BCP are usually set out in a table to aid understanding. E.g.

Different tables should be provided, listing the appropriate actions and responsibilities for:

  • Protecting the welfare of staff, visitors, and the public.
  • Communications, covering who needs to be informed that the business continuity plan has been activated.
  • Actions to support business continuity, including recovering any vital equipment.
  • Actions to support recovery and resumption of normal business activities.
  • Communicating with staff.

The actions that the business continuity team should take are listed in this section of the BCP. The actions include:

  • Identifying which staff need to be involved in executing the BCP Plan.
  • Evaluating the impact of the events on business continuity.
  • Recording all decisions, actions, and spend.
  • BCP section 5: Recovery and resumption. This part of the BCP Plan lists the actions that should be taken to resume regular working practices. If the impact of the events leading to the invocation of the business continuity plan is prolonged, this might involve delivering services from new locations such as working from home or alternative premises. Here is an example of the actions in this section:

Steps involved in creating Business Contintuity Plan

This section should help you to understand how to create a business continuity plan. It is a good idea to use a structured approach to create a BCP. A typical BCP process flow will follow these BCP planning steps:

  • Identify different types of disruptive events . The types of event should include natural disasters, power outages, cyber-attacks, civil disturbances, transport failures, denial of access to premises, and supply chain disruptions. Any of these could cause an emergency, either singly or in combination. For example, widespread flooding could damage essential equipment, cause a power outage, and prevent staff from getting into work.

Business Meeting

  • Assess the impact of each type of event against critical business activities. Completing a  business impact analysis will project the potential effects of disruptions, assessing risks, and potential losses. The analysis will provide important information that can be used to develop prevention, mitigation, and recovery strategies. They should be as in-depth as is reasonably possible, covering a variety of potential scenarios, timing, duration, and other relevant variables.
  • Design recovery strategies . One of the biggest benefits of having a business continuity plan is that it can minimize damage to the organization during a disruption. Though it is not always possible to prevent certain types of events from affecting the business, there are often ways to reduce negative impacts. In certain situations, business continuity efforts can even mean the difference between failure and survival. Approaches should be developed to protect the most critical business functions and restore lost functionality as soon as possible. It is vital for organizations to protect these critical business functions during a disruption so that the crucial business operations can continue. Recovery strategies for business continuity can include relocating operations, outsourcing lost business functions, and hiring in replacement equipment. For example, initiating  remote working policies can allow businesses to stay functional when employees cannot work on-site, as organizations discovered during the COVID-19 crisis.

BCP Document

  • Test the plan. Testing is a vital part of any business continuity strategy. As soon as you create your plan, you must test it. Only by doing that comprehensively and diligently can you prove whether your BCP is going to work or not. Far too many organizations don’t do this and only realize that their plan doesn’t work as expected when they have to execute it for real. Testing will help you to find any parts of the plan that need to be changed or improved.
  • Develop and conduct training and education .  Just having a tested plan isn’t enough. Everyone in the organization needs to know that the business continuity plan exists, why it is needed, and what are their own roles and responsibilities. Employees should become familiar with a plan before it is ever needed.  Providing pre-emptive training  can ensure that employees stay prepared and can perform their duties effectively when the plan is invoked.
  • Execute the plan . Instead of waiting for a real disaster to happen, it is a good idea to execute the plan using a simulated emergency. This should be done with as few people as possible, knowing in advance that it isn’t a real emergency. This approach to testing business continuity will give you the best guarantee of success, as it will highlight any areas of improvement. Ideally, this will be regularly re-run using different scenarios that will test different parts of the BCP plan.

BCP Implementation

Business continuity plan project management.

Implementing any BCP is a project, so you should follow a project management methodology, using a project team that includes all parts of the business. Business continuity can be implemented solely using internal staff, particularly if you have individuals with the necessary skills and experience.  In a large organization, a BCP plan will be prepared by someone that has a role dedicated to business continuity. In smaller organizations, the task can be assigned to another role, but preparing the plan is not an administration task. It requires knowledge of what a BCP Plan should contain and the BCP process flow, strong risk management skills, and a good understanding of who business continuity planning is done for: the whole organization.  However, many organizations bring in external companies that specialize in business continuity management (BCM).

BCP roles and responsibilities

One of the key activities for any BCP implementation is the definition of roles and responsibilities, both for the implementation itself but also for BCP execution, maintenance, and improvement. Business continuity approaches are often led by a dedicated individual or team. The BCP team’s composition will vary, depending on the nature of the disruption, and each team member will be assigned specific duties.

BCP training

Defining and executing training activities and exercises is a key part of any BCP implementation. Training will ensure that employees are prepared so that they can perform their tasks effectively and operate efficiently during an invocation of the business continuity plan. Without this training, employees will not be able to react effectively or swiftly – precisely when speed is of the utmost importance.

Management support

It is imperative to get genuine management support for the business continuity plan. Far too often, the plans are created to satisfy a governance requirement, but in reality, the management doesn’t really care about business continuity or disaster recovery plan. They care more about profit, business strategy, client satisfaction, and market share. One approach to get management support is to educate them on the need for business continuity and how important it is for continued business operations. Using examples from other organizations is a good way to help.

The bottom line

Creating an efficient business continuity plan is extremely crucial for every company. Despite this, some organizations still underestimate the need for one, believing that nothing bad can happen to them. This is illogical if you consider the number and wide range of potential threats to any business.

Creating a BCP is not an administrative task. It requires considerable thought and effort by a lot of people. Using a robust approach to BCP implementation that has full management support is vital for success.

Any plan is only as good as its testing, so ensure that you test your BCP plan as soon as you create it, then improve and repeat regularly. Doing this will help ensure that your organization can continue to operate in the face of disruptions, helping you build trust and reputation with your customers.

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Business Continuity Planning

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Organize a business continuity team and compile a  business continuity plan  to manage a business disruption. Learn more about how to put together and test a business continuity plan with the videos below.

Business Continuity Plan Supporting Resources

  • Business Continuity Plan Situation Manual
  • Business Continuity Plan Test Exercise Planner Instructions
  • Business Continuity Plan Test Facilitator and Evaluator Handbook

Business Continuity Training Videos

The Business Continuity Planning Suite is no longer supported or available for download.

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Business Continuity Training Introduction

An overview of the concepts detailed within this training. Also, included is a humorous, short video that introduces viewers to the concept of business continuity planning and highlights the benefits of having a plan. Two men in an elevator experience a spectrum of disasters from a loss of power, to rain, fire, and a human threat. One man is prepared for each disaster and the other is not.

View on YouTube

Business Continuity Training Part 1: What is Business Continuity Planning?

An explanation of what business continuity planning means and what it entails to create a business continuity plan. This segment also incorporates an interview with a company that has successfully implemented a business continuity plan and includes a discussion about what business continuity planning means to them.

Business Continuity Training Part 2: Why is Business Continuity Planning Important?

An examination of the value a business continuity plan can bring to an organization. This segment also incorporates an interview with a company that has successfully implemented a business continuity plan and includes a discussion about how business continuity planning has been valuable to them.

Business Continuity Training Part 3: What's the Business Continuity Planning Process?

An overview of the business continuity planning process. This segment also incorporates an interview with a company about its process of successfully implementing a business continuity plan.

Business Continuity Training Part 3: Planning Process Step 1

The first of six steps addressed in this Business Continuity Training, which detail the process of building a business continuity plan. This step addresses how organizations should “prepare” to create a business continuity plan.

Business Continuity Training Part 3: Planning Process Step 2

The second of six steps addressed in this Business Continuity Training, which detail the process of building a business continuity plan. This step addresses how organizations should “define” their business continuity plan objectives.

Business Continuity Training Part 3: Planning Process Step 3

The third of six steps addressed in this Business Continuity Training, which detail the process of building a business continuity plan. This step addresses how organizations should “identify” and prioritize potential risks and impacts.

Business Continuity Training Part 3: Planning Process Step 4

The fourth of six steps addressed in this Business Continuity Training, which detail the process of building a business continuity plan. This step addresses how organizations should “develop” business continuity strategies.

Business Continuity Training Part 3: Planning Process Step 5

The fifth of six steps addressed in this Business Continuity Training, which detail the process of building a business continuity plan. This step addresses how organizations should define their “teams” and tasks.

Business Continuity Training Part 3: Planning Process Step 6

The sixth of six steps addressed in this Business Continuity Training, which detail the process of building a business continuity plan. This step addresses how organizations should “test” their business continuity plans. View on YouTube

Last Updated: 12/21/2023

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Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP)

Business continuity planning.

Business continuity planning enables you to create an easy-to-use, actionable business continuity planning solution to prepare for the impact of a broad range of threats including natural disasters, disease outbreaks, accidents and terrorism. In addition business continuity planning can help when you face technology-related hazards like the failure of systems, equipment or software. MEP Centers can assist you in developing a plan unique to your needs.

If your company needs to create or tweak a business continuity plan, I highly suggest reaching out to Purdue MEP!

—Doug Ellington, Director of Finance, Estes Design and Manufacturing Read the Success Story

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Business Continuity Planning Solutions

In an increasingly interconnected world, it’s imperative for you to rethink contingency planning. Transformed global business and operations strategies add new interruption risks to risk portfolios. Building resilient and recoverable operations is more difficult to implement when time is precious and challenges are approaching.

PwC’s business continuity planning solutions help you identify, prepare for and prevent events that may disrupt business activities. Working with us, you can develop the plans needed to recover efficiently and effectively including program assessment, implementation, testing, maintenance and training.

Understanding today’s drivers is the first step when planning a business continuity program

Recent industry interruptions.

Cyber events and natural disasters have sparked the need to develop more robust recovery plans.

Third-party resiliency

Regulatory guidance now requires transparency into critical third-party resiliency. Third parties may include call centers, IT providers and back office services.

Being a resilient supplier/partner

Regulators and partners are seeking insight into resiliency plans to assure fund availability and portfolio integrity as well as their relative priority during crisis events.

Focus on enterprise-wide governance, risk management and compliance (GRC)

Organizations are increasingly focused on integrated risk and compliance management to reduce compliance cost and provide better risk insight.

Reduced tolerance for downtime

Customers demand 24/7 access to products and services. The new technology has high availability requirements to provide competitive and customized service offerings. Regulators' tolerance for critical system downtime is also diminishing.

Crisis management and social media

Quick identification and internal/external response to crisis events can protect and increase brand value

Developing operational resilience and business continuity

PwC’s business continuity planning solutions will help you develop operational resilience and business continuity that is scalable and that enables your company to prioritize investments.

Some of our solutions include:

  • BCP program assessment and design
  • Business impact analysis and interruption risk assessment
  • Recovery strategy selection and implementation
  • Recovery plan creation and resiliency improvement
  • BCP program exercising, maintenance and training
  • BCP program technology enablement and enterprise risk management integration
  • Third-party resiliency framework and analysis
  • Crisis management program development and exercises
  • IT disaster recovery and BCP program alignment and analysis  

business continuity plan (bcp)

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Mike Maali

Partner, Cyber, Risk and Regulatory, PwC US

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business continuity plan (bcp)

A business continuity plan (BCP) is a strategic framework that prepares businesses to maintain or swiftly resume their critical functions in the face of disruptions, whether they stem from natural disasters, technological failures, human error, or other unforeseen events.

In today’s fast-paced world, businesses face an array of potential disruptions ranging from cyberattacks and ransomware to severe weather events and global pandemics. By having a well-crafted BCP, businesses can mitigate these risks, ensuring the safety and continuity of their critical services and operations.

Responsibility for business continuity planning typically lies with top management and dedicated planning teams within an organization. It is a cross-functional effort that involves input and coordination across various departments, ensuring that all aspects of the business are considered.

For businesses looking to develop or refine their business continuity strategies, there are numerous resources available. Tools like Venngage’s business plan maker and their business continuity plan templates offer practical assistance, streamlining the process of creating a robust and effective BCP. 

Click to jump ahead: 

7 business continuity plan examples

Business continuity types, how to write a business continuity plan, how often should a business continuity plan be reviewed, business continuity plan vs. disaster recovery plan, final thoughts.

In business, unpredictability is the only certainty. This is where business continuity plans (BCPs) come into play. These plans are not just documents; they are a testament to a company’s preparedness and commitment to sustained operations under adverse conditions. To illustrate the practicality and necessity of these plans, let’s delve into some compelling examples.

Business continuity plan example for small business

Imagine a small business specializing in digital marketing services, with a significant portion of its operations reliant on continuous internet connectivity and digital communication tools. This business, although small, caters to a global clientele, making its online presence and prompt service delivery crucial.

Business Consultant Continuity Plan Template

Scope and objective:

This Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is designed to ensure the continuity of digital marketing services and client communications in the event of an unforeseen and prolonged internet outage. Such an outage could be caused by a variety of factors, including cyberattacks, technical failures or service provider issues. The plan aims to minimize disruption to these critical services, ensuring that client projects are delivered on time and communication lines remain open and effective.

Operations at risk:

Operation: Digital Marketing Services Operation Description: A team dedicated to creating and managing digital marketing campaigns for clients across various time zones. Business Impact: High Impact Description: The team manages all client communications, campaign designs, and real-time online marketing strategies. An internet outage would halt all ongoing campaigns and client communications, leading to potential loss of business and client trust.

Recovery strategy:

The BCP should include immediate measures like switching to a backup internet service provider or using mobile data as a temporary solution. The IT team should be prepared to deploy these alternatives swiftly. Additionally, the company should have a protocol for informing clients about the situation via alternative communication channels like mobile phones.

Roles and responsibilities:

Representative: Alex Martinez Role: IT Manager Description of Responsibilities:

  • Oversee the implementation of the backup internet connectivity plan.
  • Coordinate with the digital marketing team to ensure minimal disruption in campaign management.
  • Communicate with the service provider for updates and resolution timelines.

Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plan Template

Business continuity plan example for software company

In the landscape of software development, a well-structured Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is vital. This example illustrates a BCP for a software company, focusing on a different kind of disruption: a critical data breach.

Business Continuity Plan Template

Scope and objectives:

This BCP is designed to ensure the continuity of software development and client data security in the event of a significant data breach. Such a breach could be due to cyberattacks, internal security lapses, or third-party service vulnerabilities. The plan prioritizes the rapid response to secure data, assess the impact on software development projects and maintain client trust and communication.

Operation: Software Development and Data Security Operation Description: The software development team is responsible for creating and maintaining software products, which involves handling sensitive client data. In the realm of software development, where the creation and maintenance of products involve handling sensitive client data, prioritizing security is crucial. Strengthen your software development team’s capabilities by incorporating the best antivirus with VPN features, offering a robust defense to protect client information and maintain a secure operational environment. The integrity and security of this data are paramount.

Business Impact: Critical Impact Description: A data breach could compromise client data, leading to loss of trust, legal consequences and potential financial penalties. It could also disrupt ongoing development projects and delay product releases.

The IT security team should immediately isolate the breached systems to prevent further data loss. They should then work on identifying the breach’s source and extent. Simultaneously, the client relations team should inform affected clients about the breach and the steps being taken. The company should also engage a third-party cybersecurity firm for an independent investigation and recovery assistance.

Representative: Sarah Lopez Role: Head of IT Security Contact Details: [email protected] Description of Responsibilities:

  • Lead the initial response to the data breach, including system isolation and assessment.
  • Coordinate with external cybersecurity experts for breach analysis and mitigation.
  • Work with the legal team to understand and comply with data breach notification laws.
  • Communicate with the software development team leaders about the impact on ongoing projects.

Business Continuity Plan Templates

Related: 7 Best Business Plan Software for 2023

Business continuity plan example for manufacturing

In the manufacturing sector, disruptions can significantly impact production lines, supply chains, and customer commitments. This example of a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) for a manufacturing company addresses a specific scenario: a major supply chain disruption.

Business Continuity Plan Template

This BCP is formulated to ensure the continuity of manufacturing operations in the event of a significant supply chain disruption. Such disruptions could be caused by geopolitical events, natural disasters affecting key suppliers or transportation network failures. The plan focuses on maintaining production capabilities and fulfilling customer orders by managing and mitigating supply chain risks.

Operation: Production Line Operation Description: The production line is dependent on a steady supply of raw materials and components from various suppliers to manufacture products. Business Impact: High Impact Description: A disruption in the supply chain can lead to a halt in production, resulting in delayed order fulfillment, loss of revenue and potential damage to customer relationships.

The company should establish relationships with alternative suppliers to ensure a diversified supply chain. In the event of a disruption, the procurement team should be able to quickly switch to these alternative sources. Additionally, maintaining a strategic reserve of critical materials can buffer short-term disruptions. The logistics team should also develop flexible transportation plans to adapt to changing scenarios.

Representative: Michael Johnson Role: Head of Supply Chain Management Contact Details: [email protected] Description of Responsibilities:

  • Monitor global supply chain trends and identify potential risks.
  • Develop and maintain relationships with alternative suppliers.
  • Coordinate with logistics to ensure flexible transportation solutions.
  • Communicate with production managers about supply chain status and potential impacts on production schedules.

Related: 15+ Business Plan Templates for Strategic Planning

BCPs are essential for ensuring that a business can continue operating during crises. Here’s a summary of the different types of business continuity plans that are common:

  • Operational : Involves ensuring that critical systems and processes continue functioning without disruption. It’s vital to have a plan to minimize revenue loss in case of disruptions.
  • Technological : For businesses heavily reliant on technology, this type of continuity plan focuses on maintaining and securing internal systems, like having offline storage for important documents.
  • Economic continuity : This type ensures that the business remains profitable during disruptions. It involves future-proofing the organization against scenarios that could negatively impact the bottom line.
  • Workforce continuity : Focuses on maintaining adequate and appropriate staffing levels, especially during crises, ensuring that the workforce is capable of handling incoming work.
  • Safety : Beyond staffing, safety continuity involves creating a comfortable and secure work environment where employees feel supported, especially during crises.
  • Environmental : It addresses the ability of the team to operate effectively and safely in their physical work environment, considering threats to physical office spaces and planning accordingly.
  • Security : Means prioritizing the safety and security of employees and business assets, planning for potential security breaches and safeguarding important business information.
  • Reputation : Focuses on maintaining customer satisfaction and a good reputation, monitoring conversations about the brand and having action plans for reputation management.

Business Continuity Planning Templates

As I have explained so far, a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is invaluable. Writing an effective BCP involves a series of strategic steps, each crucial to ensuring that your business can withstand and recover from unexpected events. Here’s a guide on how to craft a robust business continuity plan:

Business Continuity And Disaster Recovery Plan Template

1. Choose your business continuity team

Assemble a dedicated team responsible for the development and implementation of the BCP. The team should include members from various departments with a deep understanding of the business operations.

2. Outline your plan objectives

Clearly articulate what the plan aims to achieve. Objectives may include minimizing financial loss, ensuring the safety of employees, maintaining critical business operations, and protecting the company’s reputation.

3. Meet with key players in your departments

Engage with department heads and key personnel to gain insights into the specific needs and processes of each department. This helps in identifying critical functions and resources.

4. Identify critical functions and types of threats

Determine which functions are vital to the business’s survival and identify potential threats that could impact these areas. 

5. Carry on risk assessments across different areas

Evaluate the likelihood and impact of identified threats on each critical function. This assessment helps in prioritizing the risks and planning accordingly.

6. Conduct a business impact analysis (BIA)

Perform a BIA to understand the potential consequences of disruption to critical business functions. It has to be done in determining the maximum acceptable downtime and the resources needed for business continuity.

7. Start drafting the plan

Compile the information gathered into a structured document. The plan should include emergency contact information, recovery strategies and detailed action steps for different scenarios.

8. Test the plan for any gaps

Conduct simulations or tabletop exercises to test the plan’s effectiveness. This testing can reveal unforeseen gaps or weaknesses in the plan.

9. Review & revise your plan

Use the insights gained from testing to refine and update the plan. Continual revision ensures the plan remains relevant and effective in the face of changing business conditions and emerging threats.

Read Also: How to Write a Business Plan Outline [Examples + Templates]

A Business Continuity Plan (BCP) should ideally be reviewed and updated at least annually. 

The annual review ensures that the plan remains relevant and effective in the face of new challenges and changes within the business, such as shifts in business strategy, introduction of new technology or changes in operational processes. 

Additionally, it’s crucial to reassess the BCP following any significant business changes, such as mergers, acquisitions or entry into new markets, as well as after the occurrence of any major incident that tested the plan’s effectiveness. 

However, in rapidly changing industries or in businesses that face a high degree of uncertainty or frequent changes, more frequent reviews – such as bi-annually or quarterly – may be necessary. 

A Business Continuity Plan (BCP) and a Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) are two crucial components of organizational preparedness, yet they serve different functions. The BCP is aimed at preventing interruptions to business operations and maintaining regular activities. 

It focuses on aspects such as the location of operations during a crisis (like a temporary office or remote work), how staff will communicate and which functions are prioritized. In essence, a BCP details how a business can continue operating during and after a disruption​​​​.

On the other hand, a DRP is more specific to restoring data access and IT infrastructure after a disaster. It describes the steps that employees must follow during and after a disaster to ensure minimal function necessary for the organization to continue. 

Essentially, while a BCP is about maintaining operations, a DRP is about restoring critical functions, particularly IT-related, after a disruption has occurred​

It’s clear that having a robust and adaptable business continuity plan (BCP) is not just a strategic advantage but a fundamental necessity for businesses of all sizes and sectors. 

From small businesses to large corporations, the principles of effective business continuity planning remain consistent: identify potential threats, assess the impact on critical functions, and develop a comprehensive strategy to maintain operations during and after a disruption.

The process of writing a BCP, as detailed in this article, underscores the importance of a thorough and thoughtful approach. It’s about more than just drafting a document; it’s about creating a living framework that evolves with your business and the changing landscape of risks.

To assist in this crucial task, you can use Venngage’s business plan maker & their business continuity plan templates . These tools streamline the process of creating a BCP, ensuring that it is not only comprehensive but also clear, accessible and easy to implement. 

Night Helper Blog LLC

How to Train Your Team to Execute Your RIA Business Continuity Plan

H aving a well-prepared and trained team is critical for successfully executing a business continuity plan (BCP) when an unexpected disruption occurs. Proper training and preparedness ensures your RIA’s resilience, providing your firm with the ability to withstand major events and crises with minimal impact to operations and client services. 

This article will provide an in-depth overview of key considerations and best practices when training your RIA’s team on proper execution of your business continuity plan. We will examine the components of an effective RIA business continuity plan and the integral importance of thorough team training. We will also discuss methodologies for assessing team roles, developing a tailored training curriculum, and conducting immersive crisis simulation exercises. Additionally, we will explore approaches for honing communication and decision-making skills, implementing redundancy through cross-training, fostering strong leadership and coordination, and continually gathering feedback to improve plan execution.

By investing in comprehensive team preparedness, your RIA can feel confident in its ability to navigate any potential disruption, manage crisis effectively, and provide clients with continual quality service.

Understanding the RIA Business Continuity Plan (BCP) 

Your business continuity plan outlines the processes and procedures your firm will implement to deal with potential disruptions to operations, whether from natural disasters, technology failures, or other crises. An effective BCP identifies your RIA’s most critical business functions and assets, ensures resilience of key operations during times of crisis, and provides a roadmap to quickly recover and restore services for clients.

Thorough training on the BCP prepares your team members to carry out the plan seamlessly and effectively when implementation is required. Clearly defined roles, responsibilities, and sequential response steps are crucial for smooth execution. Training also reinforces understanding of the plan’s purpose, objectives, and the importance of preparedness.

Assessing Team Roles and Responsibilities

A key step is comprehensively assessing and defining the specific roles and responsibilities for each team member involved in executing the BCP when a crisis hits. Identify the personnel that will be part of the response team and pinpoint which business functions they oversee. Determine the precise response and recovery duties of each role across areas like operations, technology, client services, reporting, facilities, human resources, etc. 

Ensure clarity, understanding, and coverage of all crucial response requirements outlined in the BCP. If gaps exist, assign cross-departmental backups for key processes. The assessment process reinforces robust role definition, enabling coordinated action during crises.

BCP Training Program Development

With roles defined, develop and implement a robust BCP training curriculum and program for your team. Outline the training content and required skills based on your plan components. Incorporate realistic crisis scenarios through case studies and examples relevant to your RIA. Develop simulated exercises across a wide range of potential disruptions, from cyber-attacks to weather events.

Leverage both your firm’s internal expertise and external resources as needed when designing training. Encourage interactive activities and role playing to engage trainees. Ensure assessments gauge comprehension and evaluate areas for improvement. Schedule periodic refresher training to maintain readiness. 

Conducting In-Depth Training Sessions 

BCP training sessions should be conducted frequently to keep team skills sharp. Vary simulated crisis scenarios across sessions to reinforce response capabilities for diverse situations. Foster engagement through immersive crisis simulation activities, evaluating and providing feedback on team performance. 

Include activities like role playing, group response coordination, independent scenario analysis, and crisis communication exercises. Assess comprehension through post-session tests. Use debriefs to identify areas for improvement and enhance future curriculum.

 Hands-on Simulations and Drills

Practical hands-on crisis simulations and drills are invaluable for cementing BCP execution skills and preparedness. Develop realistic simulations across the range of potential disruptions outlined in your plan. Conduct mock executions of procedures to test responsiveness across scenarios, assessing coordination and measuring response times. 

Evaluate simulation outcomes comprehensively, identifying areas where additional training may be needed to optimize preparedness. Apply learnings to improve future curriculum and exercises. Share results with team members to enhance company-wide readiness.

Communication and Decision-Making Training

During crisis situations, clear communication and quick, decisive decision-making capabilities are critical for proper BCP execution. Provide training exercises focused on honing these competencies through real-world case study analysis and role playing. 

Teach techniques for communicating urgent information clearly to both internal team members and external clients during chaos. Provide frameworks for rapid response prioritization and decision-making when reacting to dynamic scenarios. Gather feedback on areas for improvement.

 Documentation and Reporting Procedures

Meticulous documentation and reporting during crises is crucial for regulatory compliance and maintaining continuity of service. Train personnel on proper report creation, information gathering, record keeping, and data collection procedures as outlined in your BCP. 

Reinforce the importance of accurate and timely information sharing across the response team, leadership, clients and authorities. Evaluate comprehension of documentation requirements through testing.

Cross-Training for Redundancy

While each team member will have specialized BCP duties, cross-training across roles is vital to prepare for potential absences or unavailability of key personnel during a crisis. Ensure adequate redundancy in expertise across your BCP response team.

Conduct multi-role training exercises where team members fill in for counterparts on other tasks. Schedule rotations allowing personnel to shadow those in other roles. Maintaining robust redundancy ensures smooth BCP execution even if key members are unexpectedly unavailable.

 Leadership Guidance and Team Coordination

In times of crisis, strong leadership is integral to guide teams effectively, provide decisive vision, and foster coordinated action. Training exercises present opportunities for managers to practice leading response efforts. Evaluate leadership efficacy in debriefs.

Share examples of successful leadership and coordination during real-world BCP executions. Foster a culture of collaboration by having cross-functional teams train together. United readiness fortifies your RIA during turbulent times.

Continual Feedback and Improvement 

The most effective training programs gather regular feedback from participants to identify improvement areas. Survey team members after each exercise to capture enhancement opportunities while concepts are still fresh. Reassess capabilities across training dimensions like communication, decision-making, documentation, leadership, etc. 

Adapt and enhance the training curriculum to tackle evolving potential risks and new challenges. Ongoing improvement ensures your preparedness training remains optimally aligned to your RIA’s unique needs and crisis response objectives.

Training and preparation are indispensable for successfully executing a business continuity plan when disruptions strike. A resilient RIA invests in thoroughly training its team on BCP implementation through role clarity, tailored curriculum, hands-on simulations, and skill-building. Leverage regular feedback to drive continual enhancement. With comprehensive training, your empowered team can adeptly navigate any storm, managing crises smoothly while protecting client interests. Don’t leave readiness to chance – a prepared team means resilience.

Having a well-prepared and trained team is critical for successfully executing a business continuity plan (BCP) when an unexpected disruption occurs. Proper training and preparedness ensures your RIA’s resilience, providing your firm with the ability to withstand major events and crises with minimal impact to operations and client services.  This article will provide an in-depth overview of key considerations and best practices when training your RIA’s team on proper execution of your business continuity plan. We will examine the components of an effective RIA business continuity plan and the integral importance of thorough team training. We will also discuss methodologies

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BCP Summary for Healthcare

Author(s): Mahmoud Ramin , Frank Trovato

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Your business continuity plan (BCP) is a bundle of documents with different objectives and audiences. Stakeholders don't have time to sift through the details. Summarize your organization's continuity capabilities and objectives in one easy-to-consume document. This template includes:

  • Business continuity requirements
  • Alternate business locations
  • IT resiliency and disaster recovery processes
  • Incident response procedures
  • Disaster communications
  • Awareness and training
  • Testing and maintenance

Creating active links in your version of the Summary allows readers to drill down further as needed.

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