What is business continuity?
Business Continuity (BC) is defined by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), as “the capability of the organization to continue delivery of products or services at acceptable predefined levels following a disruptive incident”. BC is an organisation’s ability to maintain essential functions during and after a disaster has occurred.
What is BCP and why business continuity planning matters
A Business Continuity Plan (BCP) includes the procedures, protocols, and instructions an organisation should follow when a disaster occurs. It is a proactive approach to running your business. Once something happens, you can’t go back in time to prepare, so you literally need to be ready and have a plan for anything, even worst-case scenarios. The plan ensures that the personnel and assets all are protected and are able to function quickly when a disaster happens.
One of the best ways to approach the creation of the plan is to perform a risk analysis on each of the services that you provide to your clients (whether internal or external).
Risks may include natural disasters and cyber-attacks. Once the risks are revealed, the plan should also include:
- Determining how those risks will affect the operations
- Implementing safeguards and procedures for risk mitigation
- Testing procedures to ensure that they work
- Reviewing the process to ensure that it is up to date
Preparedness is the most important thing to mitigate risks, avoid disaster when it’s possible, and have a plan in place to cope and recover when inevitable setbacks occur.
With the plan in place, everyone will have a guideline to follow. Your team will also feel more confident in that situation, instead of heading straight to worry and fear.
How to create an effective business continuity plan
Creating a business continuity plan (BCP) involves gathering your team, studying the risks and key tasks, and choosing the recovery activities. Then write the plan as a set of lists and guidelines, which may address risks such as floods, fires, data breaches or pandemics.
There are six required steps involved in creating a business continuity plan:
- Analyze your business
- Identify the risks that will affect your business
- Develop your strategy
- Create your plan
- Test your plan
- Update your plan with any changes
In addition, you need to check with your IT department to ensure it has or is actively developing a Disaster Recovery (DR) plan, because DR plan is also a part of the business continuity plan.
As you create your BCP, consider interviewing the key personnel in your company who have gone through a disaster successfully. Also, you have to strictly test a plan to know if it is complete and will fulfill its intended purpose. Many organizations test a business continuity plan 2-4 times a year.
The tech industry continues to evolve, and the employees come and go, so the plan needs to be updated, too. Bring together the key personnel of your organisation at least annually to review the plan and discuss any areas that need to be modified.
And finally, do not forget that BC is not just the responsibility of the IT department. Every member of the company has a role to play in ensuring that the business can survive any catastrophe – from human error to natural disaster.