business continuity plan template for it systems

An official website of the United States government

Here’s how you know

Official websites use .gov A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS A lock ( Lock A locked padlock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

IT Disaster Recovery Plan

Businesses use information technology to quickly and effectively process information. Employees use electronic mail and Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) telephone systems to communicate. Electronic data interchange (EDI) is used to transmit data including orders and payments from one company to another. Servers process information and store large amounts of data. Desktop computers, laptops and wireless devices are used by employees to create, process, manage and communicate information. What do you when your information technology stops working?

An information technology disaster recovery plan (IT DRP) should be developed in conjunction with the business continuity plan . Priorities and recovery time objectives for information technology should be developed during the business impact analysis . Technology recovery strategies should be developed to restore hardware, applications and data in time to meet the needs of the business recovery.

Businesses large and small create and manage large volumes of electronic information or data. Much of that data is important. Some data is vital to the survival and continued operation of the business. The impact of data loss or corruption from hardware failure, human error, hacking or malware could be significant. A plan for data backup and restoration of electronic information is essential.

Resources for Information Technology Disaster Recovery Planning

IT Recovery Strategies

Recovery strategies should be developed for Information technology (IT) systems, applications and data. This includes networks, servers, desktops, laptops, wireless devices, data and connectivity. Priorities for IT recovery should be consistent with the priorities for recovery of business functions and processes that were developed during the business impact analysis . IT resources required to support time-sensitive business functions and processes should also be identified. The recovery time for an IT resource should match the recovery time objective for the business function or process that depends on the IT resource.

Information technology systems require hardware, software, data and connectivity. Without one component of the “system,” the system may not run. Therefore, recovery strategies should be developed to anticipate the loss of one or more of the following system components:

Some business applications cannot tolerate any downtime. They utilize dual data centers capable of handling all data processing needs, which run in parallel with data mirrored or synchronized between the two centers. This is a very expensive solution that only larger companies can afford. However, there are other solutions available for small to medium sized businesses with critical business applications and data to protect.

Internal Recovery Strategies

Many businesses have access to more than one facility. Hardware at an alternate facility can be configured to run similar hardware and software applications when needed. Assuming data is backed up off-site or data is mirrored between the two sites, data can be restored at the alternate site and processing can continue.

Vendor Supported Recovery Strategies

There are vendors that can provide “hot sites” for IT disaster recovery. These sites are fully configured data centers with commonly used hardware and software products. Subscribers may provide unique equipment or software either at the time of disaster or store it at the hot site ready for use.

Data streams, data security services and applications can be hosted and managed by vendors. This information can be accessed at the primary business site or any alternate site using a web browser. If an outage is detected at the client site by the vendor, the vendor automatically holds data until the client’s system is restored. These vendors can also provide data filtering and detection of malware threats, which enhance cyber security.

Developing an IT Disaster Recovery Plan

Businesses should develop an IT disaster recovery plan. It begins by compiling an inventory of hardware (e.g. servers, desktops, laptops and wireless devices), software applications and data. The plan should include a strategy to ensure that all critical information is backed up.

Identify critical software applications and data and the hardware required to run them. Using standardized hardware will help to replicate and reimage new hardware. Ensure that copies of program software are available to enable re-installation on replacement equipment. Prioritize hardware and software restoration.

Document the IT disaster recovery plan as part of the business continuity plan . Test the plan periodically to make sure that it works.

Data Backup

Businesses generate large amounts of data and data files are changing throughout the workday. Data can be lost, corrupted, compromised or stolen through hardware failure, human error, hacking and malware. Loss or corruption of data could result in significant business disruption.

Data backup and recovery should be an integral part of the business continuity plan and information technology disaster recovery plan. Developing a data backup strategy begins with identifying what data to backup, selecting and implementing hardware and software backup procedures, scheduling and conducting backups and periodically validating that data has been accurately backed up.

Developing the Data Backup Plan

Identify data on network servers, desktop computers, laptop computers and wireless devices that needs to be backed up along with other hard copy records and information. The plan should include regularly scheduled backups from wireless devices, laptop computers and desktop computers to a network server. Data on the server can then be backed up. Backing up hard copy vital records can be accomplished by scanning paper records into digital formats and allowing them to be backed up along with other digital data.

Options for Data Backup

Tapes, cartridges and large capacity USB drives with integrated data backup software are effective means for businesses to backup data. The frequency of backups, security of the backups and secure off-site storage should be addressed in the plan. Backups should be stored with the same level of security as the original data.

Many vendors offer online data backup services including storage in the “cloud”. This is a cost-effective solution for businesses with an internet connection. Software installed on the client server or computer is automatically backed up.

Data should be backed up as frequently as necessary to ensure that, if data is lost, it is not unacceptable to the business. The business impact analysis should evaluate the potential for lost data and define the “recovery point objective.” Data restoration times should be confirmed and compared with the IT and business function recovery time objectives.

Last Updated: 02/17/2021

Return to top

View all products

Atlassian.com

Jira Software

Project and issue tracking

Content collaboration

Jira Service Management

High-velocity ITSM

Visual project management

Jira Product Discovery

Prioritization and roadmapping

Developer experience platform

Marketplace

Connect thousands of apps for all your Atlassian products

Browse by solution

Agile & devops.

Run a world-class agile software organization from discovery to delivery and operations

IT Service Management

Enable dev, IT ops, and business teams to deliver great service at high velocity

Work Management

Empower autonomous teams without losing organizational alignment

Browse by team type

Small business, by team size.

Great for startups, from incubator to IPO

Get the right tools for your growing business

Learn how we make big teams successful

By team function

Plan, build, & ship quality products

Bring together a winning strategy

Streamline people management

Operate securely and reliably

Efficient, secure, mission focused

Run your business efficiently

Provide great service and support

Simplify all finance processes

Incident Response

Respond, resolve, & learn from incidents

Apps that enhance Atlassian products

Docs and resources to build Atlassian apps

Trust & security

Compliance, privacy, platform roadmap, and more

Work Life blog

Stories on culture, tech, teams, and tips

Support services

Enterprise services.

Personal support for large teams

Learn & connect

Our mission and history

Job openings, values, and more

Atlassian University

Training and certifications for all skill levels

Atlassian Community

A forum for connecting, sharing, and learning

Time is running out! Get 30% off when you sign up for Jira Service Management

ITSM for high-velocity teams

What is it service continuity management.

IT service continuity management (ITSCM) is a key component of ITIL service delivery. It focuses on planning for incident prevention, prediction, and management with the goal of maintaining service availability and performance at the highest possible levels before, during, and after a disaster-level incident.

The goal of ITSCM is to reduce the downtime, costs, and business impact of incidents by putting effective, standardized processes in place for when those incidents do inevitably occur.

Because without a plan, there are a lot of factors that can slow—or stop—incident recovery. After all, your on-call expert might be responding when they’re bleary-eyed at 3 a.m. They might be out of touch with the code after working on something else for weeks or months. They might panic at the scale of the disaster-level incident. Or they might be the newest member of the disaster recovery team, without as much experience resolving issues.

Having a well-documented, clear plan for service continuity management will help minimize any delays caused by learning curves, time away from the code, disaster panic, or midnight alerts.

ITSCM and ITIL 4

In ITIL 4, service continuity management is a process meant to support business continuity management (BCM). The goal of the process is to make sure services are back up and running within the agreed-upon business timelines after major service disruptions.

ITSCM vs. incident management

ITIL 4 makes a distinction between incident management —which handles incidents at a variety of impact levels—and ITSCM, which is about planning for large-scale disasters.

So, what exactly constitutes a disaster? The answer may be different for each business, but the Business Continuity Institute defines it as: “A sudden unplanned event that causes great damage or serious loss to an organization. It results in an organization failing to provide critical business functions for some predetermined minimum period of time.”

The scale of what we call a disaster, the predetermined minimum time, and the definition of critical business functions are three things each business will need to define and document for themselves.

ITSCM and business continuity management (BCM)

Business continuity management is a process managed outside IT that identifies risks to the business and works to mitigate those risks. Some risks may be IT-related, including disaster-level incidents, and some risks may be outside IT control, such as natural disasters or facility fires.

Since BCM encompasses ITSCM as well as other risk-mitigation processes, it makes sense for IT teams to work closely with the BCM team to create:

ITSCM objectives

From a business perspective, the goal of ITSCM is to reduce the downtime, costs, and business impact of disaster-level incidents. On a more tactical level, objectives include:

The ITSCM process

Here at Atlassian, our own continuity plan , is built on the assumption that the process of disaster planning is ongoing, leadership-driven, and thoroughly tested. We are determined to not #@!% our customers . Our process includes planning, communication, clear responsibilities, testing, and continuous improvement.

The planning process starts with asking high-level questions and then building a plan based on your answers. Starting questions should include:

Once you have answers to these questions, the next step is to use those answers to define:

The key to a successful ITSCM planning phase is documenting and templatizing the resulting plan to make it clear and repeatable. Having assets such as an incident response playbook or other runbooks can be a source of truth and organization to responders during a high-stakes scenario.

In the spirit of ITSCM, a solution with access to a built-in knowledge base —like Jira Service Management powered by Confluence—allows for continuous documentation that allows for revision, optimization and collaboration. That way, responders have access to previous resolution documentation and up-to-date resources.

Clear responsibilities

Who’s responsible in case of disaster? Who’s responsible for maintaining and updating plans, processes, and documentation? ITSCM should always have a clear sense of roles and responsibilities not only for disasters themselves, but for ongoing monitoring and improvement. Using Jira Service Management, responders can tag the appropriate party or person on issues to ensure responsibilities are properly delegated and to facilitate cross-functional collaboration.

At Atlassian, part of our approach is to have regular disaster recovery meetings with our site reliability engineers and our risk and compliance team. They discuss gaps in disaster recovery and identify where additional plans, improvements, assessments, or changes need to be made.

Communication

Openness is a core value at Atlassian and we believe the more informed your organization is about your ITSCM plans, the more effective those plans will be.

Offering flexible communication channels throughout the incident response process allows teams to stay in touch by their preferred method. Jira Service Management integrates multiple communications channels to minimize downtime, such as embeddable status widget, dedicated statuspage, email, chat tools, social media, and SMS.

Not only does communication keep stakeholders on board and help the c-suite stave off panic during a disaster-level incident, but it also allows the team to reach out for help from other teams if needed and mitigate the risk of friction caused by organizational confusion.

How do you know if your plans work unless you test them? This is a foundational question for ITSCM and the reason that testing and incident management drills are vital to the success of the practice.

Testing can help you identify weak points in your process, unforeseen issues, and where teams may need re-training or better documentation.

Assess and improve

ITSCM is not a one-and-done process. It requires thoughtful planning up front and ongoing training, assessment, and improvement. That’s why we have regular disaster recovery meetings. It’s why we test system backups and run drills on what happens in case of a data center outage or AWS region failure. And it’s why any ITSCM plan worth its salt is a continually monitored, ever-changing thing.

Most companies represent the ITSCM process as a series of steps, but we think it’s more like a circle. Planning should lead to defined roles and responsibilities. From there, the team should communicate across the organization, test and test again, assess, monitor, and improve and, in those improvements, continue to update the plan, further define roles, and continue communicating.

Again, this is where a built-in, collaborative knowledge base comes into play. Knowledge base articles are a valuable resource when it comes to assessment and documentation. Incident postmortem reports are crucial for revision and repair following an incident, but can also act as a longstanding resource for potential problems in the future. Jira Service Management, powered by Confluence, offers a powerful collaborative platform to execute assessment and improvement solutions.

ITSCM roles and responsibilities

In order to effectively plan and implement ITSCM practices across the organization, many businesses appoint a Service Continuity Manager and a Service Continuity Recovery Team.

Service Continuity Manager (SCM)

As the name suggests, the Service Continuity Manager is responsible for overseeing service continuity. This person typically owns the process from A to Z, leading plan development, managing ongoing monitoring and assessment activities, and overseeing plans in action in case of disaster.

This person is typically an experienced, senior-level technical support professional, but may be in a management role and not directly involved with the tech day to day.

Service Continuity Recovery Team

Led by the SCM, this team is responsible for running tests and incident drills and continually improving ITSCM. The team typically includes technical staff, QA professionals or users for testing, and representatives from departments across the organization who are responsible for keeping lines of communication open between ITSCM and their teams.

Why does ITSCM matter?

Organizations with clear plans for disaster recovery will recover quicker and more fully in case of disasters.

ITSCM isn’t about planning for everyday outages. It’s about addressing worst-case scenarios and ensuring that if they happen, they cause minimal disruption to the lives of customers and employees.

Here are three clear benefits of a good ITSCM practice:

Discover how ITSCM improves customer service quality and minimizes organizational downtime with Jira Service Management.

The Atlassian Incident Management Handbook

This handbook features the real incident management processes we've created as a global company with thousands of employees and over 200,000 customers.

What is problem management? A guide

Problem Management enables IT teams to prevent incidents by identifying the root cause. Learn about the overall process, benefits, and best practices.

Please wait while your request is being verified...

What is Documentation? › What is a Business Continuity Plan? › 12 Best Business Continuity Plan Templates

12 Best Business Continuity Plan Templates

Become a Certified Technical Writer

Business continuity managers and IT teams use a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) document to lay out plans for operating enterprises in the face of calamities like severe weather, forced building evacuations, power outages, etc. It identifies operational areas, resources, and recovery plans with assigned individuals that have a significant business effect.

To make your own, use the free business continuity plan template . You can never be too prepared for a crisis, so provide your business with the resources it needs to function well despite any setbacks.

When Should You Use a Business Continuity Plan Template?

Writing a business continuity strategy is critical to ensure your organization remains a going concern in spite of disruptions. You should have a strategy in place before responding to a calamity. Planning for business continuity is essential for a successful disaster recovery plan when dealing with emergency situations such as:

Your organization needs a business continuity plan as much as a business strategy for normal operations.

These business continuity plan templates may offer a little more motivation to get going, depending on your requirements. If you’re having a problem writing an effective BCP, you can use any of the following templates depending on your business vertical.

12 Business Continuity Plan Templates

We are sharing with you 12 business continuity templates to reduce your time and effort in writing one. Here these are:

1. IT Service Business Continuity Plan Template

This IT Service Business Continuity Plan Template is suitable for IT companies such as software houses and design agencies. It highlights essential steps to undertake and ensure IT processes running in the event of a major disruption. Use the template to record all aspects of the continuity plan required for an IT team by identifying recovery objectives, teams, and tactics.

A good IT service business continuity plan template ensures that critical network systems remain operational despite outages. As we live in a digital-first world, businesses cannot survive without an IT service continuity plan template.

2. School Business Continuity Plan Template

With the aid of a useful template, have a solid backup plan for routine school activities and operations in case of emergency or crisis. You may prioritize responses, and operations, identify crucial recovery stages and create a restoration plan using the BCP template.

When a crisis happens, the most important asset that any school must safeguard against rapid loss is its critical data. We have seen how educational institutes have been a victim of ransomware attacks wiping out important data from different departments.

In any case, schools must be able to continue operating, regardless of any disruption. Schools may improve their degree of preparation by developing a business continuity plan.

3. Small Business Continuity Plan Template

With the help of this continuity plan for small businesses, you may list your goals for company recovery, select alternative site locations for operations, form recovery teams, and designate recovery duties to certain team members.

The provides a framework and guidance of operations for small businesses to restore their critical functions in the event of unforeseen events. This template includes work processes and lays out clear responsibilities of recovery teams and essential staff members. This is a FEMA-approved business continuity plan template that lists continuity plans to business disruptions due to three primary reasons:

In order for your organization to continue to grow, be sure you can maintain crucial procedures and reduce downtime.

4. SaaS Business Continuity Plan Template

To maintain productivity and efficiency throughout any unanticipated events or disruptions, use the SaaS (Software as a Business) business continuity plan template.

Unlike any other BCP, the SaaS continuity plan focuses more on systems and IT infrastructure than HR and other departments. That’s because SaaS businesses have a cloud-based business model such as selling subscriptions to a web or mobile app. Since these businesses sell software as a service, there is a recurring free every month or year.

In the event of a disaster, the critical functions of a SaaS business are equipment and systems. Some prominent SaaS are Google Drive and Dropbox.

The main emphasis is on getting the IT systems back online as soon as possible following a major disruption that could happen for loss of internet connectivity, floods, fire, or a cyberattack.

5. Healthcare Business Continuity Plan Template

Healthcare businesses like clinics and hospitals cannot afford disruption as it can be life-threatening for staff and patients.

These templates are great resources to assist healthcare facilities in developing their continuity plans and ensuring an effective and efficient return to normalcy.

With the help of a comprehensive business continuity plan template, you can identify risk strategies for certain business areas like clinical, finance, operations, and IT, specify disaster recovery plans and rank the most crucial processes for your medical practice.

To sustain productivity and ensure the safety of both patients and employees, healthcare institutions depend on essential processes and procedures. This template will help healthcare providers to identify all possible risks, design mitigation measures, and allocate duties to important team members. During the business disruption, this template will act as your Hospital Preparedness Program.

6. Law Firm Business Continuity Plan Template

A robust business continuity plan for legal firms involves more than data backups. Every law firm has clients with sensitive and confidential data. Ongoing cases and litigation support will not be possible when the law firm ceases to function.

Law firms can put in place corporate-wide procedures to equip your whole team for a variety of crises. Avoiding liabilities that can occur as a result of an obsolete or insufficient continuity plan is the goal.

7. Construction Company Business Continuity Plan Template

There are additional situations than major disasters that might endanger your business operations.

Your business’s essential machinery, tools, and technology might malfunction or get infected with dangerous ransomware. Or, essential employees may quit your business, leaving you rushing to hire extra staff since they lack the specialized abilities needed to finish the project.

These are common scenarios among construction companies. Construction equipment is quite costly and often upwards of millions of dollars. Without a backup disaster recovery plan, construction companies may not be able to complete their clients’ work on time.

This template is excellent for architects and construction firms regarding business continuity. It outlines in detail how the construction company will continue its normal business operations in different scenarios:

8. Bank Business Continuity Plan Template

We live in an interconnected world where the provision of services such as finance and banking are now digital. Other than the developed nations, many emerging economies are now digitizing their financial institutions.

A Business Continuity Plan for financial institutions ensures swift recovery of operations, including services to customers, occurring as a result of natural disasters, power outages, cyberattacks, or human error.

The objectives of a BCP are to minimize financial loss, continue to serve customers, and mitigate disruptions on reputation, operations, liquidity, credit quality, and compliance with federal laws and regulations.

For financial institutions such as banks, a business continuity plan is an essential part of their strategic planning process. Governments around the world regulate financial institutions, and any disruptions can have far-reaching consequences for the company, its customers, and the economy as a whole.

As such, a financial institution’s business continuity plan must be comprehensive and well-researched. It should address everything from how the company will maintain customer confidence in the event of a major disruption to how it will keep critical systems up and running. Millions of people rely on mobile apps to transfer funds, pay bills and make online purchases.

9. Business Continuity Plan Template For Manufacturing Industry

Given the importance of manufacturing to the economy, any significant disruption to production can have severe consequences. A business continuity plan is therefore essential. We have already seen how supply chain bottlenecks have hampered growth and increased prices of essential items in most countries around the world.

The plan should outline how the business will continue to operate in the event of an interruption and should cover everything from alternative sources of raw materials to new manufacturing locations. You can use this template to minize the risks of disruptions and ensure that the business can continue to meet customer demand. In today’s global market, a business continuity plan is essential for any manufacturing company that wants to stay competitive.

Tech giants and enterprises always have business disaster recovery plans to ensure incidents such as supply chain bottlenecks, equipment failure, injury, or loss of human life have minimum impact on the business.

Critical events pose a threat to financial loss for individuals in the manufacturing sector because of unanticipated downtime, lower plant utilization rates, lost income, and even personnel who are in danger.

For the manufacturing sector, having a business continuity strategy is crucial to both mitigating a catastrophic event as it occurs and maintaining operations for networks dependent on the manufacturer’s company.

10. Cloud Computing Business Continuity Plan Template

By switching to cloud-based solutions, your company may become more productive, flexible, and lucrative. Planning is essential before taking this action, especially when considering business continuity in the cloud.

SaaS and IaaS models are, in many respects, victims of their own success since it is far too simple for companies to ignore their offerings. Cloud service companies compete in a very crowded industry. Because of this, suppliers promise to handle every facet of the system and data administration at a minimal cost.

It seems sensible that this might cause companies to overlook important components of their business continuity planning and assume their cloud provider would take care of them.

68 percent of businesses outline cloud misconfiguration as their top concern about the security of their infrastructure and data. You need the finest security procedures for dealing with cloud systems since 52 percent of firms ranked disasters.

A business continuity plan is to safeguard your application’s uptime in case anything happens to one of the data centers. You can always fall back on running a clone in AWS, for example.

11. Business Continuity Plan Template For Warehouse

Unfortunate occurrences like a global pandemic may result due to planned or unexpected reasons. Any effective Business Continuity Plan must include preparations for such a disaster.

Any crisis may have devastating repercussions on businesses with warehouses since they are an essential part of their infrastructure and necessary to provide customer service.

This is true with companies relying on rapid commerce or quick commerce, where the need to set up and manage multiple warehouses close to customers’ locations is vital.

By using this template, you can perform risk assessment, test out emergency situations and come up with viable solutions to ensure your warehouse continues operating as a normal business operation.

Planning entails collaborating with professionals and third parties to provide a suitable answer. To promote a speedy recovery from the crisis, a contingency plan should be well thought out.

With business continuity planning, you gain a thorough understanding of the security of your assets, operations, facilities, and personnel. Priority hazards and the assessment of the appropriate course of action in response to recognized risks are both included in the detection of warehouse contamination. Planning can proceed with the knowledge that an adequate response is already in place.

12. Business Continuity Plan Template for Oil and Gas Companies

For every hour of IT downtime, oil and gas companies lose $1 million. In the unfortunate event of power failure, it can go as high as $10 million in lost production and possible equipment damage.

A well-crafted plan will take into account all potential hazards and establish procedures for dealing with them, including evacuation plans, communication protocols, and backup power supplies.

Oil and gas companies attribute their success to insulating themselves from business interruption risk. With ongoing price fluctuation, companies strive to convert effective risk management into business opportunities. This in turn helps them in gaining a competitive edge in the global markets.

The price for not assessing risk is operational downtime. Profitability in the oil and gas field is proportional to large upfront investments alongside calculations of oil and gas prices, oil field output, and configuration of refineries. Oil and gas is a high-risk business and not having a BCP will lead to severe financial losses.

You can use this template to minimize your losses and ensure your oil and gas company remains a going concern despite major setbacks.

Write a Business Continuity Plan with Your New Template

It is imperative for companies to prepare business continuity plans with well-documented recovery strategies and a complete business impact analysis. There are more benefits than costs in implementing a BCP. The strategy challenges you to consider the potential dangers to your company from new angles. You can then adjust your route as appropriate, improving your prospects of long-term survival.

Analyzing your company’s existing situation and level of readiness for unforeseen dangers is the main goal of business continuity plan templates. With it, senior management may locate any areas of the company that need improvement and discover answers to issues that can impede your progress toward your objectives.

With a strong BCP template, minimize the impact of potential disruptions to your business. These templates serve as a guide to developing your own plans, which will vary depending on the type and size of the company.

Leverage any business continuity plan template that fits your requirements and makes your business successful.

business continuity plan template for it systems

We offer a wide variety of programs and courses built on adaptive curriculum and led by leading industry experts.

Become a Certified Technical Writer. Professionals finish the training with a full understanding of how to guide technical writer projects using documentation foundations, how to lead writing teams, and more.

Become a Certified UX Writer. You'll learn how to excel on the job with writing microcopy, content design, and creating conversation chatbots.

Become a Certified Grant Writer. In this course, we teach the fundamentals of grant writing, how to create great grant proposals, and how to stand out in the recruiting process to land grant writing jobs.

Please check your email for a confirmation message shortly.

Join 5000+ Technical Writers

Get our #1 industry rated weekly technical writing reads newsletter.

Your syllabus has been sent to your email

IT Business Continuity

We deliver IT resiliency, business continuity solutions and services for campus applications administered by bIT, both locally and at UC Berkeley’s fail-over site, the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC). Business continuity is defined as keeping the enterprise functional no matter where it is being executed, locally or remotely, and ensures that the enterprise functionality will be available to its customers and users at all times. There are three components to business continuity:

In addition to managing UC Berkeley’s IT business continuity, bIT Business Continuity Services consults with campus departments, units and colleges to build robust business continuity plans.

San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC)

The SDSC currently acts as UC Berkeley's Disaster Recovery Hot Site (DRHS) in a situation when UC Berkeley's Data Center at Warren Hall becomes unavailable. SDSC would continue to act as the DRHS until that time when the Warren Hall Data Center once again becomes functional. UC Berkeley is set to fail-over to SDSC during any campus-wide disaster (e.g. a major earthquake with substantial property damage, the 1991 Oakland Hills firestorm) once declared by the Chancellor’s Office or Chancellor’s Cabinet. However, smaller or localized disasters may not require a full-scale campus disaster response. The Office of Emergency Management (OEM), has a detailed description of various situations and scenarios that may elicit a declared emergency. Visit OEM for additional information and resources .

If the UC Berkeley Data Center becomes non-functional, the decision to activate the UC Berkeley Disaster Recovery Hot Site (DRHS) at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) is made either by UC Berkeley's Chancellor's Cabinet, the CIO or the Information Technology Leadership Group (ITLG). Because of the cost of failing-over to our DRHS as well as the cost of returning to Warren Hall, the decision to move to SDSC would only happen if Warren Hall is out for three weeks or longer. The decision to fail-over is dependent on the scale of the disaster and could be amended at any time.

During a declared emergency, OEM has a procedure in place to activate an Emergency Operations Center (EOC) and essential campus departments as Emergency Support Functions (ESF). bIT is part of one such ESF and has a detailed disaster preparedness plan in place. ESFs can be activated independently of each other. For example, if UC Berkeley’s Warren Hall Data Center becomes non-functional, the bIT ESF can be activated.

Catalyst is a vendor-supported SAAS tool to document IT Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plans for your service and application. These plans include actionable, response, and recovery capabilities.

When should Catalyst be used?

One of the requirements in IS-12 is to document IT Business Continuity Plan for your critical application and service. These plans are reviewed and approved annually by service owners and providers. Service providers use their documented plans to recover their service/application from an emergency or disaster situation.

Service details

Service category, quick links.

Request Service
Phone: (510) 642-5346
Email: [email protected]
Support hours: Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. except University holidays.

Eligibility

Campus-wide it recovery implementation.

Learn more about this project currently underway.

IT Business Continuity Plan Template

Downloaded 1354 times

Say goodbye to paper checklists!

Cut inspection time by 50%
Uncover more issues and solve them 4x faster
Select from over 5,000 expert-proofed templates

Digitalize this paper form now

Select from over 4000 expert-proofed templates

Scope & Objectives

Operations at risk and recovery plan, roles & responsibilities.

Streamline Your Business Resilience Efforts with an IT Business Continuity Plan Template

A business continuity plan (BCP) template is a document that outlines the procedures and strategies an organization should follow in case of a disruptive event that may impact its ability to continue operating. The BCP template is a critical tool for IT teams as it provides a framework for ensuring the resilience of technology systems and services that are essential for business operations.

The BCP template typically includes a range of components such as risk assessment, incident response, disaster recovery, communication protocols, and operational procedures. It is a comprehensive document that outlines a step-by-step approach to mitigating the impact of disruptive events and minimizing downtime.

Please note that this checklist template is a hypothetical appuses-hero example and provides only standard information. The template does not aim to replace, among other things, workplace, health and safety advice, medical advice, diagnosis or treatment, or any other applicable law. You should seek your professional advice to determine whether the use of such a checklist is appropriate in your workplace or jurisdiction.

How to Write a Business Continuity Plan Step-by-Step: Our Experts Provide Tips

By Andy Marker | October 21, 2020 (updated August 17, 2021)

Link copied

In order to adequately prepare for a crisis, your company needs a business continuity plan. We’ve culled detailed step-by-step instructions, as well as expert tips for writing a business continuity plan and free downloadable tools.

Included on this page, find the steps to writing a business continuity plan and a discussion of the key components in a plan . You’ll also find a business continuity plan quick-start template and a disruptive incident quick-reference card template for print or mobile, and an expert disaster preparation checklist .

Step by Step: How to Write a Business Continuity Plan

A business continuity plan refers to the steps a company takes to help it continue operations during a crisis. In order to write a business continuity plan, you gather information about key people, tools, and processes, then write the plan as procedures and lists of resources.

To make formatting easy, download a free business continuity plan template . To learn more about the role of a business continuity plan, read our comprehensive guide to business continuity planning .

Write a Mission Statement for the Plan: Describe the objectives of the plan. When does it need to be completed? What is the budget for disaster and recovery preparation, including research, training, consultants, and tools? Be sure to detail any assumptions about financial or other resources, such as government business continuity grants.
Set Up Governance: Describe the business continuity team. Include names or titles and role designations, as well as contact information. Clearly define roles, lines of authority and succession, and accountability. Add an organization or a functional diagram. Select one of these free organizational chart templates to get started.
Write the Plan Procedures and Appendices: This is the core of your plan. There's no one correct way to create a business continuity document, but the critical content it should include are procedures, agreements, and resources.Think of your plan as lists of tasks or processes that people must perform to keep your operation running. Be specific in your directions, and use diagrams and illustrations. Remember that checklists and work instructions are simple and powerful tools to convey key information in a crisis. Learn more about procedures and work instructions . You should also note who on the team is responsible for knowing plan details.

Set Procedures for Testing Recovery and Response: Create test guidelines and schedules for testing. To review the plan, consider reaching out to people who did not write the plan. Put together the forms and checklists that attendees will use during tests.

A business continuity plan is governed by a business continuity policy. You can learn more about creating a business continuity policy and find examples by reading our guide on developing an effective business continuity policy .

How to Create a Business Continuity Plan

Creating a business continuity plan (BCP) involves gathering a team, studying risks and key tasks, and choosing recovery activities. Then write the plan as a set of lists and guidelines, which may address risks such as fires, floods, pandemics, or data breaches.

According to Alex Fullick, your best bet is to create a simple plan. “I usually break everything down into three key categories: people, places, and things. If you focus on a couple of key pieces, you will be a lot more effective. That big binder of procedures is absolutely worthless. You need a bunch of guidelines to say what you do in a given situation: where are our triggers for deciding we’re in a crisis and we have to stop doing XYZ, and just focus on ABC.”

“Post-pandemic, I think new managers will develop more policies and guidelines of all types than required, as a fear response,” cautions Michele Barry.

Because every company is different, no two approaches to business continuity planning are the same. Tony Bombacino, Co-Founder and President of Real Food Blends , describes his company’s formal and informal business continuity approaches. “The first step in any crisis is for our nerve center to connect quickly, assess the situation, and then go into action,” he explains.

“Our sales manager and our marketing manager might discuss what’s going on, and say, ‘Are we going to say anything on social media? Do we need to reach out to any of our customers? The key things, like maintaining stock levels or what if somebody gets sick? What if there's a recall?’ Those plans we have laid out. But we're not a 5,000-person multi-billion-dollar company, so our business continuity plan is often in emails and Google Docs.”

“I've done planning literally for hundreds of businesses where we've just filled out basic forms,” says Mike Semel, President and Chief Compliance Officer of Semel Consulting . “For example, noting the insurance company's phone number — you know, on the back of your utility bill, which you never look at, there's an emergency number for if the power goes out or if the gas shuts off. We've helped people gather all that information and put it down. Even if there's no other plan, just having that information at their fingertips when they need it may be enough.”

You can also approach your business continuity planning as including three types of responses:

Proactive Strategies: Proactive approaches prevent crises. For example, you may buy an emergency generator to keep power running in your factory, or install a security system to prevent or limit loss during break-ins. Or you may create a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policy and offer training for remote workers to protect your network and data security.
Reactive Strategies: Reactive strategies are your immediate responses to a crisis. Examples of reactive methods include evacuation procedures, fire procedures, and emergency response strategies.
Recovery Strategies: Recovery strategies describe how you resume operations to produce a minimum acceptable level of service. The recovery plan includes actions to stand up temporary processes. The plan also describes the longer-term efforts, such as relocation, data restoration, temporary workaround processes, or outsourcing tasks. Recovery strategies are not limited to IT and data recovery.

Quick-Start Guide Business Continuity Plan Template

Business Continuity Quick Start Guide and template

If you don’t already have a business continuity plan in place, but need to create one in short order to respond to a disruption, use this quick-start business continuity template. This template is available in Word and Google Docs formats, and it’s simply formatted so that you can focus on brainstorming and problem-solving.

Download Quick-Start Guide Business Continuity Plan Template

Word | PDF | Google Docs | Smartsheet

For other most useful free, downloadable business continuity plan (BCP) templates please read our "Free Business Continuity Plan Templates" article.

Key Components of a Business Continuity Plan

Your company’s complete business continuity plan will have many details. Your plan may differ from other companies' plans based on industry and other factors. Each facility or business unit may also conduct an impact analysis and create disaster recovery and continuity plans . Consider adding these key components to your business plan:

Contact Information: These pages include contact information for key employees, vendors, and critical third parties. Locate this information at the beginning of the plan.
Business Impact Analysis: When you conduct business impact analysis (BIA), you evaluate the financial and other changes in a disruptive event (you can use one of these business impact templates to get started). Evaluate impact in terms of brand damage, product failure or malfunction, lost revenue, or legal and regulatory repercussions.
Risk Assessment: In this section, assess the potential risks to all aspects of the organization’s operations. Look at potential risks related to such matters as cash on hand, stock levels, and staff qualifications. Although you may face an infinite number of potential internal and external risks, focus on people, places, and things to keep from becoming overwhelmed. Then analyze the effects of any items that are completely lost or need repairs. Also, understand that risk assessment is an ongoing effort that works in tandem with training and testing. Consider adding a completed risk matrix to your plan. You can create one using a downloadable risk matrix template .
Critical Functions Analysis and List: As a faster alternative to a BIA, a critical functions analysis reveals what processes are critical to keeping your company running. Examples of critical functions include payroll and wages, accounts receivable, customer service, or production. According to Michele Barry, with a values-based approach to critical functions, you should consider who you really are as a company. Then decide what you must continue doing and what you can stop doing.
Trigger and Disaster Declaration Criteria: Here, you should detail how your executive management will know when to declare an emergency and initiate the plan.
Succession Plan: Identify alternate staff for key roles in each unit. Schedule time throughout the year to observe alternates as they make important decisions and complete recovery tasks.
Alternate Suppliers: If your goods are regulated (i.e., food, toy, and pharmaceutical manufacturing), your raw resources and parts must always be up to standard. Source suppliers before a crisis to ensure that regulatory vetting and approval do not delay supplies.
Operations Plan: Describe how your organization will resume and continue daily operations after a disruption. Include a checklist with such items as supplies, equipment, and information on where data is backed up and where you keep the plan. Note who should have copies of the plan.
Crisis Communication Strategy: Detail how the organization will communicate with employees, customers, and third-party entities in the event of a disruption. If regular communications systems are disabled, make a plan for alternate methods. Download a free crisis communication strategy template to get started on this aspect.
Incident Response Plan: Describe how your organization plans to respond to a range of likely incidents or disruptions, and define the triggers for activating the plan.
Alternate Site Relocation: The alternate site is the location that the organization moves to after a disruption occurs. In the plan, you can also note the transportation and resources required to move the business and the processes you must maintain in this facility.
Interim Procedures: These are the critical processes that must continue, either in their original or alternate forms.
Restoration of Critical Data: Critical data includes anything you must immediately recover to maintain normal business functions.
Vendor Partner Agreements: List your organization’s key vendors and how they can help you maintain or resume operations.
Work Backlog: This includes the work that piles up when systems are shut down. You must complete this work first when processes start again.
Recovery Strategy for IT Services: This section details the steps you take to restore the IT processes that are necessary to maintain the business.
Recovery Time Objectives (RTO) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPO): RTO refers to the maximum amount of time that a company can stop its processes and the length of time without access to data before productivity substantially drops. Determine RTOs for each unit, factoring in people, places, and things.
Backup Plans: What if plans, processes, or resources fail or are unavailable? Determine alternatives now, so you don't have to scramble. Decide on a backup roster for personnel who are unavailable.
Manual Workarounds: This section details how a business can operate by hand, should all failsafe measures break down.
External Audit Details: For regulated organizations, external audits may be compulsory. Your scheduled internal audits will prepare you for external audits.
Test and Exercise Plan: Identify how and when you will test the continuity plan, including details about periodic tabletop testing and more complex real-world scenario testing.
Change Management: Note how you will incorporate learnings from tests and exercises, disseminate changes, and review the plan and track changes.

Key Resources for Business Continuity

To fix problems, restore operations, or submit an insurance claim, you need readily available details of the human resources and other groups that can assist with business continuity. (Your organization's unique situation may also require specific types of resources.) Add this information to appendices at the back of your continuity plan.

Fullick suggests broadening the definition of human assets. "People are our employees, certainly. But we forget that the term ‘people’ includes executive management. Management doesn't escape pandemics or the flu or a car crash. Bad things can happen to them and around them, too."

Use the following list as a prompt for recording important information about your organization. Your unique situation may require other types of information.

Lists of key employees and their contact information. Also, think beyond C-level and response team members to staff with long-term or specialized knowledge
Disaster recovery and continuity team contact names, roles, and contact information
Emergency contact number for police and emergency services for your location
Non-emergency contact information for police and medical
Emergency and non-emergency contact numbers for facilities issues
Board member contact information
Personnel roster, including family or emergency contact names and numbers for the entire organization
Contractors for any repairs
Client contact information and SLAs
Insurance contacts for all plans
Key regulatory contacts.
Legal contacts
Vendor contact information and partner agreements and SLAs
Addresses and details for each office or facility
Primary and secondary contact and information for each facility or office, including at least one phone number and email address
Off-site recovery location
Addresses and access information for storage facilities or vehicle compounds
Funding and banking information
IT details and data recovery information, including an inventory of apps and license numbers
Insurance policy numbers and agent contact information for each plan, healthcare, property, vehicle, etc.
Inventory of tangibles, including equipment, hardware, supplies, fixtures, and fittings (if you are a supplier or manufacturer, include an inventory of raw materials and finished goods)
Lease details
Licenses, permits, other legal documents
List of special items that you use regularly, but don't order frequently
Location of backup equipment
Utility account numbers and contact information (for electric, gas, telephone, water, waste pickup, etc.)

Activities to Complete Before Writing the Business Continuity Plan

Before you write your plan, take these preliminary steps to assemble a team and gather background information.

Incident Commander: This person is responsible for all aspects of an emergency response.
Emergency Response Team: The emergency response team refers to the group of people in charge of responding to an emergency or disruption.
Information Technology Recovery Team: This group is responsible for recovering important IT services.
Alternate Site/Location Operation Team: This team is responsible for maintaining business operations at an alternate site.
Facilities Management Team: The facilities management team is responsible for managing all of the main business facilities and determining the necessary responses to maintain them in light of a disaster or disruption.
Department Upper Management: This includes key stakeholders and upper management employees who govern BCP decisions.
Conduct business impact analysis or critical function analysis. Understand how the loss of processes in each department can affect internal and external operations. See our article on business continuity planning to learn more about BIAs.
Conduct risk analysis. Determine the potential risks and threats to your organization.
Identify the scope of the plan. Define where the business continuity plan applies, whether to one office, the entire organization, or only certain aspects of the organization. Use the BIA and risk analysis to identify critical functions and key resources that you must maintain. Set goals to determine the level of detail required. Set milestones to track progress in completing the plan. "Setting scope is essential," Barry insists. "You need to define the core and noncore aspects of the business and the minimum requirements for achieving continuity."
Strategize recovery approaches: Strategize how your business should respond to a disruption, based on your risk assessment and BIA. During this process, you determine the core details of the BCP, add the key components and resources, and determine the timing for what must happen before, during, and after a disruptive event.

Common Structure of a Business Continuity Plan

Knowing the common structure should help shape the plan — and frees you from thinking about form when you should be thinking about content. Here is an example of a BCP format:

Business Name: Record the business name, which usually appears on the title page.
Date: The day the BCP is completed and signed off.
Purpose and Scope: This section describes the reason for and span of the plan.
Business Impact Analysis: Add the results of the BIA to your plan.
Risk Assessment: Consider adding the risk assessment matrix to your plan.
Policy Information: Include the business continuity policy or policy highlights.
Emergency Management and Response: You can detail emergency response measures separately from other recovery and continuity procedures.
The Plan: The core of the plan details step-by-step procedures for business recovery and continuity.
Relevant Appendices: Appendices can include such information as contact lists, org charts, copies of insurance policies, or any supporting documents relevant in a crisis.

Keep in mind that every business is different — no two BCPs look the same. Tailor your business continuity plan to your company, and make sure the document captures all the information you need to keep your business functioning. Having everything you need to know in an emergency is the most crucial part of a BCP.

Disruptive Incident Quick-Reference Card Template

Disruptive Incident Quick Reference Cad Template

Use this quick-reference card template to write the key steps that employees should take in case of an emergency. Customize this template for each business unit, department, or role. Describe what people should do immediately and in the following days and weeks to continue the business. Print PDFs and laminate them for workstations or wallets, or load the PDFs on your mobile phone.

Download Disruptive Incident Quick-Reference Card Template

Expert Disaster Preparation Checklist

Business continuity and disaster planning aren’t just about your buildings and cloud backup — it’s about people and their families. Based on a document by Mike Semel of Semel Consulting, this disaster checklist helps you prepare for the human needs of your staff and their families, including food, shelter, and other comforts.

Tips for Writing a Business Continuity Plan

With its many moving parts and considerations, a business continuity plan can seem intimidating. Follow these tips to help you write, track, and maintain a strong BCP:

Take the continuity management planning process seriously.
Interview key people in the organization who have successfully managed disruptive incidents.
Get approval from leadership early on and seek their ongoing championship of continuity preparedness.
Be flexible when it comes to who you involve, what resources you need, and how you achieve the most effective plan.
Keep the plan as simple and targeted as possible to make it easy to understand.
Limit the plan to practical disaster response actions.
Base the plan on the most up-to-date, accurate information available.
Plan for the worst-case scenario and broadly cover many types of potential disruptive situations.
Consider the minimum amount of information or resources you need to keep your business running in a disaster.
Use the data you gather in your BIA and risk analysis to make the planning process more straightforward.
Share the plan and make sure employees have a chance to review it or ask questions.
Make the document available in hard copy for easy access, or add it to a shared platform.
Continually test, review, and maintain your plan to keep it up to date.
Keep the BCP current with organizational and regulatory changes and updates.

Empower Your Teams to Build Business Continuity with Smartsheet

Empower your people to go above and beyond with a flexible platform designed to match the needs of your team — and adapt as those needs change.

The Smartsheet platform makes it easy to plan, capture, manage, and report on work from anywhere, helping your team be more effective and get more done. Report on key metrics and get real-time visibility into work as it happens with roll-up reports, dashboards, and automated workflows built to keep your team connected and informed.

When teams have clarity into the work getting done, there’s no telling how much more they can accomplish in the same amount of time. Try Smartsheet for free, today.

Discover why over 90% of Fortune 100 companies trust Smartsheet to get work done.

Skip to main content
Skip to primary sidebar
Skip to footer

Legal Templates

Home Business Business Continuity Plan

Business Continuity Plan Template

Use a business continuity plan to outline how your business will continue to operate in a range of disaster scenarios.

Updated May 29, 2023 | Legally reviewed by Brooke Davis

A business continuity plan outlines the instructions and procedures a business should follow after some disaster. Disruptive events like floods and fires can interrupt your business practices.

It would be best if you had a plan to handle these situations and effectively get back to work.

Give your organization the tools it needs to operate effectively despite any disruptions – you never know when a disaster can strike, but you can be prepared.

What is a Business Continuity Plan?

Critical components of a business continuity plan, different types of business continuity plans, how to write a business continuity plan, business continuity plan sample, benefits of a business continuity plan, how often should a business continuity plan be tested, business continuity plan faqs.

A business continuity plan is a document that sets forth your organization’s strategies for dealing with a disaster. These procedures help you to resume business quickly and reduce downtime and lost revenue.

It covers essential processes like asset protection, human resources issues, and how to deal with business partners.

When to Use a Business Continuity Plan?

You want to create a business continuity plan before you need it . The point of this document is to be ahead of the game. You do not want to respond to a disaster without a set plan. Business continuity planning is critical to a successful response to a disaster.

Once your continuity plan is in place, you may need to use it in disasters such as:

Cyberattacks
Major Storms
Major IT or internet disruption

A business continuity plan is as crucial to your company as a business plan .

You’ll need to incorporate several elements into each business continuity plan. For example, begin with assessing risks that can interrupt your business. You also must clearly define how your organization will communicate in a crisis and define roles and responsibilities.

Additionally, continuous testing and training will help staff members prepare for emergencies.

Risk and Potential Business Impact

It would be best to start with the business impact analysis for a business continuity and disaster plan. This section will list potential internal and external risks. This might include a disruption due to a flood or storm, an IT breach, or the loss of a significant supplier.

You can use this analysis to estimate the time and cost of business recovery.

Planning an Effective Response

Don’t leave anything out. Meet leaders and key staff members to consider any disruptions your business could face. Ask participants to assume the worst and consider ways to recover from each scenario. Once you have a comprehensive list, rank business priorities such as revenue, customer protection, regulatory adherence, and other concerns that matter most to your company.

Once you have a completed list, link each item to applications, facilities, and resources needed to keep them up and running. Next, you can begin to identify recovery strategies and estimate costs. In particular, IT will depend on the list of critical applications to prioritize recovery following an emergency.

Roles and Responsibilities

The last thing you want to do in an emergency is have everyone wondering who’s in charge. By creating a business continuity team, you define the point person for every location and department in your company.

The business continuity management team should meet regularly to update the plan and discuss ongoing training and testing. Additionally, high-level leaders must champion a business continuity plan for it to be effective.

Communication

Clear, effective communication can reassure team members across the organization. This will give everyone the confidence to step up and respond appropriately. You also need a communication strategy to coordinate suppliers and minimize customer dissatisfaction.

Include key contacts so your business partners and customers know who to contact in case of a disruption.

Having a prewritten press release and social media posts for various scenarios can take the pressure off the BCP team and allow them to concentrate on executing the plan.

Create a separate communication plan to keep everyone in the loop during a crisis.

Uninterrupted Access to Business Resources and IT Operations

In an interconnected world, remote technology can enhance your business continuity plan. Adopt software and solutions that facilitate remote work. This will allow team members to work from a hotel room, home, or elsewhere.

You’re already ahead of the game if your organization espouses a hybrid work environment. Chances are your people already work from different locations.

As well as uninterrupted access to business resources, your business continuity plan should include how to access IT systems.

For example, do you have a backup data center for redundancy? How easily can IT or other team members switch to the backup site for various apps?

As part of the business continuity planning process, it’s essential to gauge how your infrastructure can respond to a rapid hardware failure, network disruption, or data loss.

Testing and Training

As you write various plans using a business continuity plan template, there’s one thing to remember. Your organization will rely heavily on this document in case of an internal or external threat.

Therefore, you need a robust plan with detailed guidance on communication protocols, disaster recovery, and accessing data and applications remotely.

Conduct rigorous testing and training to avoid issues and catch gaps in your BCP. If you want your staff to respond effectively during a disruption, you must train them about their role in all facets of the BCP.

You can use a business continuity plan template to define how your organization will handle crisis management and communication in an emergency. It’s important to account for emergency response instructions and capture essential information to get your IT resources up and running quickly since they’re crucial in all recovery efforts.

You’ll also need a business continuity plan (BCP) that addresses how to create, maintain, and execute your business continuity strategies. You can get business continuity plans dedicated to each of the below, but our template can cover each:

Crisis Management

Crisis management defines how your organization will respond to an emergency. Your business continuity plan for this function should contain policies that minimize loss and focus on mitigating damage to profitability and reputation. The executive team will spearhead the crisis management plan executed by operational teams. Meanwhile, the business continuity management team will facilitate the smooth operation of the plan from a tactical perspective.

Crisis Communications

There are 5Cs in crisis communications: care, commitment, continuity, competency, and community. A crisis communications business continuity plan should identify leaders and provide important details about staying connected when normal communication channels close. Drafting emergency messages ahead of time will facilitate social media updates and press releases, as well as internal instructions.

Emergency Response

Account for several phases of emergency management, including preparedness, response, mitigation, and recovery. You may need to relocate when your organization faces a business disruption or natural disaster. So, include procedural information such as where, when, and how leadership and key staff will access alternate resources. The finished document should integrate with your emergency action plan .

IT disaster recovery

An IT disaster recovery business continuity plan isn’t just for software companies. Every corporation and organization should have a detailed IT business continuity plan, including running essential systems during and after a major disruption, targeting IT operations, and documenting recovery objectives, roles, and responsibilities.

Business continuity

This document outlines how to create and maintain your business continuity plan. Include the business analysis impact, plan development, leadership, and project management for your overall BCP framework. Overall, focus on risk mitigation and recovery efforts.

Writing your plan can seem daunting, but it does not have to be. You can create your document easily with a free business continuity plan template. You can even use our document builder to build your plan in minutes. Your business continuity plan should include the following:

Step 1 – Purpose of the plan

The plan should address the scope of its effect. Does the plan cover your entire business? Is it for specific departments?

Your employees and managers need to know how this plan will be applied. It should clearly state over whom the policy applies so everyone knows what is expected of them after a disaster.

Step 2 – Identify Key Business Areas

After a disaster, it will be difficult or impossible to go back to normal immediately. Identify the critical aspects of your business.

What are your main revenue-generating products and services, and how would they be impacted if you could not deliver them? What do you need to function? What operations are critical, and what can wait until later?

Would this significantly impact your revenue or customer base if these things were undeliverable for some time?

This section is not about convenience but necessity. Hone in on these critical functions to determine a priority list for your business continuity plan.

business continuity plan business function

Step 3 – Define the Crisis Team

People must know who is in charge during an emergency and their contact information. There should be no doubt about who will call the shots about essential business decisions.

These individuals will lead the local response and may be responsible for a more comprehensive response strategy outside the disaster’s immediate area.

The crisis team should be identified by role and title. This ensures that everyone knows who is in charge if there is a personnel change. Training and letting these key team members know their positions should a disaster occur is critically important.

Step 4 – Create a Crisis Communication Plan

In addition to identifying the team in charge, the business continuity plan should outline how individuals communicate. Standard methods of communication may be inaccessible.

If you are without email, how will you handle communication? How will you handle customer ordering and fulfillment if your computer system is down? Ensure you include the name of who is in charge of customer communications and their contact information.

To test your processes, it would be best to draft sample emergency messages before a crisis. This could include press releases, interviews, or even social media updates.

business continuity plan customer communication

Step 5 – Relocation and Recovery Operations

You may need to relocate to an alternative worksite in a natural disaster or business disruption. Include the procedure information and what resources will be required.

business continuity plan relocation recovery

Step 6 – Review and Testing

It’s critical to ensure that your business continuity plan is effective and stays up to date. Ensure you include who is in charge of this and how often the plan will be reviewed and tested.

business continuity plan reviewing and testing

Step 7 – Plan Deactivation

You should also include who is responsible for deactivating the business continuity plan and what the procedure is. This ensures that someone can decide to get the company back to normal workings.

business continuity plan plan deactivation

Below you can find a business continuity plan sample to help you start drafting your plan:

A business continuity plan defines leadership roles in a disaster and focuses on employee and customer safety. It also enables your company to recover more quickly in a disaster.

Here’s a closer look at the significant advantages of writing and maintaining a business continuity plan.

A Well-Defined Leadership Protocol For a Disaster

Senior leadership directs the business continuity plan and sanctions communication protocols for the company. Individual department leaders create continuity plans for IT, security, HR, payroll, legal, and other functions.

Additionally, it’s a good idea to assign a project manager dedicated to maintaining the BCP and setting up training for new and current staff members.

A More Efficient Return to Normal Business Operations

A BCP could differentiate between continued operations and financial disaster in an emergency. Returning to business operations quickly can prevent customers from defecting to competitors.

A business continuity plan template makes planning for contingencies in various scenarios easy and addresses the most critical roles and responsibilities needed to keep your company running.

Above all, having a business continuity plan minimizes downtime and limits confusion during critical situations.

Increased Employee Safety

The BCP should always consider the health and safety of employees above business objectives. Remember that the safety and wellness of loved ones will be at the top of everyone’s minds.

With remote access to key systems, leaders and other team members can balance the needs of their families, coworkers, and customers.

Reduction in Lost Time and Lost Revenue

Unmitigated disruptions can financially weaken an organization quickly. Business continuity plans account for all factors needed for continued operations. The more effort you put into planning, the more time and money you can save.

So, ensure a reliable backup plan for essential IT systems and enable remote access to customer, product, and company data to keep the revenue stream flowing.

Ability to Quickly Implement IT Fixes

Natural and manufactured disasters typically involve system disruptions. To remain functional, build redundancy into your critical systems. This will allow you to implement essential fixes to hardware and software assets.

A business continuity plan should be constantly reviewed and updated to align with current business processes. You should check your business continuity plan at least twice a year, but this could be more dependent on the size of your business and how often your systems and processes change.

For most businesses, you’ll want to follow the below sample schedule:

Review Your Checklist – Twice a Year

You should review your business continuity plan twice yearly to ensure it is still relevant to your current business processes and status. You should also ensure the plan aligns with your business goals and objectives.

Put It Into Practice – Once a Year

Test your plan by putting it into practice. You should make sure that your plan is solid when put into action, and the best way to do this is by conducting emergency drills at least once a year.

Think of it like practicing fire drills at school.

Formal Review – Every Other Year

Gather relevant teams and stakeholders of your business and sit down to review the business continuity plan every other year. This doesn’t have to be overly time-consuming, but it should help you identify any weaknesses or red flags in your plan.

Comprehensive Review – Every Other Year

Separate from the formal review, this one fully delves into the plan. It should look closely at every aspect and ensure everything is up to date with current business processes.

Mock Recovery Test – Every Two or Three Years

This is an in-depth test of your business continuity plan and is the best way to ensure your plan works and hasn’t any potential failings. As this is time-consuming, it doesn’t have to happen frequently but should ensure that all stakeholders sign off on the continuity plan.

You need to consider all disaster scenarios and if you can manage them effectively. Ensure your plan is ready to tackle any problematic or surprising situations.

What is the difference between a business continuity plan and a disaster recovery plan?

A disaster recovery plan focuses mainly on restoring IT operations and infrastructure following the disaster. It is more limited in scope but is often part of a larger business continuity plan.

What is the primary goal of business continuity planning?

The primary goal of business continuity planning is to get your business back up and running as quickly as possible. It will help reduce downtime and reduce lost revenue.

What should be included in a business continuity plan?

A business continuity plan should include key sections like:

What is the purpose of a business continuity plan?

The purpose of a business continuity plan is to minimize disruption to normal business processes in the event of a disaster. It outlines how the organization will deal with a disaster. Business continuity plans help you reduce disruption to your business and reduce lost revenue.

A Cyber Business Continuity Plan is a strategic plan that outlines the measures to be taken to protect critical systems, data, and IT infrastructure during cyber incidents or disruptions. It is designed to ensure the continuity of business operations and minimize the impact of a cyber-attack or cyber-related emergency. It should be tailored to the specific needs of the organization and should include detailed plans for responding to and recovering from a wide range of cyber-related incidents.

What's included in this Cyber Business Continuity Plan template?

Each focus area has its own objectives, projects, and KPIs to ensure that the strategy is comprehensive and effective.

Who is the Cyber Business Continuity Plan template for?

This Cyber Business Continuity Plan template is designed for organizations that want to protect their systems, data, and IT infrastructure from cyber-related threats and incidents. It can help organizations create a comprehensive plan that outlines the steps to be taken to mitigate the effects of a cyber-attack or cyber-related emergency. It can also be used to ensure that the organization is prepared to respond quickly and effectively to such incidents.

1. Define clear examples of your focus areas

When creating a Cyber Business Continuity Plan, it is important to define clear focus areas. These should be based on the specific needs of the organization and should include topics such as cyber security, incident response, and business continuity. Each focus area should be broken down into objectives and measurable targets (KPIs) to ensure that the plan is effective in addressing the organization's needs.

2. Think about the objectives that could fall under that focus area

Objectives should be specific and measurable, and should clearly define the expected outcomes of the plan. For example, an objective under the focus area of cyber security may be to reduce data security risk. This objective should then be broken down into measurable targets (KPIs), such as reducing the risk to a certain percentage.

3. Set measurable targets (KPIs) to tackle the objective

KPIs are measurable targets that are used to measure the success of an objective. They should be based on the objectives set out in the plan and should be specific, measurable, and achievable. For example, a KPI for the objective of reducing data security risk may be to reduce the risk to a certain percentage.

4. Implement related projects to achieve the KPIs

Projects (or actions) are the steps taken to achieve the KPIs set out in the plan. These may include creating a data security policy, implementing a cyber security framework, or developing an incident response procedure. Each project should be clearly defined and include measurable targets to ensure success.

5. Utilize Cascade Strategy Execution Platform to see faster results from your strategy

Cascade Strategy Execution Platform is a powerful tool for organizations to manage their strategy implementation. It enables organizations to quickly execute their plans and track progress in real-time, allowing them to see faster results from their strategy.

What is a business continuity plan, who is responsible for business continuity planning, what is the primary goal of business continuity planning, why is a business continuity plan important for soc 2 compliance, what’s the difference between business continuity, disaster recovery, and incident response plans, how to write a business continuity plan, business continuity plan template, how to write a business continuity plan & why it’s important for a soc 2 audit [+ template].

How to Write a Business Continuity Plan & Why It’s Important for a SOC 2 Audit [+ Template]

March 14, 2023

SOC 2 compliance requires a lot of documentation . You need a management assertion, system description, control matrix, vendor risk management policy, code of conduct policy, incident response policy, disaster recovery plan, and business continuity plan — and this is just naming a few.

With such extensive requirements, creating all of these documents can be challenging and time-consuming. Having access to a simple explanation of what’s needed along with a template can speed the process up significantly and provide peace of mind for your SOC 2 audit .

Below, get straightforward answers to what a business continuity plan is, why it’s important for SOC 2 compliance, and how to write one. You’ll also find a business continuity template to simplify the process.

A business continuity plan is a document containing a predetermined set of procedures that describe how an organization will sustain its business operations during and after a significant disruption.

This disruption may be caused by a broad range of threats, including natural disasters, technical failures, and cyberattacks.

What is business continuity management?

A business continuity plan is one part of business continuity management (BCM). BCM includes risk assessment, response planning, recovery, and long-term maintenance of the policies and procedures developed, tested, and used when a crisis occurs.

Business continuity planning must be a top-down effort. Meaning, it must have the support and willing participation of a director or senior manager at the company. While they will act as the executive sponsor, another individual should be appointed as the BCP coordinator. Depending on the size of the organization, a planning team representing all major areas of operations may also need to be appointed to assist the BCP coordinator.

This coordinator and/or team should be appropriately announced and empowered to execute on a range of responsibilities, including uncovering your business’s weaknesses and making plans to mitigate them, testing those plans to make sure they’re effective for different types of crises, and updating them as new threats emerge.

The primary goal of business continuity planning is to identify preparations and recovery actions that can assist an organization in resuming operations and services as quickly as possible after a crisis.

For example, most business operations depend heavily on technology and automated systems, and the disruption of these systems for even a few hours may cause severe problems. Consider a Zoom outage. This may impact meetings with colleagues, customers, and prospects and important projects and deals as a result. A company with a business continuity plan that has identified a substitute tool for video meetings will be able to recover faster than a company without one.

To ensure your business runs as smoothly as possible even when faced with system failures, cyber attacks, natural disasters, and other major disruptions, there must be an awareness of potential crises that could impact critical systems, tools, and skills of your organization and a plan to deal with them.

Business continuity planning is also important for getting and staying compliant with some privacy and security standards, including SOC 2. Let’s take a look at this other reason for creating a BCP and keeping it up to date.

The Ultimate Guide to SOC 2

SOC 2 is a set of compliance criteria concerning how companies handle customer data and information. Here’s everything you need to know about becoming compliant fast.

There are several contingency and continuity plans that may be required for SOC 2 compliance . Let’s take a look at the three most common plans and how they differ from each other below.

Business continuity plan vs disaster recovery plan

The key difference between a business continuity and disaster recovery plan is that a BCP provides procedures for sustaining business operations while recovering from a significant disruption, whereas a DRP provides procedures for recovering information systems operations after a significant system disruption like a major software failure by relocating them to an alternate location.

Many organizations choose to combine their business continuity and disaster recovery plans into a single document. However, some choose to create them as standalone documents.

Business continuity plan vs incident response

The key difference between a business continuity plan and incident response plan is that a BCP provides procedures for sustaining business operations while recovering from a significant disruption, whereas an IRP provides procedures for mitigating and correcting a system after a security incident, like a virus or Trojan horse.

An IRP plan should detail a recovery process for when security incidents do happen.

This is another crucial document that a SOC 2 auditor will likely review to determine your level of compliance with the TSC you’ve selected.

Now it’s time to start formulating and building out your business continuity plan. To guide you through the process, we’ve broken the process down into six key steps. We’ve also provided a template below to help get you started.

7 steps outlined for business continuity planning, starting with risk assessment and ending with keeping plan up to date

1. Identify and assess your risks.

The first major task of writing a BCP is identifying the risks or threats in your environment and determining how they might impact your operations. For example, some environmental threats may be likely to cause physical damage to your building. Other types of threats may have an impact on your staff and their families.

The risks that are most threatening to your operations should be prioritized.

2. Identify critical elements of your organization.

The next major task is identifying the tools, systems, and skills that are essential to your operations and how critical they are to recover. You can kick off brainstorming by posing the question, how do we achieve our goals?

For example, let’s say one of your mission critical services is fundraising. In that case, a critical asset might be pledge cards. The vendor that prints your pledge cards would also be considered critical.

When identifying these systems, tools, and skills, you’ll also want to determine what resources would be required to restore them and therefore resume the mission critical services and processes they are part of. Examples of resource requirements are facilities, personnel, equipment, software, data files, system components, and vital records.

This will help determine priority levels for sequencing recovery activities. In other words, what needs to be restored first in order to get back to work as quickly as possible during and after a crisis?

3. Identify ways to mitigate risks.

Now that you understand your organization’s unique risks and critical elements, you’re ready to create a plan of action.

Start by identifying strategies that will eliminate the risks you identified in step 1 entirely. If that’s not possible, identify strategies that will lessen their impact. For example, it’s impossible to eliminate the threat of environmental threats like snowstorms entirely. Instead, you can create a procedure to have your employees and contractors work remotely if a snowstorm makes it impossible or difficult to get to the office. This will require that all employees and contractors have the appropriate supplies and equipment and receive the same communications.

These mitigation strategies are designed to eliminate or lessen the impact of a threat before a crisis and should therefore be implemented as quickly as possible.

4. Identify ways to prepare for and recover from the loss of any critical elements.

Since it is impossible to eliminate all threats facing your organization, your next step is to identify as many strategies as possible for dealing with the loss of each critical element identified in step 2.

For example, installing protective systems like a security system, fire alarm system, and antivirus software can all be considered strategies to prepare for and recover from the loss of critical elements caused by theft, vandalism, environmental hazards, cyber attacks, and other threats.

The goal is to come up with as many preparedness strategies as possible in order to best prepare and recover from the loss of mission critical assets during and after a crisis.

During the review or testing stage, you can remove any strategies that are too time-consuming or expensive.

5. Prepare for how you will respond after a crisis.

Now that plans and strategies are in place, you can take steps to improve the efficiency and quality of your organization’s response to a crisis to help you get back to work as quickly as possible.

Consider creating a recovery team that can assess your losses and initiate recovery actions after a crisis. The roles and responsibilities of this team can be documented in your BCP.

6. Keep your business continuity plan up to date.

Your business continuity plan is a living document. It should be updated to reflect the evolving risks and needs of your business. Whether you’re integrating new software that suddenly crashes or bringing on a new management team member, your BCP should reflect these changes.

Keeping this and other documentation up to date is an important part of continuous compliance .

What Is Continuous Compliance + How To Achieve It

Use this template to begin identifying the risks, critical elements, mitigation actions, and preparedness strategies that will make up the basic components of your business continuity plan.

Streamline SOC 2 compliance with Secureframe

As you get ready for your SOC 2 audit, you’ll likely have hundreds of documents to collect, organize with the right controls, and keep up-to-date aside from your business continuity plan.

Secureframe can simplify and streamline the entire process of preparing for and maintaining SOC 2 compliance. We’ll provide auditor-approved templates for all these required documents, monitor your tech stack for vulnerabilities, and help you manage risks. Schedule a demo today to learn more.

IT Business Continuity

Businesses have come to recognize that some services of the organization have to be delivered continuously without interruption. Therefore, instead of focusing only on resuming the business in the shortest possible time, the endeavor is to create an IT Business Continuity Plan to ensure that critical operations continue to be functional even during a disaster. The ideal plan would be one in which the client will not be aware of the occurrence of the disaster since client services will continue as before.

What is IT Business Continuity planning?

For an IT Business Continuity Plan to work, it has to be proactively done and not done in a fits and starts. This will ensure that critical services and products are delivered to the client during a disaster. This will ensure that the business retains client goodwill, meets legal obligations and avoids any death or injury. A well designed IT Business Continuity Plan should include:

A good Business Continuity Plan not only will save a business from possible financial hardships, its image and goodwill among clients and stakeholders will be enhanced, since it will be perceived as a business which is proactive in protecting not only its interest but also those of its clients and other stakeholders too.

The importance and necessity of a sound IT Business Continuity Plan

By having a effective Business Continuity Plan in place, a business will ensure that it has the resources and/or the information it requires, to combat the emergency successfully.

Areas covered in a Business Continuity Plan

There are five sections to a typical IT Business Continuity Plan. They are: BCP Governance, Business Impact Analysis, Steps for IT Business Continuity, Readiness to implement IT Business Continuity Plan procedures, and testing and training in IT Business Continuity Plan .

BCP Governance –this details the structure of the committee in charge of the IT Business Continuity Plan. Usually, senior managers and heads of department will be in the committee. Since senior people are in charge, they have the necessary authority to see that the plans are formulated correctly and proper training is given to employees.

Business Impact Analysis – this analysis will identify the organization’s critical services and/or products from an IT business continuity perspective. Depending on its criticality, the service will be ranked. The higher the rank, more attention is paid to it. If possible critical services will have to be continued even in the face of a disaster.

Steps for IT business continuity – this will identify services which have to be delivered without interruption. The Business Continuity Plan will outline the steps needed to achieve this goal.

Readiness to implement the IT Business Continuity Plan – when critical services have been identified, steps as per Business Continuity Plan should be taken to ensure that these critical services keep functioning in the face of a disaster, or at the very least, are restarted in the least possible time.

Testing and training – every Business Continuity Plan will look impressive on paper. It is only by testing the plans will the shortcomings be detected and fine tuning done. Staff should also be involved in the development of the plan. They should be given sufficient training, so that in the event of a disaster, they are able to seamlessly switch over to their new roles as per the Business Continuity Plan.

Hopefully, a Business Continuity Plan may never be used. It is a matchless reserve tool in the hand of IT Managers, to keep critical aspects of the business functioning without interruptions. A business which had diligently set up a IT Business Continuity Plan has taken out impeccable insurance for survival.

Name (required)

Title/Designation (required)

Company (required)

Email (required)

Phone/Mobile (required)

City (required)

State (required)

Country (required)

Please prove you are human by selecting the Key .

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

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.

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 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 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.

Visit our Webshop

How to create a business continuity plan – with free template

Deleted: Comprehensive BCM (business continuity management) measures are essential for responding effectively to a disruption and providing a minimum acceptable service during a disaster.

A crucial aspect of BCM is the development of an effective BCP (business continuity plan).

What is a business continuity plan?

A BCP consists of the processes and procedures an organisation needs to ensure its critical business processes continue operating during a disaster.

All of this information is put into a document, which is regularly tested, developed and improved on to make sure the organisation has recovery strategies in place for a range of threats.

The BCP is often considered the heart of a BCMS (business continuity management system).

Who should have a business continuity plan?

All organisations, no matter their size, should create a BCP.

Every organisation is at risk of a disruptive incident. Nearly half of UK businesses suffered a cyber attack or security breach last year alone.

Failure to plan could have disastrous consequences for your organisation, potentially resulting in your organisation suffering irreparable damage.

Free BCP template

To help you with your BCP, we’ve created a free downloadable template.

It outlines the elements that should be included in a BCP, and makes it quick and easy to tailor the documentation to your organisation’s requirements.

Download our business continuity plan template >>

What should a business continuity plan include?

Purpose and scope

Details of the plan should be provided and any exclusions must be explained.

Responsibilities

You should select a business continuity team, comprised of a select group of employees who are responsible for carrying out the plans.

Plan invocation

Details of how and when the BCP will be invoked.

Developing the BCP

Information in the plan must be understood by and accessible to everyone in the organisation.

Communications

How, and under which circumstances, the organisation will communicate with employees and their relatives, key interested parties and emergency contacts.

Stakeholders

Provide information relating to essential stakeholders, including their contact information.

Document owner, approver and change history record

The business continuity manager is the owner of the BCP and is responsible for ensuring that the procedure is reviewed and tested regularly.

Change management

The document must be published in a place that is available to all members of staff, especially those directly involved in the BCP, and in all appropriate formats (digital, hard copy, etc.).

Benefits of a business continuity plan

Creating a BCP will make it easier for your organisation to cope in a crisis and minimise the business impact for you and your customers.

It also demonstrates to customers and investors that your business is prepared for anything, thereby gaining their confidence and giving you a competitive edge.

A BCP can also reduce or even avoid the risk of losing revenue if you are hit with a disruption. Returning to work as usual as quickly as possible minimises the disruption to your business operations and therefore helps you get back to generating revenue.

Organisations that aren’t prepared often appear incompetent. This can damage their reputation and brand image, putting many people off associating with them, which could lead to a loss of customers.

Protect your business with IT Governance

You can find more guidance on business continuity planning with IT Governance’s Business Continuity Risk Management Pack .

Developed by experts, this tool enables organisations to develop a business continuity plan tailored to its specific individual risk appetite.

You’ll also ensure that your organisation is fully prepared to recover critical business functions as quickly as possible in the event of a disruptive incident.

A version of this blog was originally published on 16 November 2018.

The concept of continuity for businesses lies in their ability to sustain operations and deliver products or services consistently, even in the face of disruptions or unexpected events. With the unpredictability that comes with each day, the long-term sustainability of businesses often depends on their ability to overcome challenges, minimize downtime, and protect their revenue, reputation, and relationships with customers and stakeholders.

To achieve this, there is a need to implement efficient continuity infrastructure to ensure operational stability and position themselves for long-term success in a rapidly changing business market. Enter business continuity software.

Business continuity software, or business continuity management (BCM) software, is a tool or system designed to assist organizations in managing and maintaining their business continuity plans and activities. It provides a framework and innovative features to assist businesses in preparing for and recovering from unforeseen, disruptive events, such as cyber-attacks, natural disasters, equipment failures, or other incidents that may disrupt normal business operations.

Functionalities of Business Continuity Software

The primary goal of business continuity software is to enhance an organization's preparedness and resilience by providing a centralized platform for managing all aspects of business continuity planning and execution. In achieving these goals, these platforms offer specialized functionalities that streamline various elements of business continuity planning and execution.

● Business Impact Analysis (BIA)

This critical feature helps businesses assess the potential impact of disruptions on their business operations. The BIA feature assists organizations in understanding the significance and possible consequences of disruption to their key processes, systems, and resources. This systematic analysis usually features several steps, from identifying critical business functions to impact assessment, dependencies and interdependencies, RTO and RPO, risk prioritization, and decision support.

● Risk Assessment

The risk assessment feature of business continuity software helps organizations identify, evaluate, and prioritize potential risks and threats capable of disrupting their operations. Business continuity software assesses risks through several components, including risk identification, evaluation, vulnerability analysis, prioritization, and mitigation strategies.

● Plan Development

With the plan development feature, businesses can create, document, and maintain their continuity plans. This includes managing plan templates, documentation, customization and flexibility, collaboration and version control, plan maintenance and review, document repository, and accessibility. The plan development feature often integrates with other systems for automation and seamless data sharing.

● Incident Management

Incident management feature helps organizations to effectively manage and respond to incidents or disruptions that affect their operations. By leveraging this feature, organizations can respond to incidents, minimize the impact on operations, and ensure a coordinated and efficient response.

● Notification and Communication

With this feature, organizations can quickly and efficiently communicate with stakeholders during incidents and disruptions. The notification and communication feature facilitates rapid, targeted, multi-channel organizational communication. It also permits message tracking and reporting and integration with contact management.

● Testing and Exercising

This feature enables businesses to test and exercise their continuity plans in a controlled and simulated environment. It provides tools and functionalities to create scenarios, simulate incidents and evaluate plan effectiveness. Organizations can identify gaps, validate their plans, and enhance their preparedness by conducting these tests.

● Reporting and Analytics

The reporting and analytics feature allows organizations to generate comprehensive reports and analyze data related to their business continuity efforts. It offers insights into plan status, testing results, incident response metrics, and key performance indicators.

Exploring the multitude of choices regarding business continuity software solutions can be daunting. As such, we have handpicked a collection of top-tier solutions that have earned extensive recognition among businesses of all scales. Our list aims to simplify your search process and offer valuable insights into the premier software options for maintaining business resilience and continuity.

● Archer Business Resiliency

With the Archer Business Resiliency platform, organizations can identify and document their essential processes and systems while creating comprehensive business continuity and disaster recovery plans to safeguard against disruptions.

The platform encompasses incident management functionalities, enabling businesses to swiftly assess incident severity, establish suitable response strategies, and assign response teams based on specific factors, such as business impact and regulatory obligations. Other features include operational risk management, BIA, crisis management, IT disaster recovery, alerts, and notifications.

Furthermore, the Archer Business Resiliency platform adopts a unified and automated approach to business continuity and disaster recovery planning, testing, and implementation. Ultimately, this web-based solution integrates business continuity planning, disaster recovery strategies, and crisis response, enhancing organizations' response time and prioritizing critical business processes.

● Fusion Risk Management

The Fusion Framework System is a comprehensive risk management platform that gives businesses better control over their experience through various customizable and flexible tools. With this innovative solution, companies can harness the power of data-driven risk insights and resilience strategies, thereby facilitating continuous improvement of business operations.

The Fusion Risk Management platform offers several innovative features, including risk management, third-party risk management, business continuity management, crisis or incidence management, operational resilience, audit management, and audit trail. It is also effective for managing cyberattacks and other IT incidents.

Furthermore, this platform empowers users to establish, prioritize, and sustain impact tolerances, allowing them to gain valuable insights over time regarding their organization's capacity to withstand various disaster scenarios. It is available on the web, iOS, and Android platforms.

● Cloudback

Cloudback is a comprehensive backup solution to protect valuable codes and metadata on GitHub. This platform offers strong protection against data loss caused by unexpected events, granting users peace of mind and enabling them to concentrate on other projects.

Once activated, Cloudback handles several tasks, including creating daily backups and ensuring your repositories fully secured. With its user-friendly interface and range of powerful features, Cloudback simplifies the management and protection of your repositories.

One such feature is its flexible storage options. Cloudback integrates seamlessly with various customer-managed storage solutions, from Azure to OneDrive, Amazon S3, Google Cloud, Alibaba Cloud, and OpenStack Swift. The platform also integrates regional storage locations to enhance data protection and compliance with data sovereignty requirements, ensuring backups remain within a user's preferred geographic region.

Cloudback's data deduplication technique significantly reduces cloud storage space usage and operational costs by identifying and eliminating duplicate data. Businesses can also benefit from the platform's custom schedules, allowing users to create, customize, and implement personalized backup schedules according to specific needs.

Furthermore, Cloudback employs AES-256 encryption techniques to protect your data in transit and rest, ensuring sensitive data remains secure. The Cloudback platform also provides an intuitive user interface, comprehensive customer support, and a direct payment option for GitHub Enterprise accounts.

Ultimately, Cloudback's GitHub Repository Backup solution thoroughly protects your valuable code and metadata. Its intuitive user interface and powerful suite of features streamline the entire process of managing and safeguarding your repositories. Experience comprehensive and secure protection by signing up for Cloudback's GitHub Repository Backup solution today!

● Oracle Risk Management and Compliance

The Oracle Risk Management Cloud and Compliance platform provides businesses with a comprehensive suite of tools for advanced security and transaction monitoring. It enhances financial controls, ensures the separation of duties, mitigates fraud risks, and streamlines organizational audit workflows.

This platform enables users to explore a risk-intelligent culture within their organization by facilitating collaboration with business owners through periodic surveys, assessments, and dashboards. Moreso, users can leverage its analysis and context features to accurately assess risks and determine the most appropriate course of action.

Other features present in this solution include a risk repository, audit management, automated workflows, issue detection, sensitive access certification, and prebuilt and customizable security rules. With this AI-powered compliance and risk management solution, organizations can identify potential risks and automate advanced security and transaction analysis to prevent fraud and enhance financial control.

● Castellan Solutions

Castellan Solutions offers innovative business continuity software designed for organizations of all scales. This Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform empowers users to address operational resilience, crisis management, and emergency notification challenges through automation and intelligence, all within a centralized location.

The platform features fully integrated functionality for conducting BIA, risk assessment, and plan development. Users can also establish personalized continuity requirements and generate visualizations that comprehensively overview the entire value chain. It also features strategy testing and exercising, program automation, system integration, embedded alerts, and emergency notifications for enhanced responsiveness.

Castellan Solutions is a comprehensive and integrated planning experience platform that empowers users to interpret, analyze, and prioritize risks and enables them to formulate strategic and actionable responses effectively.

The list of business continuity software solutions represents the best options in 2023, with each platform providing unique features and strengths. Whether it's the comprehensive risk management capabilities of Archer Business Resiliency, the customizable tools and data-driven insights offered by Fusion Framework System, or the all-in-one backup solution provided by Cloudback, these software solutions cater to diverse organizational needs. Organizations seeking to enhance their resilience and minimize operational disruptions can confidently choose from this list of exceptional software solutions.

IMAGES

Free Business Continuity Plan Templates
Free Business Continuity Plan Template Excel
FREE IT Service Continuity Plan Template
Business Continuity Plan Sample Luxury 6 Small Business Continuity Plan
7 Free Business Continuity Plan Templates
Business Continuity Plan (BCP) Template: Free Download

VIDEO

Business Continuity Plan
Business Planning
Business Continuity Plan for Banks
The Engine
D&V Philippines
Business Continuity Plan Template

COMMENTS

Free Business Continuity Plan Templates
This template outlines the structure involved in creating a business continuity plan. It provides an easy, comprehensive way to detail the steps that will comprise your unique BCP. Use this template to plan each phase of a typical BCP, including the business impact analysis, recovery strategies, and plan development.
Business Continuity Plan
English Business Continuity Planning Process Diagram - Text Version When business is disrupted, it can cost money. Lost revenues plus extra expenses means reduced profits. Insurance does not cover all costs and cannot replace customers that defect to the competition. A business continuity plan to continue business is essential.
IT Disaster Recovery Plan
An information technology disaster recovery plan (IT DRP) should be developed in conjunction with the business continuity plan. Priorities and recovery time objectives for information technology should be developed during the business impact analysis.
Business Continuity Plan (BCP) Templates
A Business Continuity Plan (BCP) template is a tool used by business continuity managers and IT teams to outline strategies for keeping businesses operational despite emergencies such as extreme weather events, building evacuations, power outages, etc.
Guide to IT Service Continuity Management (ITSCM)
ITSCM objectives From a business perspective, the goal of ITSCM is to reduce the downtime, costs, and business impact of disaster-level incidents. On a more tactical level, objectives include: Working closely with BCM to protect overall business continuity Creating and managing plans for IT service continuity and recovery in case of disaster
Business Continuity Plan Template & Examples
Business continuity plan template Section 1: Document control Business Continuity Plan Template: Section 2: General Information Section 3. Plan Activation Process BCP Template Section 4. Recovery and Restoration Procedures Business Continuity Plan Template: Section 5. Contact Lists Section 6. Testing Section 7. Training and education Section 8.
PDF Instructions K IT Contingency Plan Template
The {SYSTEM NAME}Contingency Plan does not apply to the following situations: • Overall recovery and continuity of business operations. The Business Resumption Plan (BRP) and Continuity of Operations (COOP) Plans are appended to this plan. • Emergency evacuation of personnel. The Occupant Emergency Plan (OEP) is appended to this plan.
12 Best Business Continuity Plan Templates
12 Business Continuity Plan Templates 1. IT Service Business Continuity Plan Template 2. School Business Continuity Plan Template 3. Small Business Continuity Plan Template 4. SaaS Business Continuity Plan Template 5. Healthcare Business Continuity Plan Template
IT Business Continuity
Business continuity is defined as keeping the enterprise functional no matter where it is being executed, locally or remotely, and ensures that the enterprise functionality will be available to its customers and users at all times. There are three components to business continuity: Resiliency - critical systems, infrastructure and business ...
IT Business Continuity Plan Template
This IT Business Continuity Plan Template is designed to help IT teams and managers implement business continuity measures for their IT systems and infrastructure. It provides a comprehensive framework to assess risks, establish objectives, and measure success. Easily customize the template for your organization's specific needs.
IT Business Continuity Plan Template
This business continuity and disaster recovery template is designed to help IT teams and business continuity managers proactively prepare for events that could disrupt operations and develop disaster recovery strategies. This template enables you to do this: Download as PDF Downloaded 1345 times ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Rated 5/5 stars on Capterra
How to Write a Business Continuity Plan
Here is an example of a BCP format: Business Name: Record the business name, which usually appears on the title page. Date: The day the BCP is completed and signed off. Purpose and Scope: This section describes the reason for and span of the plan. Business Impact Analysis: Add the results of the BIA to your plan.
Business Continuity Plan: Example & How to Write
Step 1: Determine the risk profile through a self-assessment using the 4Ps framework—People, Processes, Profits, and Partnerships Step 2: Identify key products, services, or functions Step 3: Establish the business continuity plan objectives Step 4: Evaluate the potential impact of disruptions to the business and its workers
Free Business Continuity Plan Template
Free Business Continuity Plan Template | PDF & Word Home Business Business Continuity Plan Business Continuity Plan Template Use a business continuity plan to outline how your business will continue to operate in a range of disaster scenarios. Create Document Updated May 29, 2023 | Legally reviewed by Brooke Davis
Business Continuity Plan Template for Information Technology Services
This template is designed to help IT service providers and managed service providers (MSPs) create a comprehensive business continuity plan. It includes a set of steps that can be followed to define focus areas, set measurable targets (KPIs), implement related projects, and create a detailed plan for IT service continuity. 1.
Cyber Business Continuity Plan Template
This Cyber Business Continuity Plan template is designed for organizations that want to protect their systems, data, and IT infrastructure from cyber-related threats and incidents. It can help organizations create a comprehensive plan that outlines the steps to be taken to mitigate the effects of a cyber-attack or cyber-related emergency.
How to Write a Business Continuity Plan & Why It's ...
A business continuity plan is part of the documentation that a SOC 2 auditor will likely review, along with your systems and security controls, to determine your level of compliance with the Trust Services Criteria (TSC) you've selected. This plan is especially important if you include Availability as a TSC in your SOC 2 audit.
IT Business Continuity
Get Free DR Template IT Business Continuity Businesses have come to recognize that some services of the organization have to be delivered continuously without interruption.
What Is A Business Continuity Plan? [+ Template & Examples]
Download Now: Free Crisis Plan Template Swetha Amaresan Published: December 30, 2022 When a business crisis occurs, the last thing you want to do is panic. The second-to-last thing you want to do is be unprepared. Crises typically arise without warning.
IT Governance Blog: free business continuity plan template
To help you with your BCP, we've created a free downloadable template. It outlines the elements that should be included in a BCP, and makes it quick and easy to tailor the documentation to your organisation's requirements. Download our business continuity plan template >> What should a business continuity plan include? Purpose and scope
Building Resilience: A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a BCDR Plan
Step-by-step outline for creating a BCDR plan. The following steps represent a general framework for creating a business continuity and disaster recovery plan. However, specific considerations must be made based on business size and complexity, information systems, industry regulations, threat vectors, and your BCDR solution or backup ...
5 Best Business Continuity Software of 2023
Castellan Solutions offers innovative business continuity software designed for organizations of all scales. This Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform empowers users to address operational ...

Eligibility

Related links

IT Business Continuity Plan Template

Say goodbye to paper checklists!

Digitalize this paper form now

Scope & Objectives

Streamline Your Business Resilience Efforts with an IT Business Continuity Plan Template

How to Write a Business Continuity Plan Step-by-Step: Our Experts Provide Tips

Step by Step: How to Write a Business Continuity Plan

How to Create a Business Continuity Plan

Quick-Start Guide Business Continuity Plan Template

Key Components of a Business Continuity Plan

Key Resources for Business Continuity

Activities to Complete Before Writing the Business Continuity Plan

Common Structure of a Business Continuity Plan

Disruptive Incident Quick-Reference Card Template

Expert Disaster Preparation Checklist

Tips for Writing a Business Continuity Plan

Empower Your Teams to Build Business Continuity with Smartsheet

Discover why over 90% of Fortune 100 companies trust Smartsheet to get work done.

Business Continuity Plan Template

What is a Business Continuity Plan?

When to Use a Business Continuity Plan?

Risk and Potential Business Impact

Planning an Effective Response

Roles and Responsibilities

Communication

Uninterrupted Access to Business Resources and IT Operations

Testing and Training

Crisis Management

Crisis Communications

Emergency Response

IT disaster recovery

Business continuity

Step 1 – Purpose of the plan

Step 2 – Identify Key Business Areas

Step 3 – Define the Crisis Team

Step 4 – Create a Crisis Communication Plan

Step 5 – Relocation and Recovery Operations

Step 6 – Review and Testing

Step 7 – Plan Deactivation

A Well-Defined Leadership Protocol For a Disaster

A More Efficient Return to Normal Business Operations

Increased Employee Safety

Reduction in Lost Time and Lost Revenue

Ability to Quickly Implement IT Fixes

Review Your Checklist – Twice a Year

Put It Into Practice – Once a Year

Formal Review – Every Other Year

Comprehensive Review – Every Other Year

Mock Recovery Test – Every Two or Three Years

What is the difference between a business continuity plan and a disaster recovery plan?

What is the primary goal of business continuity planning?