Business Continuity Plan
A business continuity plan is defined as maintaining the functions of the business or resuming them quickly in the case of a big disruption that could be caused by flood or fire (Hatton, 2016). A business continuity plan gives the instructions and the procedures a firm must follow when they suffer such disasters. It covers business assets, processes, business partners, and human resources. The difference between the business continuity plan and disaster recovery plan is that the purpose of the disaster recovery plan is to bring back to normal the IT infrastructure and its functions after a crisis, and in this way, it is just a small part of the business continuity plan.
Importance of Business Continuity Plan
A business continuity plan is important because it helps companies to have the IT system back to operation. It is also important because it helps in retaining the existing customers while boosting the customer base of the company. The future of a company depends on processes and people, and being in a condition to deal with any incident positively and effectively can bring a positive impact to a company’s market value and reputation, and it can also boost the confidence of the customers (Kato & Charoenrat, 2018).
Examination of a Business Continuity Plan
If a firm lacks a BC plan in action, it should start by examining their processes of business, finding out which departments are vulnerable, and the losses that may occur if the business processes do down within 24 hours or in a week (Wallace & Webber, 2017).
The next step will be to come up with a plan that involves six steps that are general. The steps include:
- Identify the objective of the plan.
- Identify the basic areas of the business.
- Note the functions that are critical.
- Identify the dependencies between different business functions and areas.
- Identify the downtime for every function, which is critical.
- Develop a plan to maintain business operations.
One tool of business continuity planning, which is common is a checklist that incorporates equipment and supplies, the location of backup sites and data backups, where the plan exists and the individuals who should possess it, and contact details for providers of the backup site, key individuals, and emergency responders. As a firm is developing their plan, it should ensure that the interview the key individuals who have been through a crisis successfully. Individuals do not love sharing stories of war and the techniques, and the steps that saved their situation and their insight could be of help in crafting a plan which is solid.
The Need for Testing One’s Business Continuity Plan
Testing your plan is the only method to know if it can be efficient as a real action is the one that can truly test the best way a strategy can work. One should carry out controlled testing so as to identify the possible gaps and correct them. Most firms test a plan several times, like four times just to achieve accuracy. There are several types of tests, firstly, a table-top exercise which involves members poring over the outlined plan in the conference room, they look for any possible gaps and make sure that all the units of the business are represented in the plan (Setiawan, Wibowo & Susilo, 2017).
The second type of testing is the structured walk-through type of testing, where every member of the team goes through the plan to see if there are any weaknesses and give the possible corrections (Cook, 2015). The team usually goes through the plan with a particular disaster in their minds. In the end, all weaknesses are corrected, and the plan shared among all the important stuff. The third type of testing is disaster simulation testing, which is performed each year.
References
Cook, J. (2015). Six-stage business continuity and disaster recovery planning cycle. SAM Advanced Management Journal, 80(3), 23.
Hatton, T., Grimshaw, E., Vargo, J., & Seville, E. (2016). Lessons from disaster: Creating a business continuity plan that really works. Journal of Business Continuity & Emergency Planning, 10(1), 84-92.
Kato, M., & Charoenrat, T. (2018). Business continuity management of small and medium-sized enterprises: Evidence from Thailand. International journal of disaster risk reduction, 27, 577-587.
Setiawan, A., Wibowo, A., & Susilo, A. H. (2017, August). Risk analysis of the development of a business continuity plan. In 2017 4th International Conference on Computer Applications and Information Processing Technology (CAIPT) (pp. 1-4). IEEE.
Wallace, M., & Webber, L. (2017). The disaster recovery handbook: A step-by-step plan to ensure business continuity and protect vital operations, facilities, and assets. Amacom.