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

Swetha Amaresan

Published: December 30, 2022

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

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

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

Free Download: Crisis Management Plan & Communication Templates

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

Table of Contents:

What is a business continuity plan?

  • Business Continuity Types
  • Business Continuity vs Disaster Recovery

Business Continuity Plan Template

How to write a business continuity plan.

  • Business Continuity Examples

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

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

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

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Crisis Communication and Management Kit

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

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

You're all set!

Click this link to access this resource at any time.

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.

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Business Continuity Planning Solutions

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

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

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

Recent industry interruptions.

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

Third-party resiliency

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

Being a resilient supplier/partner

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

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

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

Reduced tolerance for downtime

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

Crisis management and social media

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

Developing operational resilience and business continuity

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

Some of our solutions include:

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

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The Bottom Line

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

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What Is a Business Continuity Plan (BCP)? 

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

Key Takeaways

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

Understanding Business Continuity Plans (BCPs)

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

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

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

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

Benefits of a Business Continuity Plan

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

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

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

How To Create a Business Continuity Plan

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

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

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

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

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

Business Continuity Impact Analysis

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

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

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

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

Business Continuity Plan vs. Disaster Recovery Plan

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

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

Why Is Business Continuity Plan (BCP) Important?

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

What Should a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) Include?

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

What Is Business Continuity Impact Analysis?

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

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

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

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

Federal Emergency Management Agency. " Business Process Analysis and Business Impact Analysis User Guide ." Pages 15 - 17.

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Business Continuity Planning

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

Business Continuity Plan Supporting Resources

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

Business Continuity Training Videos

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

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Business Continuity Training Introduction

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

View on YouTube

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

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

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

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

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

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

Business Continuity Training Part 3: Planning Process Step 1

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

Business Continuity Training Part 3: Planning Process Step 2

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

Business Continuity Training Part 3: Planning Process Step 3

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

Business Continuity Training Part 3: Planning Process Step 4

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

Business Continuity Training Part 3: Planning Process Step 5

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

Business Continuity Training Part 3: Planning Process Step 6

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

Last Updated: 12/21/2023

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

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

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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.

Michele Barry

  • 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.

Alex Fullick

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. 

Tony Bombacino

“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.” 

Mike Semel

“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.

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How to create an effective business continuity plan

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

Professional Meeting: Senior Businesswoman and Colleague in Discussion

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What is a business continuity plan?

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

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

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

Why business continuity planning matters

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

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

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

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

Building (and updating) a business continuity plan

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

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

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

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

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

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

This is essentially a business impact analysis.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The importance of testing the business continuity plan

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

Renner says testing and practicing offer a few important benefits.

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

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

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

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

Types and timing of tests

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How to ensure business continuity plan support, awareness

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

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

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

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Business Continuity, Resilience and Disaster Preparedness

Explore enterprise security risk management, security and risk management consulting, threat management, workplace violence and active assailant advisory, operational security, sector and industry specific services, continuity and resiliency, crisis management, crisis communications.

A well-structured business continuity plan prioritizes the safety of employees, the security of data and the maintenance of essential business functions. It also minimizes downtime and financial losses during crises, ultimately safeguarding the organization's long-term viability and reputation. Our enterprise security risk management experts help organizations develop, test and refine comprehensive strategies for business continuity, ensuring that their critical operations and services can continue in the face of unforeseen disruptions.

Business Continuity, Resiliency and Disaster Recovery

Smart businesses know that preparation is the key to prosperity. Kroll’s cutting-edge continuity planning services provide a comprehensive set of solutions that are tailored to your organization’s unique needs. This includes advisory, consulting, planning and platform capabilities to ensure your organization is equipped with the right protocols for any emergency.

Protecting your people, assets, investments, reputation and future is our top priority. No matter the size, breadth or geographic footprint of your organization, Kroll is your partner throughout the entire lifecycle of recovery planning.

Business Resiliency in Times of Conflict

Business Resiliency in Times of Conflict

In this episode, Nick Doyle and Matthew Dumpert of Kroll’s Enterprise Security Risk Management practice discuss the early lessons learned while helping our clients prepare for and respond to business continuity and employee safety concerns resulting from the current conditions in Ukraine.

Crisis Management Preparedness and Response

A good crisis management plan is essential for any organization to effectively respond to and mitigate the impact of unexpected and potentially damaging events. Kroll’s full-cycle crisis management approach is simple: We support our global clientele throughout all stages of crisis management planning and response.

We provide proactive planning, training, partnership and toolkits to best prepare for a crisis. Kroll’s global crisis management and crisis communications experts are always available to support in imminent client emergencies, becoming a part of (or leading) the crisis management team. We are here to support you throughout the entire lifecycle of a crisis that threatens your enterprise, by focusing on:

Crisis Communications Services

Our experts will help you prepare for and navigate the strategic process of managing and disseminating information during a crisis. Kroll’s primary objectives in any crisis communications scenario are:

Respond quickly and effectively to minimize the negative consequences of the crisis

Preserve the trust of stakeholders, including customers, employees, investors and the public, by providing transparent and accurate information

Help you recover and return to normal operations as smoothly as possible

Mitigate Damage

Maintain trust, facilitate recovery.

Crisis communications is a critical component of crisis management, which encompasses a broader range of activities aimed at identifying, managing and recovering from crises. Kroll’s expert Crisis Communications Advisory team will help your organization maintain its reputation, minimize damage and navigate through challenging situations with transparency and credibility.

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Kroll’s team excels at proactive security consulting and expert advisory solutions, aligning our comprehensive offerings with your enterprise’s risk appetite. We offer personnel, expertise, advisory and bandwidth when our clients are challenged in ways that stress their comfort or internal capabilities.

Kroll specializes in the precise and carefully measured application of threat management principles to thwart your organization’s most compelling threat actors while continuously maintaining control of its safety, principles and reputation.

Kroll’s sophisticated global network of experts can assist with your operational security needs, whether they are proactive to avoid enterprise risks, reactive augmentation to your current capabilities or capacity-building due to threats.

Kroll experts provide security services tailored to the needs and specific contexts of diverse industries.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Are there incremental steps that can be taken to address smaller business continuity or resiliency concerns.

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What Is Business Continuity?

What is business continuity

Business continuity is an organization's ability to maintain or quickly resume acceptable levels of product or service delivery following a short-term event that disrupts normal operations. Examples of disruptions range from natural disasters to power outages.

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Is business continuity the same as business resilience or disaster recovery?

Business continuity, disaster recovery, and business resilience are not the same, but they are related.

  • Business continuity is a process-driven approach to maintaining operations in the event of an unplanned disruption such as a cyber attack or natural disaster. Business continuity planning covers the entire business—processes, assets, workers, and more. It isn't focused solely on IT infrastructure and business systems.
  • Business resilience encompasses crisis management and business continuity. It requires a response to all types of risk that an organization may face. An organization that is business resilient is essentially in a constant state of "expecting the unexpected." It means continuously preparing to meet disruptions head-on, including events of extended duration that may affect more than one facility or region.
  • Disaster recovery focuses specifically on how to restore an enterprise's IT infrastructure and business systems following a disruption. It is considered an element of business continuity. A business continuity plan (BCP) might contain several disaster recovery plans, for example.

What is a business continuity strategy?

A business continuity strategy is a summary of the mitigation, crisis, and recovery plans to be implemented after a disruption to resume normal operations. "Business continuity strategy" is often used interchangeably with "business continuity plan." Both consider the broader goals, legal and regulatory requirements, personnel, and even the business's clients and partners.

What does a business continuity plan mitigate?

A relevant and well-tested BCP can help ease the negative impacts of an unexpected business disruption in many ways.

  • Financial impact: Disruptions to product supply chains and critical services to customers can directly affect sales and revenue. Downtime caused by unplanned disruptions can also result in higher costs for a business as it looks to repair operations and mitigate previously unidentified threats.
  • Reputation and brand impact: Failure to resume operations quickly and supply customers with the products or services they expect can prompt customer defections and tarnish the brand. Damage to reputation can in turn cause investors and capital sources to pull back funding, exacerbating the financial impact of a business disruption.
  • Regulatory impact: Customers and vendors are likely to complain when businesses fail to respond appropriately to disruptions, which may result in regulatory scrutiny or even censure. In highly-regulated industries, such as energy and financial services, business continuity planning is mandatory to ensure regulatory compliance.

Business continuity planning activities

A well-crafted and tested BCP can go a long way toward helping a business recover swiftly from a disruption. These are key steps a business may want to take.

Identifying critical business areas and functions

Business continuity planning begins with identifying an organization's key business areas and the critical functions within those areas. A business needs to determine and document the acceptable downtime for each area and function considered vital to operations. Then a plan to restore operations can be established, documented, and communicated.

Analyzing risks, threats, and potential impacts

Creating appropriate response scenarios requires knowing what disruptions the business could experience. An upfront analysis of risks and threats is necessary in order to prepare contingency responses to events. Organizations can also conduct a back-end analysis after an event to gather metrics and assess lessons learned. This information can drive improvements in how the business responds to disruptions.

Outlining and assigning responsibilities

A BCP details which personnel will be responsible for implementing specific aspects of the plan. It also identifies key decision-makers and a chain of command. The plan should include alternative options in case primary personnel are incapacitated or unavailable to respond to the disruption.

Defining and documenting alternatives

A business continuity plan should define and document alternative communication strategies in case telephone services or the internet are down. Enterprises should also have alternatives for mission-critical spaces such as data centers or manufacturing facilities in case buildings are damaged.

Assessing the need for critical backups

Essential equipment may be damaged or unavailable during a disruptive event. A business should consider whether it has access to backup equipment and uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) during extended power outages. Business-critical data needs to be backed up regularly, and is mandatory in many regulated industries.

Testing, training, and communication

Business continuity plans need to be tested to ensure they will be effective. (Disaster recovery plans should be tested as well.) A best practice is to conduct a plan review at least quarterly with leadership and key team members who are responsible for executing the plan.

Many companies use role-playing sessions, simulations, and other types of exercises several times per year to test their BCPs. This approach helps to identify gaps, develop strategies for improvement, and determine if more resources are needed. Targeted staff training and communicating to the whole workforce the benefits of having a business continuity plan are also vital to its success.

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Business Continuity Planning

In today’s hyper-connected world, a cyberattack can result in the immediate — and long-term — disruption of an organization’s operations, assets, people, and revenue streams. To minimize the impacts of an event and accelerate recovery, proactive business continuity planning is critical to an organization’s response — and ultimately, its resilience.

At Marsh, we understand the challenges facing businesses, and seek to provide solutions that enable our clients to continue to focus on revenue growth, efficiency, and quality. We have developed a unique service that allows your business to leverage Marsh’s cyber risk and business continuity specialists in a cost-effective way to create, enhance, or maintain your business continuity program.

In response to your evolving needs and an increasingly complex risk landscape, our team of cyber and business continuity specialists work together to design and deliver business continuity plans for a wide range of cyberattacks. Our specialists can perform in-house business continuity functions, supplement your current program resources, or provide support on an interim basis while your organization seeks a business continuity manager. Whatever the case, there may be a period of time when Marsh can support your organization with our outsourced business continuity services. We offer:

  • A recommended structure and staffing needs for the business continuity management function, including key responsibilities and relationships.
  • A gap analysis report detailing key recovery concerns and deficient areas compared to best practices.
  • Recommendations on the blend of insourcing and outsourcing for your organization.

A short- and long-term implementation roadmap for key prioritized activities.

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In the course of cloud transformation, many IT and business leaders have realized that their business continuity plans are not effective enough. Whether you’re looking to enhance the protection of your operations and critical data, or you want to improve the way your business responds to threats, especially cyberattacks, there’s never been a better time for business impact analysis to review and realign your IT resilience program. Taking the necessary risk assessment measures today can help ensure that any future incident won't have a devastating effect on your business processes.

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Business continuity planning.

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

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

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Business Continuity Consulting and Management Services

Our business continuity consulting and management services will help you minimize your company’s level of risk and increase your resiliency.

BUSINESS CONTINUITY SERVICES

Could you maintain business as usual in the face of disruption?

When it comes to Business Continuity and business in general, different organizations will have different needs, but it all comes down to that question. With experience across multiple industries, MHA Consulting has full capability to create plans for complex problems to meet concise solutions. Don’t let your business resiliency fall by the wayside because of short staffing, lack of technical knowledge or other business pressures.

We offer a complete portfolio of business continuity services to assess, implement, exercise, and maintain the maturity and sophistication of your Business Continuity program

Assess Your Business Continuity

Current state assessment (csa).

MHA’s Current State Assessment (CSA) provides an in-depth assessment of the capability and maturity of your current Business Continuity and IT Disaster Recovery Programs based on industry best practices and standards. The CSA will provide you with detailed findings, recommendations and metrics defining your programs’ current maturity and recovery capability. At the end of the study, MHA provides expert recommendations to heighten the sophistication and maturity of your recovery programs. The CSA is an excellent first step for new and existing programs to establish a baseline of maturity and capability and to develop a roadmap for future improvement.

Business Impact Analysis (BIA)

A rigorous Business Impact Analysis (BIA), including an analysis of recovery strategy options, addresses the key first step of aligning business requirements with IT recovery capabilities. Using its comprehensive BIA process, MHA identifies the business processes and information technology that are critical to the livelihood of an organization by determining the quantitative and qualitative impacts of downtime. The process further defines the organization’s target Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs).

Threat & Risk Assessment (TRA)

The Threat & Risk Assessment (TRA) identifies the man-made, technological and natural threats that can adversely affect your key business and IT processing facilities. The study assesses the probability and potential impact of each threat and level of mitigation. MHA provides an in-depth report that identifies critical areas of risk and exposure and provides prioritized recommendations for improvement.

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Business Recovery Plan Development

While many organizations have information technology recovery plans, we have found that many fail to address business process continuity. Our teams design effective and thorough recovery plans and strategies that address the real impacts of an outage on your business operations. From the BIA to plan development and testing, our consultants help you mitigate business, environmental, man-made and technology risks inherent in your business.

Recovery Strategies

Defining your business continuity strategy reduces the impact of a disruption and the cost of compliance, while improving the efficiency of recovery efforts – reducing wasted time and money. MHA provides a detailed design (depending on your predefined recovery objectives, strategies and scenarios) and implements the technology infrastructure needed to recover assets and continue IT-supported business processes. We focus on the key people, processes, technology assets and data that are vital to your operations.

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Business recovery plan exercises.

Exercises keep your Business Continuity planning program in line with your business requirements and objectives on an ongoing basis by validating whether your plans will achieve your pre-defined RTOs and RPOs. Exercising your plans is an essential part of our business continuity services. MHA consultants are experts in executing tests and simulations of predefined recovery and contingency procedures and recommending improvement.

Mock Disaster Exercise

Mock Disaster Exercises validate your Crisis Management Team’s ability to effectively respond to and recover from a potential or actual crisis situation. Since its inception in 1999, MHA Consulting has performed over 500 enterprise mock disaster exercises for companies of all sizes. Our approach to performing a mock exercise incorporates both senior management and business unit leaders, as we guide the organization from the start of an event to successful recovery. Each scenario MHA uses takes a great deal of planning and in-house creativity. Please call us today to discuss how our personalized process can help you and your organization ensure the successful management of your response and recovery.

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Business Continuity Planning is an ongoing process. Maintaining and updating your plans is a crucial phase that keeps your program in line with your business requirements and objectives. MHA Consulting’s BCM planning methodology, or process, provides a framework of requirements, efforts, and deliverables, each leading into the next phase of a continuous improvement cycle. Our business continuity services provide you with a long-lasting strategy for your organization’s resilience.

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Are you able to ensure operations and essential functions during disasters?

Disasters or disruptive incidents include natural disasters (earthquakes, hurricane, tornado) or man-made disasters (terror attacks, cyber attack or violence). Our team will work with you to develop a strategic plan with the goal of maintaining your business operations prior, during and after disasters.

A Business Continuity plan is a proactive approach to support prevention and mitigation efforts as well as reduce overall operational impact from incidents. Our experienced team will review and enhance your resiliency while engaging with your leadership as well as internal and external stakeholders. Our team will assess, develop, implement, and exercise your plan. We will then work to close any gaps or opportunities for improvement.

At BSI, we work with the public and private sector, such as branches of government, businesses small or large, aerospace, manufacturing, healthcare (coalitions), and technology.

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Reach out to our business continuity expert

David Bernstein- Principal Consultant, Business Continuity

Mr. Bernstein has over 15 years of experience in emergency response, emergency management, and business continuity and resilience planning. He has overseen planning and response initiatives spanning individual hospitals to multi-facility health networks. Mr. Bernstein has also acted as a strategic advisor on multi-agency initiatives at the local and regional level, including coalitions and consortiums ranging in size and scope. His expertise includes the development and implementation of emergency drills and exercises, training, Incident Command, and regulatory compliance for Emergency Management in the healthcare sector. Most recently in 2020, he led the development of COVID-19 response, implementation, and recovery strategies for clients with local and global footprints. In addition to strategic program development, Mr. Bernstein has also developed facility recovery plans and acted as a Subject Matter Expert (SME) to support COVID-19 safety programming and responses to onsite cases of COVID-19.

How we help

Our Business Continuity team will work with you during any phase of your program.

Whether you are getting started, need some help moving through the process, or want to restructure your program, we are here to help.

Our experienced team will review and improve your resiliency while engaging with your leadership as well as internal and external stakeholders. Our team has experience in developing, assessing, implementing, training and exercising plans. We will work with you to close identified gaps or opportunities for improvement.

We use industry best practices and appropriate standards (e.g. ISO22301) to develop plans and identify potential gaps.

We provide a business continuity program focused on your organizations mission and goals.

Our approach:

  • Conduct a business risk analysis
  • Develop and work with you to complete a Business Impact Analysis
  • Develop response and recovery strategies
  • Train, validate and assess

Business continuity framework

  • Gap analysis and alignment support for ISO22301
  • BCMS maintenance and continuous improvement
  • Internal audits and reviews

Recovery and resilience support

  • Recovery and resiliency plans and solutions
  • Scenario walkthroughs, continuity exercises and testing
  • Emergency planning, drills, and incident response

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  • Business Continuity as a Service
  • Business impact analysis/BIA workshops
  • Risk assessment/BC test planning

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  • Business continuity training courses
  • Privacy and compliance education and awareness
  • Tailored, in-house training

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Explore how BSI supported a global financial services company to develop and implement a set of comprehensive and effective business continuity plans

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Clients who have received any form of management system consultancy or product consultancy from any BSI Group company are unable to have BSI certification services within a 2 year period following completion of consultancy.

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

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

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

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

Understanding the RIA Business Continuity Plan (BCP) 

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

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

Assessing Team Roles and Responsibilities

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

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

BCP Training Program Development

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

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

Conducting In-Depth Training Sessions 

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

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

 Hands-on Simulations and Drills

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

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

Communication and Decision-Making Training

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

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

 Documentation and Reporting Procedures

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

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

Cross-Training for Redundancy

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

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

 Leadership Guidance and Team Coordination

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

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

Continual Feedback and Improvement 

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

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

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

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

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Business continuity plan: the business of staying in business

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We are living in unprecedented times. The Covid-19 pandemic has drastically changed life as we know it. With people cooped up inside their homes, businesses have come to a grinding halt. With overheads still piling on and no way to generate income, businesses are in a fix. How long can they survive this disaster? Will they be able to recover? How soon can they get back on their feet? Our current situation highlights the critical need for a business continuity plan.

It is never too late to develop a plan, as it will help you get your business back on its feet — now and in the future.

If you are a small business owner and these questions are troubling you, you have come to the right place. Here’s everything you need to know about business continuity and disaster recovery to safeguard your business interests.

Related: A practical guide for small business during the global crisis

How to create a business continuity plan

Disaster can strike at any time, whether because your supply chain has been interrupted or a pandemic has struck. Here’s how to make a plan for any disruption:

  • Make note of your critical assets.
  • Identify your key business functions.
  • List out possible threats.
  • Plan alternatives.
  • Document everything.
  • Insure your business.
  • Test your plan.

Keep reading for a blueprint on how to plan for just about anything — plus links to business continuity plan templates.

What is business continuity management?

Let us first understand what a business continuity plan is. It is a document that outlines what the business owner and his team will do to minimize the loss to the business if disaster strikes.

A business continuity plan tells you what to do in order to resume business as soon as possible.

Business Continuity Plan Building Destroyed by Earthquake

Business continuity planning has traditionally been a process followed only by big companies. However, small businesses are more prone to a difficult recovery due to limited resources.

Why your business needs a business continuity plan

It is imperative that every business has a business continuity plan because disaster can strike anytime. It is unimaginable that a new virus has shut the world in the 21st Century, but it is our new reality.

Similarly, there could be natural disasters such as floods (which are a common occurrence in India), storms or earthquakes. There could also be man-made disasters. When the possible calamities take place, a business continuity plan comes into effect.

There’s no time like the present

You may think you are already amidst a pandemic, so there is not much you can do now. This cannot be farther from the truth.

Use the time you have during the current lockdown to develop a business continuity and disaster recovery plan that will help you reduce your losses and open for business as soon as the pandemic is behind us.

Are business continuity and emergency preparedness the same?

Business continuity planning and emergency preparedness are often used interchangeable. But they are actually two separate things.

Emergency preparedness works towards protecting employees and keeping them away from harm’s way in a disaster. However, business continuity management ensures functioning of key business operations  during a crisis.

Emergency preparedness

Say for example, if there is a flood — emergency preparedness will aim to keep people safe and evacuate them systematically. This is done via drills and training sessions so employees know exactly what to do in an emergency.

Business continuity

On the other hand, business continuity will focus on preventing disruption if possible and, if there is a disruption:

  • Maintaining business processes
  • Restoring IT systems
  • Helping employees return to work

In short, a business continuity plan contains instructions on how to return to ‘business as usual’ mode as quickly as possible.

Here is a step-by-step guide to designing a business continuity plan for your enterprise.

Step 1: Make note of your critical assets

The first step is listing out which assets are crucial to running the business. These might include:

  • Employees, customers and vendors
  • Physical offices, equipment and inventory
  • Important data

Make sure all people information, office/storage unit lease agreements and other key business data (financial records, passwords, etc.) are backed up securely in an offsite remote location or on the cloud, so they can be recovered quickly.

Step 2: Identify your key business functions

Identify which processes are crucial to running the business. These could be:

  • Supply chain management
  • Manufacturing
  • Customer service
  • Social media marketing
  • Human resources
  • Vendor relationships

Decide who will take over each function during a disaster. Ensure they have all the information they need (as mentioned in Step 1) to carry out their duties.

Step 3: List out possible threats

Business Continuity Plan Flooded City Street

Depending on where your business is based, write down all the possible disasters and events surrounding it.

If the area is prone to floods, for example:

  • Determine what your losses will be if your city is flooded
  • What can you do to prevent your office/plant from being flooded
  • What will you do if there is a power outage
  • How long will it take to subside
  • What will be the financial loss
  • How long will it take for your business to be up and running

If your venture was impacted by the pandemic, you can use your experiences to complete this section.

Step 4: Plan alternatives

Identify your biggest threats and list solutions for each. This section will be most useful in the event of an actual crisis or disruption.

For example:

  • Have a generator available for a power outage
  • Install sprinklers in the event of a fire
  • Build a secure refuge area to protect your people in case of a terrorist attack
  • Have a backup of alternative vendors that you can call upon if your supply chain breaks

It’s too much to expect anyone to think clearly when they’re in the middle of a disaster. By brainstorming solutions now, you will greatly speed up business recovery.

Step 5: Document everything

What good is the plan if people do not have access to it. Put all your planning and analysis in writing and make sure everyone knows where it is.

This will be the Holy Grail of your business continuity and disaster recovery plan. Write down everything in a simple language.

Ensure it answers all questions clearly. What to do, how to do it, who will do it, where are the resources to do it and so on. Lastly, save this document to the cloud or a remote storage and share the location with trusted employees.

Step 6: Insure your business

Get the right insurance  to cover your business and people during a disaster. Keep all the information such as policy number, coverage, deductibles, etc. handy. The last thing you want to do is hunt for this information when things become chaotic.

Then if the event is covered under the gamut of your business insurance, be sure to inform your service provider at the earliest.

Step 7: Test your plan

Put your plan to test. There is no other way of knowing it will actually work in a real disaster. Even if it does work, it will need some trial and error to make it robust. You do not have to shut down your business to do it.

You can create scenarios and see how each individual reacts to their task at hand.

Lastly, keep revisiting the plan periodically. It will help you improve your business continuity plan and fine-tune it to ensure near perfect execution when it really matters.

Business Continuity Plan Delhi Building with Beautiful Mural

There are free templates online that can help you in developing your very own business continuity plan (you can find some here and here . Use them to efficiently plan for disruptions or disasters and thereby recover faster.

The concept of a business continuity management is simple, but God is in the details. The more comprehensive and in-depth your plan is, the higher the chances are of it effectively getting your business up and running when disaster does strike.

IMAGES

  1. What Is A Business Continuity Plan?

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  3. 2024 Business Continuity Template: Streamline Your Plan Now

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  4. Business Continuity Plan in Times of Crisis

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  5. What is a Business Continuity Plan?

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  6. Business Continuity Planning Process Stock Photo

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COMMENTS

  1. What Is A Business Continuity Plan? [+ Template & 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.

  2. Business Continuity Planning Solutions: PwC

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

  3. What Is a Business Continuity Plan (BCP), and How Does It Work?

    Business continuity plans (BCPs) are prevention and recovery systems for potential threats, such as natural disasters or cyber-attacks. BCP is designed to protect personnel and assets and make...

  4. Business Continuity Plan: Example & How to Write

    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. Step 5: List actions to protect the business. Step 6: Organize contact lists.

  5. Business Continuity Planning

    View on YouTube Business Continuity Training Part 3: Planning Process Step 1 The first of six steps addressed in this Business Continuity Training, which detail the process of building a business continuity plan. This step addresses how organizations should "prepare" to create a business continuity plan. View on YouTube

  6. Business continuity plan (BCP) in 8 steps, with templates

    Complete the essential services ranking template in the Business Continuity Plan template. This will help you create your list of essential services by department or business unit. You will then need to rate the degree to which it will negatively impact the various key areas such as financials, employees, customers and technology.

  7. 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.

  8. What is a business continuity plan

    Anatomy of a business continuity plan. A business continuity plan (BCP) is a collection of procedures that establishes protocols and creates prevention and recovery systems in the case of a cyber attack, natural disaster, or other business disruption. In other words, when the unexpected affects your business, a business continuity plan can help ...

  9. What Is Business Continuity? How to Plan for an Emergency

    Business continuity planning (BCP) defines risk management processes and techniques to prevent mission-critical service outages and resume full operations as quickly and efficiently as feasible.

  10. How to create an effective business continuity plan

    A business continuity plan (BCP) is a strategic playbook created to help an organization maintain or quickly resume business functions in the face of disruption, whether that disruption is caused ...

  11. What is a Business Continuity Plan (BCP)?

    A business continuity plan (BCP) is a document that consists of the critical information an organization needs to continue operating during an unplanned event. The BCP states the essential functions of the business, identifies which systems and processes must be sustained, and details how to maintain them.

  12. How to Create a Business Continuity Plan

    A business continuity plan provides instructions on how organizations should proceed when business disruptions arise. Find out how to create one today. ... Drive efficiencies through global business services. Move global business services up the value chain to expand scope and scale. Automate end-to-end process flows, integrations, and back-end ...

  13. Business Continuity, Resilience and Disaster Preparedness

    A well-structured business continuity plan prioritizes the safety of employees, the security of data and the maintenance of essential business functions. It also minimizes downtime and financial losses during crises, ultimately safeguarding the organization's long-term viability and reputation.

  14. PDF Creating a Business Continuity Plan

    CREATING THE BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLAN The business continuity plan (BCP) is intended to be a dynamic plan and can be used in emergencies, disasters, and other catastrophic events where the technology, facility, or a department is severely impacted. BCPs are critical in keeping the facility open and providing care to the community.

  15. What Is Business Continuity?

    Business continuity planning covers the entire business—processes, assets, workers, and more. It isn't focused solely on IT infrastructure and business systems. Business resilience encompasses crisis management and business continuity. It requires a response to all types of risk that an organization may face.

  16. Business Continuity Plan

    The business continuity plan becomes a source reference at the time of a business continuity event or crisis and the blueprint for strategy and tactics to deal with the event or crisis. The following figure illustrates a business continuity planning process used by Kyndryl Global Technology Services.

  17. Business Continuity Planning

    Cyber Risk Business Continuity Planning Business Continuity Planning Contact us In today's hyper-connected world, a cyberattack can result in the immediate — and long-term — disruption of an organization's operations, assets, people, and revenue streams.

  18. Business Continuity Services

    At its core, Business Continuity is a robust approach to preparedness and organizational readiness for the purpose of keeping your business fully functional before, after and even during a disruptive event. At Sayers we treat Business Continuity as a practice, not a product. Solutions Custom Tailored For You Achieve Synergy Across Product Teams

  19. Business Continuity Planning (BCP)

    SIFMA's Business Continuity Planning page. FINRA requires firms to create and maintain written business continuity plans (BCPs) relating to an emergency or significant business disruption. Rule 4370—FINRA's emergency preparedness rule — spells out the required BCP procedures. A firm's BCP must be appropriate to the scale and scope of its ...

  20. Security and resiliency services

    The business continuity service provides rapid failover and failback for your compute environments across layers and safeguards overall productivity. Protect critical business and stakeholder data and applications in a security-rich environment.

  21. Business Continuity Planning

    Business continuity planning enables you to create an easy-to-use, actionable business continuity planning solution to prepare for the impact of a broad range of threats including natural disasters, disease outbreaks, accidents and terrorism.

  22. Business Continuity Management Services

    Our business continuity consulting and management services will help you minimize your company's level of risk and increase your resiliency. BUSINESS CONTINUITY SERVICES Could you maintain business as usual in the face of disruption?

  23. Business continuity consulting services

    A Business Continuity plan is a proactive approach to support prevention and mitigation efforts as well as reduce overall operational impact from incidents. Our experienced team will review and enhance your resiliency while engaging with your leadership as well as internal and external stakeholders. Our team will assess, develop, implement, and ...

  24. How To Ensure Business Continuity In The Face Of Internet ...

    Artificial intelligence (AI) can be further leveraged for business continuity, with a 2022 Deloitte survey revealing that 76% of respondents plan to increase investments in AI to gain more ...

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

    Your business continuity plan outlines the processes and procedures your firm will implement to deal with potential disruptions to operations, whether from natural disasters, technology failures ...

  26. GoDaddy

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  27. Development Services Fund Business Continuity Plan Leading Indicators

    Aug‐Jan ‐20.4% Active Yes Permitting Services Division Manager ‐ Trigger status is inactive, no action is required ‐ Trigger status is active, action is required Development Services Fund Business Continuity Plan Plan Triggers January 2024 * Data does not include Cannabis Fund

  28. Succession planning platform Capitaliz names North America president

    Jared Johnson joins the exit planning-focused fintech as business owners and financial advisers face a continuity crisis. February 12, 2024; By Leo Almazora