Business Continuity
Business Continuity is the ability of a business to continue operations with minimal disruption or downtime in the event of:
■ Natural disasters such as tornadoes, floods, blizzards, earthquakes and fire;
■ Accidents;
■ Sabotage;
■ Power and energy disruptions;
■ Communications, transportation, safety and service sector failure;
■ Environmental disasters such as pollution and hazardous materials spills; or
■ Cyber attacks and hacker activity.
Instead of focusing on resuming a business after critical operations have ceased,or recovering after a disaster, a business continuity plan (BCP) endeavors to ensure that critical operations continue to be available. Recent world events have challenged us to prepare to manage previously unthinkable situations that may threaten an organisation’s future. It is no longer enough to draft a response plan that anticipates naturally, accidentally, or intentionally caused disaster or emergency scenarios. Today’s threats require the creation of an on-going, interactive process that serves to assure the continuation of an organisation’s core activities before, during, and most importantly, after a major crisis event. Business continuity therefore needs to be incorporated into the organisations normal activities and hence it provides a framework for building resilience into the organisations processes.
■ Natural disasters such as tornadoes, floods, blizzards, earthquakes and fire;■ Accidents;
■ Sabotage;
■ Power and energy disruptions;
■ Communications, transportation, safety and service sector failure;
■ Environmental disasters such as pollution and hazardous materials spills; or
■ Cyber attacks and hacker activity.
Instead of focusing on resuming a business after critical operations have ceased,or recovering after a disaster, a business continuity plan (BCP) endeavors to ensure that critical operations continue to be available. Recent world events have challenged us to prepare to manage previously unthinkable situations that may threaten an organisation’s future. It is no longer enough to draft a response plan that anticipates naturally, accidentally, or intentionally caused disaster or emergency scenarios. Today’s threats require the creation of an on-going, interactive process that serves to assure the continuation of an organisation’s core activities before, during, and most importantly, after a major crisis event. Business continuity therefore needs to be incorporated into the organisations normal activities and hence it provides a framework for building resilience into the organisations processes.
Adopting industry best practice, we can help you create an effective BCP for your organisation.
This will include:
■ Identifying business processes and supporting assets
■ Prioritising the business processes and determining the allowable downtime
■ Developing strategies to recover processes within the allowable downtime
■ Identifying and mitigating risk, minimising the likelihood of a disaster
■ Implementing and training. Ensuring personnel know what to do
■ Testing, refining and validating whether the plan works and correcting any deficiencies
Business Continuity Standards and Generally Accepted Practices:
- BS 25999-1:2006 British Standard (United Kingdom) - replaces PAS 56:2003
- NFPA1600 American National Standard (USA)
- HB 221:2004 Business Continuity Management (Australia)
- HB 292 /293:2006 Business Continuity Management Handbooks (Australia)
- AS/NZS 4360:2004 Australian New Zealand Risk Standard (Australia / New Zealand)
- Spring TR19:2005 Technical Reference for Business Continuity Management (Singapore)
- The BCI Good Practice Guidelines 2007 (United Kingdom)
- Professional Practices for Business Continuity Professionals - Disaster Recovery Institute International (DRII) (USA)
- Generally Accepted Business Continuity Practices - Disaster Recovery Journal (DRJ) (USA)