What is a business continuity plan?
Business Continuity Planning is a process of identifying and
evaluating the risks to your business and then planning to enable
the business to continue operating (and recover) if the worst
happens, it also help your organisation to work out how to
stay in business in the event of a disaster. It is very important that your organisation
develops a continuity plan to enable it to cope with any type of
crisis.
Incidents include
- local fires
- regional earthquakes
- national incidents like pandemic
illnesses
- Is your business prepared for the worst?
- How would your business cope in a crisis?
- Do you have a Business Continuity
Management (BCM) plan to guide your recovery?
- are you just leaving it to luck?
A common
misconception is that BCM merely encompasses backup and recovery
plans and that external consultants are needed to do this. However,
BCM is actually a lot more than that... and provided you know your
business environment, it can in fact actually be inexpensive and
relatively easy to implement.
Around the world
regulators and governments are putting great emphasis on the need
for organisations to have effective BCM in place. Some insurance
companies are setting the level of business interruption premiums
according to the speed at which an organisation is able to resume
business. Several large businesses are starting to insist on
suppliers having robust BCM processes in place before they will
trade with them.
According to AXA
research, three quarters of small and medium sized enterprises
(SMEs) are risking it all through lack of survival planning. One
third admits to relying on luck to make important business
decisions. Despite recent high-profile threats to business hitting
the news, from terrorist attacks, extreme weather, petrol
blockades, fires and trade disputes, research has found that the
UK's SMEs are gambling on their futures.
If any of these
questions leave you in doubt, then you must look at developing a
comprehensive Business Continuity Plan within your business.
Take a look at Five steps to continuity to find out more.
Download Redbridge Council's Business Continuity Leaflet (pdf
260kb) to find out more on: what you should do, how you should
do it and why you should carry it out.
Why should my business bother with
business continuity?
Every business should put in place
business continuity procedures. This will safeguard you from
internal or external crises and will enable your business to
better survive a crisis.
