Business Continuity Management
One in five businesses suffer a major disruption to their
business activity every year, the following are some statistics
about business disruption!
It will never happen to
me
- You can expect to have a serious business interruption once in
every 5 years
This could range from:
- A major Fire
- A prolonged computer breakdown
- Transport disruption
- Power failure
- The list is endless and out of your control
Its all insured!
- You are likely to recover 30% to 50% of the total cost of an
insured interruption.
AND
- You have to keep the business going while your losses are
assessed.
I'm sure we will cope
- Whilst you muddle through what may happen.
- Customers go elsewhere.
- Suppliers downgrade your credit rating.
- Cash flow may suffer
- You cannot recover debts
- Your Staff may be traumatised
If I don’t have a disaster I have wasted time and
money!
- Continuity Planning may pay for itself in insurance
savings.
- You could use your reliability as a marketing ploy.
- You gain peace of mind.
Facts
- 35% of firms suffering a computer disaster lost over
£250,000.
- (Survey by Price Waterhouse)
- 30% of disasters are caused by fraud, malice and misuse.
- 30% by software and hardware failure.
- 20% by fire, flood or tempest.
- Effective continuity planning CAN prevent business collapse
after a disaster.
Be prepared
Business Continuity Management (BCM) is a process that helps
manage the risks to the smooth running of an organisation or
delivery of a service both in the private and public sector,
ensuring that the business can continue in the event of a
disruption.
The source of the disruption may be internal to the organisation
such as loss of key staff or a technological systems failure or it
might be an external influence such as a weather related incident,
a utility related incident or even the business failure of one of
your key suppliers.
BCM provides a strategic framework for improving the
organisations resilience to interruption. Its purpose being to
facilitate the recovery of key, critical business systems and
processes within defined time frames, whilst maintaining provision
of business critical functions and vital services.
BCM is a generic management framework that is valid across the
private, public and voluntary sectors. It is about maintaining the
essential business outputs in an emergency. The primary objective
of businesses in the private sector is to 'generate profit'. BCM
seeks to protect that process.
Making a plan (advice for small to medium size
enterprises)
New legislation in the form of the Civil Contingencies Act 2004
requires local authorities to provide advice and assistance to
those undertaking commercial activities and to voluntary
organisations in relation to BCM in the event of an
emergency. The following is a quick guide to the issues that
should be considered when writing a Business Continuity Plan
(BCP).
Effective Business Continuity Planning can be built upon the '7
P's' principle shown below:
People – Identifying roles, responsibilities
and providing awareness and training to those involved in BCM.
Considering how you will communicate with your staff during an
emergency and what to do with all yours staff following an
emergency?
Programme – Proactively managing the process at
a senior level to provide a swift and effective return to
normality
Processes – Identifying all organisational
processes including telephones and computer systems
Premises – Considering buildings &
facilities essential to the business and having alternative
available in a crisis situation
Providers – Supply chain management, including
outsourcing requirements
Profile – Managing reputation
considerations, communicating with your customers
Performance – Benchmarking, evaluation and
audit of BCP. You should test your plan regularly, update it
accordingly and store it somewhere safe, and off site!
(with acknowledgement to the Business Continuity Institute)
If all of these areas are considered when developing a BCP it
should provide you with an effective recovery strategy for your
business following an incident. Developing a BCP could be the
difference between your business surviving after an incident or
'going under'. Some further guidance and direction can be
found from the websites
Business Link (Support in Emergencies), Business Continuity Institute,
London
Prepared, Kent
County Council, Torbay
Council and Dorset
County Council (Dorsetforyou). The government leaflet,
Expecting the Unexpected can be can be viewed by clicking the link
provided here.
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