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Business Continuity Plan Template

Use a business continuity plan to outline how your business will continue to operate in a range of disaster scenarios.

Business Continuity Plan Template

Updated December 18, 2023 Written by Sara Hostelley | Reviewed by Brooke Davis

A business continuity plan outlines the instructions and procedures a business should follow after a natural disaster or disruptive event so it can resume its operations. Events like floods and fires can interrupt your business practices, so it’s essential to have a plan in place to handle these situations and effectively get back to work.

What Is a Business Continuity Plan?

When to use a business continuity plan, benefits of a business continuity plan, elements of a business continuity plan, different types of business continuity plans, activities to complete before writing a business continuity plan, how to write a business continuity plan, business continuity plan sample.

A business continuity plan is a document establishing your organization’s strategies for dealing with a disaster. These procedures help you resume business quickly and reduce downtime and lost revenue.

It covers essential processes like protecting assets, handling human resources issues, and dealing with business partners.

Business Continuity Planning vs. Disaster Recovery Planning

An effective business continuity plan helps a company continue its overall operations after a catastrophe, while a disaster recovery plan focuses on reviving a business’s IT-related functions.

Creating a business continuity plan before you need it can help you prepare for the unexpected. It helps you be proactive so you don’t have to devise a plan amidst a disaster.

Once your continuity plan is in place, you may need to implement it during disasters like:

  • Cyberattacks
  • Natural disasters like hurricanes, earthquakes, tornados, and floods
  • Major IT or internet disruptions
  • Pandemics or health crises
  • Supply chain disruptions
  • Man-made disasters or times of social unrest

While a business plan guides your company’s everyday operations, a business continuity plan helps you resume company activities after severe disturbances.

Explore the benefits of a business continuity plan for your company:

Better Decision-Making

A BCP offers a structured framework for employees to make decisions during high-stress situations. Clear protocols and communication methods help your business continuity management team make rational decisions, which can promote confidence and encourage action among employees.

A More Efficient Return to Normal Business Operations

A BCP could make the difference between continued operations and further turmoil in an emergency. Returning to business operations quickly can prevent customers from seeking out competing businesses.

A business continuity plan template makes planning for contingencies in various scenarios easy and addresses the most critical roles and responsibilities necessary for keeping your company running.

Above all, a BCP limits confusion during critical situations and orients employees to the primary focus.

Increased Employee Safety

BCPs prioritize employees’ safety and well-being during emergencies. These plans include guidelines for remote work so employees don’t have to be near the disaster site. They also contain protocols for communicating with one another and evacuating plans in case a disaster happens during work hours.

A Reduction in Lost Time and Revenue

Unmitigated disruptions can financially weaken an organization quickly. Business continuity plans account for all factors necessary for continued operations. The more effort you put into planning, the more time and money you can save.

So, ensure a reliable backup plan for essential systems and enable remote access to customer, product, and company data to keep the revenue stream flowing.

Ability to Quickly Implement IT Fixes

Natural and manufactured disasters typically involve system disruptions. To remain functional, build redundancy into your critical systems. This proactivity will allow you to implement essential fixes to hardware and software assets.

Increased Organizational Resilience

A BCP prepares a company to encounter any challenges it may face. It lets the company’s employees adapt strategies as necessary and work towards continuous improvements, allowing the company to experience long-term success no matter the obstacles it encounters.

Explore some essential elements in a business continuity plan:

  • Business Impact Analysis: Determine how a disaster would impact your business’s operations.
  • Risk Assessment: Identify the risks that may disrupt your business’s processes.
  • Business Continuity Strategy: Detail the steps you’ll take to keep your company running if an interruption occurs. Tailor this strategy to your business’s needs.
  • Recovery Team: Include members from across key departments in your recovery team.
  • Training: Define training procedures to ensure all members have sufficient knowledge relating to emergency protocols.
  • Business Continuity Exercises: Create simulations to practice how your business continuity team would react in an emergency.
  • Communication: Establish methods for distributing information internally and externally.
  • Backup Locations and Physical Assets: List backup locations for conducting business operations if the primary location isn’t usable. Summarize the equipment you’ll need to continue operations.
  • Periodic Review and Recommendations: Include policies for reviewing and updating your plan. Accept recommendations from employees to improve the plan’s efficiency.
  • Technology: Describe the processes for retaining access to technology systems. Detail the importance of having emergency power and data backup procedures in place.

While a business continuity plan can cover various recovery strategies for specific events, it prioritizes one event. Explore some of the types of business continuity plans:

  • Scope: Emphasize the restoration of normal business activities.
  • Objective: To prepare for an unforeseen emergency.
  • Scope: Focus on the recovery of IT data, systems, and infrastructure.
  • Objective: To reduce downtime and data loss by quickly restoring IT services if they go down.
  • Scope: Address communication methods and strategies after a crisis.
  • Objective: To provide clear and timely communication to internal and external stakeholders, ensuring the accurate sharing of information.
  • Scope: Involve the supply chain’s continuity, including procurement, manufacturing, and distribution.
  • Objective: To limit supply chain disruptions and maintain the availability of services and goods.
  • Scope: Address the continuity of physical facilities, including warehouses, manufacturing plants, and offices.
  • Objective: To ensure the availability of operational facilities or other locations during critical events.
  • Scope: Focus on employees’ well-being and safety.
  • Objective: To maintain workforce availability and set up guidelines for remote work if possible.
  • Scope: Involve continuity plans for key third-party parties, including partners, suppliers, and vendors.
  • Objective: To account for the company’s dependencies on external parties and minimize associated disruptions.
  • Scope: Address regulatory requirements relating to business continuity.
  • Objective: To ensure compliance with industry standards and legal regulations.

Explore some activities to complete before writing a business continuity plan so you can create a more effective document:

1. Decide on a Writing Team

Decide on a team to write the plan. Find employees knowledgeable about various business processes so they can assign tasks accordingly.

Ask for employees’ input to create control and command teams. Appoint several people to be in charge during a crisis so they can have one another’s support. Establish a clear chain of command to minimize arguments and promote efficiency.

Nominate a team leader and a backup team leader for each department within your company. Consider recruiting third-party representatives to assist with coordinating specific activities during disasters.

2. Conduct Critical Function Analysis

Analyze your company’s critical business functions. Determine which functions it can and can’t exist without. This way, you can more easily determine what to prioritize in an emergency.

Determine how losing these functions across different departments might impact external and internal operations.

3. Analyze Potential Risks

Analyze potential risks depending on the nature of your business. Specific threats might be more imminent than others, so you can create visual representations, such as risk maps, to show the relationship between the impact and likelihood of your proposed risks.

From here, you can pinpoint high-priority risks that will require immediate attention.

4. Determine the Plan’s Scope

Determine whether the plan applies to specific departments, one location, or your entire company. Figure out what resources and critical functions you must maintain to successfully implement the plan.

5. Brainstorm Recovery Procedures

Use your risk assessment and critical function analysis to brainstorm how your team should react to a business disruption. Think about the timing for what must occur before, during, and after the business continuity planning process.

Step 1 – Write Your Company’s Information

Write your company’s information, including its name, address, and phone number. Include the name of the person writing the plan and the date you last revised it.

Company Information business continuity template

Step 2 – Define the Document’s Purpose

Define the document’s purpose, restating that the document is to establish procedures for the execution and recovery of business activities for your specific company. Check off the specific events you want to plan for.

Purpose business continuity plan template

Step 3 – Outline the Applicability

Clarify the applicability of the document. State which operations the document applies to, including the operation’s name, description, and impact on the business.

Applicability business continuity plan template

Step 4 – Define the Recovery Strategies

Define the recovery strategies for all the events you’ve outlined. Explain the recovery procedure and resource requirements for each event, such as a natural disaster, fire, epidemic, pandemic, technical issue, cyberattack, supply chain disruption, business site disruption, labor strike, or civil unrest.

Recovery business continuity plan template

Step 5 – Name Your Recovery Team

Name your recovery team, including a team and an alternate team lead. These individuals will restore and maintain business continuity and ensure the document’s compliant execution. Include each member’s name, role, email, phone number, and responsibilities.

Recovery team business continuity plan template

Step 6 – Detail Processes for Vendor Communication

Designate a person who will be responsible for contacting vendors and partners. This way, external parties key to the business’s functions will know what’s going on and the plan for continued operation.

External Vendors business continuity plan template

Step 7 – Name an Internal Communicator

Name an internal communicator, providing their name, email, phone number, and roles within the organization. This person will provide all employees with business-wide updates as the appropriate teams implement the continuity plan.

Internal Communicator business continuity plan template

Step 8 – Describe Relocation Procedures

Describe relocation procedures, including backup offices and methods for obtaining equipment and assets for relevant business activities. Provide an estimated timeline for a transition back to normal operations.

Relocation business continuity plan template

Step 9 – Write Testing Procedures

Write testing procedures to occasionally examine the BCP’s effectiveness. This way, the company can make updates to improve the plan’s effectiveness.

Testing business continuity plan template

Step 10 – Outline Deactivation Procedures

Outline deactivation procedures so your team knows when your company has officially restored its normal operations.

Deactivation business continuity plan template

Step 11 – Provide Exceptions

Write exceptions so your team knows when the business continuity plan doesn’t apply. For example, the plan might not apply if business operations can restore themselves within a certain number of hours.

Exceptions business continuity plan template

Download a business continuity plan template below in PDF or Word format:

Business Continuity Plan Template

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Step 1: recognize your organization’s scope and key elements, step 2: conduct a business impact analysis, step 3: set a plan for maintaining operations, step 4: use a sample business continuity plan.

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Business Continuity Plan

business continuity plan examples

As the current state of the world has shown, many businesses can go through all sorts of situations that can put their daily operations to a halt. Whether you are a small business , a hospital , or a bank, you must have a strategy to continue your work no matter what happens. That is why a business continuity plan is essential to be a part of your company’s risk management planning procedures to ensure that you’ll know what to do should emergency and other disastrous scenarios occur.

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What is a Business Continuity Plan?

A business continuity plan is an initiative to make a system of preventing and recovering from threats to the company . It involves procedures that ensure employees ‘ security and allow them to continue doing their work despite disastrous events and other unfavorable circumstances. The goal of these plans is to prevent business operations from stopping completely and allowing them to recover once the situation ends.

How to Draft a Business Continuity Plan

As mentioned in this article by Forbes, having a business continuity plan can ease the pressure on everyone. If you don’t have one planned, you must develop one in case another crisis unfolds. Here are a few ways on how you can plot the development of your business continuity plan.

1. Consider All the Risks

Think of every situation and a disastrous event that could negatively affect your business operation. Do a risk assessment for each of them to see if it will be safe for everyone to continue work during those times. If the testing indicates that it is safe to carry on, then make plans to circumvent these issues.

2. Go Online

Today’s great thing is that information technology allows us to carry out work from a convenient location when making your business continuity plan to look into what work is feasible to do online. That way, your business operation can have a smooth transition and make it convenient for everybody. Emails , video calls, and other online tools have proven quite effective for a lot of jobs, especially now.

3. Make It Comprehensive

Your business continuity plan should have a guide that will allow any person to understand how to execute the plan. There should also be instructions that are easily understandable to ensure that business continuity is all set. That way, all tactics and strategies integrate into every business continuity step accordingly.

4. Get Everyone’s Input

Ensure that the business continuity plan is a document created out of collaborative efforts. You have to make particular entities and employees involved so that you can adequately identify the items that can contribute to the business’s threats and the risks that you need to face.

FAQ’s

What does a business continuity policy mean.

It is the set of guidelines and standards that ensures proper risk management and resilience for an organization upon its implementation. A well-written one will give the company realistic expectations on the business process and recovery from disaster.

What does business impact analysis refer to?

In a business continuity plan, this refers to the first steps in making your company’s business continuity policy by considering the impact of each disaster and risk events that your company may encounter.

What makes a business continuity plan differ from a disaster recovery plan?

The difference between the two is when the plan takes effect. A disaster recovery plan focuses on the response after something happened and how to recover from it. In contrast, a business continuity plan focuses on how to stay operational during an event and its aftermath.

Knowing what to do for risk prevention and functional recovery can make it easier for businesses to execute contingency plans properly and follow workplace precautions. You have to make sure that you will only put necessary, relevant, and useful details in the business continuity plan to help the business regain its normal operations after the crisis finally ends.

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How to Write a Business Continuity Plan Step-by-Step: Our Experts Provide Tips

By Andy Marker | October 21, 2020 (updated August 17, 2021)

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In order to adequately prepare for a crisis, your company needs a business continuity plan. We’ve culled detailed step-by-step instructions, as well as expert tips for writing a business continuity plan and free downloadable tools.  

Included on this page, find the steps to writing a business continuity plan and a discussion of the key components in a plan . You’ll also find a business continuity plan quick-start template  and a disruptive incident quick-reference card template for print or mobile, and an expert disaster preparation checklist .

Step by Step: How to Write a Business Continuity Plan

A business continuity plan refers to the steps a company takes to help it continue operations during a crisis. In order to write a business continuity plan, you gather information about key people, tools, and processes, then write the plan as procedures and lists of resources. 

To make formatting easy, download a free business continuity plan template . To learn more about the role of a business continuity plan, read our comprehensive guide to business continuity planning . 

  • Write a Mission Statement for the Plan: Describe the objectives of the plan. When does it need to be completed? What is the budget for disaster and recovery preparation, including research, training, consultants, and tools? Be sure to detail any assumptions about financial or other resources, such as government business continuity grants.
  • Set Up Governance: Describe the business continuity team. Include names or titles and role designations, as well as contact information. Clearly define roles, lines of authority and succession, and accountability. Add an organization or a functional diagram. Select one of these free organizational chart templates to get started.
  • Write the Plan Procedures and Appendices: This is the core of your plan. There's no one correct way to create a business continuity document, but the critical content it should include are procedures, agreements, and resources.Think of your plan as lists of tasks or processes that people must perform to keep your operation running. Be specific in your directions, and use diagrams and illustrations. Remember that checklists and work instructions are simple and powerful tools to convey key information in a crisis. Learn more about procedures and work instructions . You should also note who on the team is responsible for knowing plan details.

Michele Barry

  • Set Procedures for Testing Recovery and Response: Create test guidelines and schedules for testing. To review the plan, consider reaching out to people who did not write the plan. Put together the forms and checklists that attendees will use during tests.

Alex Fullick

A business continuity plan is governed by a business continuity policy. You can learn more about creating a business continuity policy and find examples by reading our guide on developing an effective business continuity policy .

How to Create a Business Continuity Plan

Creating a business continuity plan (BCP) involves gathering a team, studying risks and key tasks, and choosing recovery activities. Then write the plan as a set of lists and guidelines, which may address risks such as fires, floods, pandemics, or data breaches.

According to Alex Fullick, your best bet is to create a simple plan. “I usually break everything down into three key categories: people, places, and things. If you focus on a couple of key pieces, you will be a lot more effective. That big binder of procedures is absolutely worthless. You need a bunch of guidelines to say what you do in a given situation: where are our triggers for deciding we’re in a crisis and we have to stop doing XYZ, and just focus on ABC.” 

“Post-pandemic, I think new managers will develop more policies and guidelines of all types than required, as a fear response,” cautions Michele Barry. 

Because every company is different, no two approaches to business continuity planning are the same. Tony Bombacino, Co-Founder and President of Real Food Blends , describes his company’s formal and informal business continuity approaches. “The first step in any crisis is for our nerve center to connect quickly, assess the situation, and then go into action,” he explains. 

Tony Bombacino

“Our sales manager and our marketing manager might discuss what’s going on, and say, ‘Are we going to say anything on social media? Do we need to reach out to any of our customers? The key things, like maintaining stock levels or what if somebody gets sick? What if there's a recall?’ Those plans we have laid out. But we're not a 5,000-person multi-billion-dollar company, so our business continuity plan is often in emails and Google Docs.” 

Mike Semel

“I've done planning literally for hundreds of businesses where we've just filled out basic forms,” says Mike Semel, President and Chief Compliance Officer of Semel Consulting . “For example, noting the insurance company's phone number — you know, on the back of your utility bill, which you never look at, there's an emergency number for if the power goes out or if the gas shuts off. We've helped people gather all that information and put it down. Even if there's no other plan, just having that information at their fingertips when they need it may be enough.”

You can also approach your business continuity planning as including three types of responses:

  • Proactive Strategies: Proactive approaches prevent crises. For example, you may buy an emergency generator to keep power running in your factory, or install a security system to prevent or limit loss during break-ins. Or you may create a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policy and offer training for remote workers to protect your network and data security.
  • Reactive Strategies: Reactive strategies are your immediate responses to a crisis. Examples of reactive methods include evacuation procedures, fire procedures, and emergency response strategies.
  • Recovery Strategies: Recovery strategies describe how you resume operations to produce a minimum acceptable level of service. The recovery plan includes actions to stand up temporary processes. The plan also describes the longer-term efforts, such as relocation, data restoration, temporary workaround processes, or outsourcing tasks. Recovery strategies are not limited to IT and data recovery.

Quick-Start Guide Business Continuity Plan Template

Business Continuity Quick Start Guide and template

If you don’t already have a business continuity plan in place, but need to create one in short order to respond to a disruption, use this quick-start business continuity template. This template is available in Word and Google Docs formats, and it’s simply formatted so that you can focus on brainstorming and problem-solving. 

Download Quick-Start Guide Business Continuity Plan Template

Word | PDF | Google Docs | Smartsheet

For other most useful free, downloadable business continuity plan (BCP) templates please read our "Free Business Continuity Plan Templates" article.

Key Components of a Business Continuity Plan

Your company’s complete business continuity plan will have many details. Your plan may differ from other companies' plans based on industry and other factors. Each facility or business unit may also conduct an impact analysis and create disaster recovery and continuity plans . Consider adding these key components to your business plan:

  • Contact Information: These pages include contact information for key employees, vendors, and critical third parties. Locate this information at the beginning of the plan. 
  • Business Impact Analysis: When you conduct business impact analysis (BIA), you evaluate the financial and other changes in a disruptive event (you can use one of these business impact templates to get started). Evaluate impact in terms of brand damage, product failure or malfunction, lost revenue, or legal and regulatory repercussions.
  • Risk Assessment: In this section, assess the potential risks to all aspects of the organization’s operations. Look at potential risks related to such matters as cash on hand, stock levels, and staff qualifications. Although you may face an infinite number of potential internal and external risks, focus on people, places, and things to keep from becoming overwhelmed. Then analyze the effects of any items that are completely lost or need repairs. Also, understand that risk assessment is an ongoing effort that works in tandem with training and testing. Consider adding a completed risk matrix to your plan. You can create one using a downloadable risk matrix template . 
  • Critical Functions Analysis and List: As a faster alternative to a BIA, a critical functions analysis reveals what processes are critical to keeping your company running. Examples of critical functions include payroll and wages, accounts receivable, customer service, or production. According to Michele Barry, with a values-based approach to critical functions, you should consider who you really are as a company. Then decide what you must continue doing and what you can stop doing. 
  • Trigger and Disaster Declaration Criteria: Here, you should detail how your executive management will know when to declare an emergency and initiate the plan.
  • Succession Plan: Identify alternate staff for key roles in each unit. Schedule time throughout the year to observe alternates as they make important decisions and complete recovery tasks.
  • Alternate Suppliers: If your goods are regulated (i.e., food, toy, and pharmaceutical manufacturing), your raw resources and parts must always be up to standard. Source suppliers before a crisis to ensure that regulatory vetting and approval do not delay supplies. 
  • Operations Plan: Describe how your organization will resume and continue daily operations after a disruption. Include a checklist with such items as supplies, equipment, and information on where data is backed up and where you keep the plan. Note who should have copies of the plan. 
  • Crisis Communication Strategy: Detail how the organization will communicate with employees, customers, and third-party entities in the event of a disruption. If regular communications systems are disabled, make a plan for alternate methods. Download a free crisis communication strategy template to get started on this aspect. 
  • Incident Response Plan: Describe how your organization plans to respond to a range of likely incidents or disruptions, and define the triggers for activating the plan. 
  • Alternate Site Relocation: The alternate site is the location that the organization moves to after a disruption occurs. In the plan, you can also note the transportation and resources required to move the business and the processes you must maintain in this facility.
  • Interim Procedures: These are the critical processes that must continue, either in their original or alternate forms.
  • Restoration of Critical Data: Critical data includes anything you must immediately recover to maintain normal business functions.
  • Vendor Partner Agreements: List your organization’s key vendors and how they can help you maintain or resume operations.
  • Work Backlog: This includes the work that piles up when systems are shut down. You must complete this work first when processes start again.
  • Recovery Strategy for IT Services: This section details the steps you take to restore the IT processes that are necessary to maintain the business.
  • Recovery Time Objectives (RTO) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPO): RTO refers to the maximum amount of time that a company can stop its processes and the length of time without access to data before productivity substantially drops. Determine RTOs for each unit, factoring in people, places, and things. 
  • Backup Plans: What if plans, processes, or resources fail or are unavailable? Determine alternatives now, so you don't have to scramble. Decide on a backup roster for personnel who are unavailable.
  • Manual Workarounds: This section details how a business can operate by hand, should all failsafe measures break down.
  • External Audit Details: For regulated organizations, external audits may be compulsory. Your scheduled internal audits will prepare you for external audits.
  • Test and Exercise Plan: Identify how and when you will test the continuity plan, including details about periodic tabletop testing and more complex real-world scenario testing.
  • Change Management: Note how you will incorporate learnings from tests and exercises, disseminate changes, and review the plan and track changes.

Key Resources for Business Continuity

To fix problems, restore operations, or submit an insurance claim, you need readily available details of the human resources and other groups that can assist with business continuity. (Your organization's unique situation may also require specific types of resources.) Add this information to appendices at the back of your continuity plan.

Fullick suggests broadening the definition of human assets. "People are our employees, certainly. But we forget that the term ‘people’ includes executive management. Management doesn't escape pandemics or the flu or a car crash. Bad things can happen to them and around them, too." 

Use the following list as a prompt for recording important information about your organization. Your unique situation may require other types of information.

  • Lists of key employees and their contact information. Also, think beyond C-level and response team members to staff with long-term or specialized knowledge
  • Disaster recovery and continuity team contact names, roles, and contact information
  • Emergency contact number for police and emergency services for your location
  • Non-emergency contact information for police and medical
  • Emergency and non-emergency contact numbers for facilities issues
  • Board member contact information
  • Personnel roster, including family or emergency contact names and numbers for the entire organization
  • Contractors for any repairs
  • Client contact information and SLAs
  • Insurance contacts for all plans
  • Key regulatory contacts.
  • Legal contacts
  • Vendor contact information and partner agreements and SLAs
  • Addresses and details for each office or facility
  • Primary and secondary contact and information for each facility or office, including at least one phone number and email address
  • Off-site recovery location
  • Addresses and access information for storage facilities or vehicle compounds
  • Funding and banking information
  • IT details and data recovery information, including an inventory of apps and license numbers  
  • Insurance policy numbers and agent contact information for each plan, healthcare, property, vehicle, etc.
  • Inventory of tangibles, including equipment, hardware, supplies, fixtures, and fittings (if you are a supplier or manufacturer, include an inventory of raw materials and finished goods)
  • Lease details
  • Licenses, permits, other legal documents
  • List of special items that you use regularly, but don't order frequently
  • Location of backup equipment
  • Utility account numbers and contact information (for electric, gas, telephone, water, waste pickup, etc.)

Activities to Complete Before Writing the Business Continuity Plan

Before you write your plan, take these preliminary steps to assemble a team and gather background information. 

  • Incident Commander: This person is responsible for all aspects of an emergency response.
  • Emergency Response Team: The emergency response team refers to the group of people in charge of responding to an emergency or disruption.
  • Information Technology Recovery Team: This group is responsible for recovering important IT services.
  • Alternate Site/Location Operation Team: This team is responsible for maintaining business operations at an alternate site.
  • Facilities Management Team: The facilities management team is responsible for managing all of the main business facilities and determining the necessary responses to maintain them in light of a disaster or disruption.
  • Department Upper Management: This includes key stakeholders and upper management employees who govern BCP decisions.
  • Conduct business impact analysis or critical function analysis. Understand how the loss of processes in each department can affect internal and external operations. See our article on business continuity planning to learn more about BIAs.
  • Conduct risk analysis. Determine the potential risks and threats to your organization.
  • Identify the scope of the plan. Define where the business continuity plan applies, whether to one office, the entire organization, or only certain aspects of the organization. Use the BIA and risk analysis to identify critical functions and key resources that you must maintain. Set goals to determine the level of detail required. Set milestones to track progress in completing the plan. "Setting scope is essential," Barry insists. "You need to define the core and noncore aspects of the business and the minimum requirements for achieving continuity."
  • Strategize recovery approaches: Strategize how your business should respond to a disruption, based on your risk assessment and BIA. During this process, you determine the core details of the BCP, add the key components and resources, and determine the timing for what must happen before, during, and after a disruptive event.

Common Structure of a Business Continuity Plan

Knowing the common structure should help shape the plan — and frees you from thinking about form when you should be thinking about content. Here is an example of a BCP format:

  • Business Name: Record the business name, which usually appears on the title page.
  • Date: The day the BCP is completed and signed off. 
  • Purpose and Scope: This section describes the reason for and span of the plan.
  • Business Impact Analysis: Add the results of the BIA to your plan.  
  • Risk Assessment: Consider adding the risk assessment matrix to your plan.
  • Policy Information: Include the business continuity policy or policy highlights.
  • Emergency Management and Response: You can detail emergency response measures separately from other recovery and continuity procedures.
  • The Plan: The core of the plan details step-by-step procedures for business recovery and continuity.
  • Relevant Appendices: Appendices can include such information as contact lists, org charts, copies of insurance policies, or any supporting documents relevant in a crisis.

Keep in mind that every business is different — no two BCPs look the same. Tailor your business continuity plan to your company, and make sure the document captures all the information you need to keep your business functioning. Having everything you need to know in an emergency is the most crucial part of a BCP.

Disruptive Incident Quick-Reference Card Template

Disruptive Incident Quick Reference Cad Template

Use this quick-reference card template to write the key steps that employees should take in case of an emergency. Customize this template for each business unit, department, or role. Describe what people should do immediately and in the following days and weeks to continue the business. Print PDFs and laminate them for workstations or wallets, or load the PDFs on your mobile phone. 

Download Disruptive Incident Quick-Reference Card Template 

Expert Disaster Preparation Checklist

Business continuity and disaster planning aren’t just about your buildings and cloud backup — it’s about people and their families. Based on a document by Mike Semel of Semel Consulting, this disaster checklist helps you prepare for the human needs of your staff and their families, including food, shelter, and other comforts.

Tips for Writing a Business Continuity Plan

With its many moving parts and considerations, a business continuity plan can seem intimidating. Follow these tips to help you write, track, and maintain a strong BCP:

  • Take the continuity management planning  process seriously.
  • Interview key people in the organization who have successfully managed disruptive incidents.
  • Get approval from leadership early on and seek their ongoing championship of continuity preparedness.
  • Be flexible when it comes to who you involve, what resources you need, and how you achieve the most effective plan.
  • Keep the plan as simple and targeted as possible to make it easy to understand.
  • Limit the plan to practical disaster response actions.
  • Base the plan on the most up-to-date, accurate information available.
  • Plan for the worst-case scenario and broadly cover many types of potential disruptive situations. 
  • Consider the minimum amount of information or resources you need to keep your business running in a disaster. 
  • Use the data you gather in your BIA and risk analysis to make the planning process more straightforward.
  • Share the plan and make sure employees have a chance to review it or ask questions. 
  • Make the document available in hard copy for easy access, or add it to a shared platform. 
  • Continually test, review, and maintain your plan to keep it up to date. 
  • Keep the BCP current with organizational and regulatory changes and updates.

Empower Your Teams to Build Business Continuity with Smartsheet

Empower your people to go above and beyond with a flexible platform designed to match the needs of your team — and adapt as those needs change. 

The Smartsheet platform makes it easy to plan, capture, manage, and report on work from anywhere, helping your team be more effective and get more done. Report on key metrics and get real-time visibility into work as it happens with roll-up reports, dashboards, and automated workflows built to keep your team connected and informed. 

When teams have clarity into the work getting done, there’s no telling how much more they can accomplish in the same amount of time.  Try Smartsheet for free, today.

Discover why over 90% of Fortune 100 companies trust Smartsheet to get work done.

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Home » Business » Business Continuity Plan Template (Excel, Word, PDF)

Business Continuity Plan Template (Excel, Word, PDF)

The current situation of the world has shown that many businesses can go through all sorts of situations. However, it doesn’t matter you are a small business, a hospital, or a bank. You should have a strategy to continue your work no matter what happens. Therefore, a business continuity plan template is an important part of your company’s risk management. It will help you to know what to do in an emergency and other disastrous scenarios.

Table of Contents

What is a business continuity plan?

A business continuity plan is generally an initiative that is used to make a system of preventing and recovering from risk to the company. Furthermore, it includes procedures that ensure employees’ security. Despite disastrous events and unfavorable circumstances, it allows the employees to continue doing their work.

Thus, the main purpose of this plan is to prevent business operations from stopping completely. Moreover, it enables them to recover once the situation ends. You may also like Business Proposal Cover Letter .

How to plot a business continuity plan?

Here are a few ways on how you can draft the business continuity plan;

  • Consider all threats: Firstly, think about every disaster event that can negatively affect your business tasks. Do a risk assessment for each disaster event. Then, see if it will be safe for employees to continue work during that time. If testing shows it is safe to carry on, then plot plans to circumvent these issues.
  • Go online: Nowadays, information technology has made our lives easier. It enables you to continue to work online from a convenient location. Thus, your business task has a smooth transition and makes it convenient for everybody. Emails, video calls, and other online tools are considered to be effective for various jobs.
  • Plot it comprehensive: Your plan should have a guide that will enable any individual to understand how to execute the plan. However, there must be easily understandable instructions to make sure that business continuity is all set.
  • Take everyone’s input: Make sure that your plan is a document created out of collaborative efforts. In addition, you should involve particular entities and employees. This is because they can adequately determine the items that are a threat to the business. You may also see Business Contact List Template .

What components business continuity plan include?

There are four key components of a business continuity plan;

  • Scope and goals/objectives: Describe the purpose of the business continuity plan template. This includes such as the particular business functions that have to be prioritized for recovery during an emergency. Furthermore, this part includes examples of emergency events.
  • Operations at threat: This section involves feasible threats with key operational functions that disrupt business continuity. Moreover, this also includes the magnitude of each risk to each function.
  • Recovery strategy: Next, outlines the relevant recovery strategy to restore business operations after an incident. A good strategy must include a realistic recovery timeline and significant emergency resources.
  • Roles and responsibilities: In this section, responsibilities are assigned to each team member. Every member has a unique set of responsibilities to successfully carry out BCP. You should also check the Business Plan Template .

Instructions of Business Continuity Plan

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Hence, we concluded that a business continuity plan plays a significant role in every business. It provides an ideal strategy to prevent business operations from stopping completely.

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I am Ryan Duffy and legal writer. I received a bachelor of business administration (BBA) degree from London Business School. I have 8+ years of writing experience in the different template fields and working with ExcelTMP.com for 7 years. I work with a team of writers and business and legal professionals to provide you with the best templates.

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FREE 12+ Sample Business Continuity Plan Templates in PDF

If you’re an entrepreneur in the initial stages of your startup business , you’re aware that you need a reliable business plan to start the right way. However, starting a business the right way and keeping it afloat for many years are two different challenges. The latter is just as important as the former. And for you to do it successfully, you also need a business continuity plan aside from a startup business plan . For that reason, we invite you to take a look at our Sample Business Continuity Plan Templates!

Business Continuity Plan

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A business continuity plan is a document that outlines the various strategies to keep a business running for longer terms. It discusses multiple approaches for a business to avoid threats, recover from disasters, and capitalize on opportunities for growth. It’s quite similar to a simple business plan . But its focus is to help a business maneuver the factors that affect its life cycle. On the other hand, a simple business plan’s focus is to establish a business on the right note.

Both a small business and a large business can benefit from having a continuity plan. Not everything in their operations will go as planned. And external entities in the industry can impact them adversely. But with a continuity plan , they’ll have the tools to overcome any challenge.

As an entrepreneur, one of your goals should be to sustain your business. Planning a business is one thing, sustaining it is another. So aside from brainstorming ideas for your new business plan , you must also spend time structuring a business continuity plan. You’ll need it if you want your company to remain active in the industry for many years and decades. So, here are the basic business continuity planning steps you must know.

Every industry is either plagued with threats or blessed with opportunities. So whatever type of business you’re planning to open, you have to be ready for them. Do that by identifying threats and opportunities that your company might encounter. Gather info about them by studying the current state of the industry and the market.

As much as possible, check every corner in the industry that your business belongs to. Many factors cause threats and opportunities to sprout. Overlooking a single threat or opportunity can ultimately affect your company. So, do your best to leave no stone unturned.

Once you’ve identified the threats and opportunities, study how they can affect your business through a business impact analysis or BIA. Figure out what areas in your company they will touch. For example, if you’ve detected threats in data security, that likely puts your company’s trade secrets and confidential data in jeopardy. That enables you to do a thorough risk assessment , which then allows you to structure the best risk management strategy . Speaking of strategy, that brings us to…

When formulating your continuity strategies, you should base them on your BIA’s findings. Tailor-make your strategies for your business needs and unique attributes. And, of course, make sure that they help in avoiding threats, capitalizing on opportunities, and recovering from major problems. You have to take your time in creating your strategies. Those are your company’s lifeline when it’s faced with challenges, especially during disaster recovery .

A business continuity plan can do more harm than good if it isn’t proven and tested. That said, before you subject your continuity plan for implementation, make sure to test and evaluate its effectiveness. You can do that by simulating situations or conducting drills using your continuity strategies. During the test, you might detect some shortcomings in your strategies. And that’s your signal to make some improvements in your continuity plan.

A business continuity strategy plan has three phases. These phases are:

  • Planning and prevention
  • Disaster response
  • Return to normal

There are five steps in testing a business continuity plan. These steps are as follows:

  • Review the business continuity plan from start to finish.
  • Set a schedule and duration for testing the plan.
  • Communicate the continuity plan to the employees.
  • Simulate a scenario.
  • Evaluate the continuity plan’s effectiveness.

A business continuity plan isn’t a document that your company will open regularly. So, it’s easy to forget that it exists because of hectic daily operations and other advancements in the business. But you shouldn’t do that mistake. From time to time, you have to test your continuity plan. How often? According to Onsolve, companies should evaluate and revise business continuity plans every year .

Think of your company as a ship crossing the ocean. During its journey, it’ll encounter strong winds and gigantic waves that can sink it or divert it to an undesired destination. But if you have a continuity plan, you’ll be able to adjust its sails to weather storms. Thus, your company will always remain afloat. So, as soon as possible, start devising your business continuity plan. And don’t forget to download our templates to make it easier for you.

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No matter what kind of small business you decide to run, you’ll have to make sure that it stays alive for a long time. So long as you know what should happen and how things should happen, then you should be able to make sure that it survives for a long time. You may also see Plan Templates .

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Blog Business

7 Business Continuity Plan Examples

By Danesh Ramuthi , Nov 28, 2023

Business Continuity Plan Examples

A business continuity plan (BCP) is a strategic framework that prepares businesses to maintain or swiftly resume their critical functions in the face of disruptions, whether they stem from natural disasters, technological failures, human error, or other unforeseen events.

In today’s fast-paced world, businesses face an array of potential disruptions ranging from cyberattacks and ransomware to severe weather events and global pandemics. By having a well-crafted BCP, businesses can mitigate these risks, ensuring the safety and continuity of their critical services and operations.

Responsibility for business continuity planning typically lies with top management and dedicated planning teams within an organization. It is a cross-functional effort that involves input and coordination across various departments, ensuring that all aspects of the business are considered.

For businesses looking to develop or refine their business continuity strategies, there are numerous resources available. Tools like Venngage’s business plan maker and their business continuity plan templates offer practical assistance, streamlining the process of creating a robust and effective BCP. 

Click to jump ahead: 

7 business continuity plan examples

Business continuity types, how to write a business continuity plan, how often should a business continuity plan be reviewed, business continuity plan vs. disaster recovery plan, final thoughts.

In business, unpredictability is the only certainty. This is where business continuity plans (BCPs) come into play. These plans are not just documents; they are a testament to a company’s preparedness and commitment to sustained operations under adverse conditions. To illustrate the practicality and necessity of these plans, let’s delve into some compelling examples.

Business continuity plan example for small business

Imagine a small business specializing in digital marketing services, with a significant portion of its operations reliant on continuous internet connectivity and digital communication tools. This business, although small, caters to a global clientele, making its online presence and prompt service delivery crucial.

Business Consultant Continuity Plan Template

Scope and objective:

This Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is designed to ensure the continuity of digital marketing services and client communications in the event of an unforeseen and prolonged internet outage. Such an outage could be caused by a variety of factors, including cyberattacks, technical failures or service provider issues. The plan aims to minimize disruption to these critical services, ensuring that client projects are delivered on time and communication lines remain open and effective.

Operations at risk:

Operation: Digital Marketing Services Operation Description: A team dedicated to creating and managing digital marketing campaigns for clients across various time zones. Business Impact: High Impact Description: The team manages all client communications, campaign designs, and real-time online marketing strategies. An internet outage would halt all ongoing campaigns and client communications, leading to potential loss of business and client trust.

Recovery strategy:

The BCP should include immediate measures like switching to a backup internet service provider or using mobile data as a temporary solution. The IT team should be prepared to deploy these alternatives swiftly. Additionally, the company should have a protocol for informing clients about the situation via alternative communication channels like mobile phones.

Roles and responsibilities:

Representative: Alex Martinez Role: IT Manager Description of Responsibilities:

  • Oversee the implementation of the backup internet connectivity plan.
  • Coordinate with the digital marketing team to ensure minimal disruption in campaign management.
  • Communicate with the service provider for updates and resolution timelines.

Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plan Template

Business continuity plan example for software company

In the landscape of software development, a well-structured Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is vital. This example illustrates a BCP for a software company, focusing on a different kind of disruption: a critical data breach.

Business Continuity Plan Template

Scope and objectives:

This BCP is designed to ensure the continuity of software development and client data security in the event of a significant data breach. Such a breach could be due to cyberattacks, internal security lapses, or third-party service vulnerabilities. The plan prioritizes the rapid response to secure data, assess the impact on software development projects and maintain client trust and communication.

Operation: Software Development and Data Security Operation Description: The software development team is responsible for creating and maintaining software products, which involves handling sensitive client data. In the realm of software development, where the creation and maintenance of products involve handling sensitive client data, prioritizing security is crucial. Strengthen your software development team’s capabilities by incorporating the best antivirus with VPN features, offering a robust defense to protect client information and maintain a secure operational environment. The integrity and security of this data are paramount.

Business Impact: Critical Impact Description: A data breach could compromise client data, leading to loss of trust, legal consequences and potential financial penalties. It could also disrupt ongoing development projects and delay product releases.

The IT security team should immediately isolate the breached systems to prevent further data loss. They should then work on identifying the breach’s source and extent. Simultaneously, the client relations team should inform affected clients about the breach and the steps being taken. The company should also engage a third-party cybersecurity firm for an independent investigation and recovery assistance.

Representative: Sarah Lopez Role: Head of IT Security Contact Details: [email protected] Description of Responsibilities:

  • Lead the initial response to the data breach, including system isolation and assessment.
  • Coordinate with external cybersecurity experts for breach analysis and mitigation.
  • Work with the legal team to understand and comply with data breach notification laws.
  • Communicate with the software development team leaders about the impact on ongoing projects.

Business Continuity Plan Templates

Related: 7 Best Business Plan Software for 2023

Business continuity plan example for manufacturing

In the manufacturing sector, disruptions can significantly impact production lines, supply chains, and customer commitments. This example of a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) for a manufacturing company addresses a specific scenario: a major supply chain disruption.

Business Continuity Plan Template

This BCP is formulated to ensure the continuity of manufacturing operations in the event of a significant supply chain disruption. Such disruptions could be caused by geopolitical events, natural disasters affecting key suppliers or transportation network failures. The plan focuses on maintaining production capabilities and fulfilling customer orders by managing and mitigating supply chain risks.

Operation: Production Line Operation Description: The production line is dependent on a steady supply of raw materials and components from various suppliers to manufacture products. Business Impact: High Impact Description: A disruption in the supply chain can lead to a halt in production, resulting in delayed order fulfillment, loss of revenue and potential damage to customer relationships.

The company should establish relationships with alternative suppliers to ensure a diversified supply chain. In the event of a disruption, the procurement team should be able to quickly switch to these alternative sources. Additionally, maintaining a strategic reserve of critical materials can buffer short-term disruptions. The logistics team should also develop flexible transportation plans to adapt to changing scenarios.

Representative: Michael Johnson Role: Head of Supply Chain Management Contact Details: [email protected] Description of Responsibilities:

  • Monitor global supply chain trends and identify potential risks.
  • Develop and maintain relationships with alternative suppliers.
  • Coordinate with logistics to ensure flexible transportation solutions.
  • Communicate with production managers about supply chain status and potential impacts on production schedules.

Related: 15+ Business Plan Templates for Strategic Planning

BCPs are essential for ensuring that a business can continue operating during crises. Here’s a summary of the different types of business continuity plans that are common:

  • Operational : Involves ensuring that critical systems and processes continue functioning without disruption. It’s vital to have a plan to minimize revenue loss in case of disruptions.
  • Technological : For businesses heavily reliant on technology, this type of continuity plan focuses on maintaining and securing internal systems, like having offline storage for important documents.
  • Economic continuity : This type ensures that the business remains profitable during disruptions. It involves future-proofing the organization against scenarios that could negatively impact the bottom line.
  • Workforce continuity : Focuses on maintaining adequate and appropriate staffing levels, especially during crises, ensuring that the workforce is capable of handling incoming work.
  • Safety : Beyond staffing, safety continuity involves creating a comfortable and secure work environment where employees feel supported, especially during crises.
  • Environmental : It addresses the ability of the team to operate effectively and safely in their physical work environment, considering threats to physical office spaces and planning accordingly.
  • Security : Means prioritizing the safety and security of employees and business assets, planning for potential security breaches and safeguarding important business information.
  • Reputation : Focuses on maintaining customer satisfaction and a good reputation, monitoring conversations about the brand and having action plans for reputation management.

Business Continuity Planning Templates

As I have explained so far, a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is invaluable. Writing an effective BCP involves a series of strategic steps, each crucial to ensuring that your business can withstand and recover from unexpected events. Here’s a guide on how to craft a robust business continuity plan:

Business Continuity And Disaster Recovery Plan Template

1. Choose your business continuity team

Assemble a dedicated team responsible for the development and implementation of the BCP. The team should include members from various departments with a deep understanding of the business operations.

2. Outline your plan objectives

Clearly articulate what the plan aims to achieve. Objectives may include minimizing financial loss, ensuring the safety of employees, maintaining critical business operations, and protecting the company’s reputation.

3. Meet with key players in your departments

Engage with department heads and key personnel to gain insights into the specific needs and processes of each department. This helps in identifying critical functions and resources.

4. Identify critical functions and types of threats

Determine which functions are vital to the business’s survival and identify potential threats that could impact these areas. 

5. Carry on risk assessments across different areas

Evaluate the likelihood and impact of identified threats on each critical function. This assessment helps in prioritizing the risks and planning accordingly.

6. Conduct a business impact analysis (BIA)

Perform a BIA to understand the potential consequences of disruption to critical business functions. It has to be done in determining the maximum acceptable downtime and the resources needed for business continuity.

7. Start drafting the plan

Compile the information gathered into a structured document. The plan should include emergency contact information, recovery strategies and detailed action steps for different scenarios.

8. Test the plan for any gaps

Conduct simulations or tabletop exercises to test the plan’s effectiveness. This testing can reveal unforeseen gaps or weaknesses in the plan.

9. Review & revise your plan

Use the insights gained from testing to refine and update the plan. Continual revision ensures the plan remains relevant and effective in the face of changing business conditions and emerging threats.

Read Also: How to Write a Business Plan Outline [Examples + Templates]

A Business Continuity Plan (BCP) should ideally be reviewed and updated at least annually. 

The annual review ensures that the plan remains relevant and effective in the face of new challenges and changes within the business, such as shifts in business strategy, introduction of new technology or changes in operational processes. 

Additionally, it’s crucial to reassess the BCP following any significant business changes, such as mergers, acquisitions or entry into new markets, as well as after the occurrence of any major incident that tested the plan’s effectiveness. 

However, in rapidly changing industries or in businesses that face a high degree of uncertainty or frequent changes, more frequent reviews – such as bi-annually or quarterly – may be necessary. 

A Business Continuity Plan (BCP) and a Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) are two crucial components of organizational preparedness, yet they serve different functions. The BCP is aimed at preventing interruptions to business operations and maintaining regular activities. 

It focuses on aspects such as the location of operations during a crisis (like a temporary office or remote work), how staff will communicate and which functions are prioritized. In essence, a BCP details how a business can continue operating during and after a disruption​​​​.

On the other hand, a DRP is more specific to restoring data access and IT infrastructure after a disaster. It describes the steps that employees must follow during and after a disaster to ensure minimal function necessary for the organization to continue. 

Essentially, while a BCP is about maintaining operations, a DRP is about restoring critical functions, particularly IT-related, after a disruption has occurred​

It’s clear that having a robust and adaptable business continuity plan (BCP) is not just a strategic advantage but a fundamental necessity for businesses of all sizes and sectors. 

From small businesses to large corporations, the principles of effective business continuity planning remain consistent: identify potential threats, assess the impact on critical functions, and develop a comprehensive strategy to maintain operations during and after a disruption.

The process of writing a BCP, as detailed in this article, underscores the importance of a thorough and thoughtful approach. It’s about more than just drafting a document; it’s about creating a living framework that evolves with your business and the changing landscape of risks.

To assist in this crucial task, you can use Venngage’s business plan maker & their business continuity plan templates . These tools streamline the process of creating a BCP, ensuring that it is not only comprehensive but also clear, accessible and easy to implement. 

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  1. 10+ Business Continuity Plan Templates

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  2. Business Continuity Worksheet Template

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  3. Business continuity plan template in Word and Pdf formats

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  4. FREE 12+ Sample Business Continuity Plan Templates in PDF

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  5. 7 Free Business Continuity Plan Templates

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  6. Modèles gratuits de plan de continuité d’activité

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COMMENTS

  1. PDF Yale University Business Continuity Planning Quick Start Guide

    Business Continuity Planning - Quick Start Guide (Rev; Sept. 2019) Page 2 Overview of Business Continuity Planning There are 4 steps to creating a business continuity plan. Each step builds on information from the previous step. The entire process can be completed over a four to six-week period.

  2. PDF Creating a Business Continuity Plan

    CREATING THE BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLAN The business continuity plan (BCP) is intended to be a dynamic plan and can be used in emergencies, disasters, and other catastrophic events where the technology, facility, or a department is severely impacted. BCPs are critical in keeping the facility open and providing care to the community.

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    Download Business Continuity Framework Template. Word | PowerPoint | PDF. This template outlines the structure involved in creating a business continuity plan. It provides an easy, comprehensive way to detail the steps that will comprise your unique BCP. Use this template to plan each phase of a typical BCP, including the business impact ...

  4. PDF Crisis management and business continuity guide

    Crisis Management & Business Continuity Guide. KPMG designs and delivers a series of independent cyber security simulations to test an organization's cyber incident response, business and board crisis management procedures when faced with a cyber focused disruption scenario. KPMG designs and delivers end-to-end business continuity, IT ...

  5. Business Continuity Plan Templates

    A business continuity plan template is a tool used by business continuity managers and IT teams to outline strategies for keeping businesses operational despite emergencies such as extreme weather events, building evacuations, power outages, etc. It identifies high business impact operational areas, assets, and recovery strategies with assigned ...

  6. 46 Best Business Continuity Plan Templates [Word & PDF]

    Download 46 free business continuity plan templates in Word and PDF formats. Learn what a business continuity plan is, how to write one, and what components it should have. Find examples of different types of business continuity plans for various industries and scenarios.

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    ISO 22301 BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLAN TEMPLATE VERSION HISTORY VERSION APPROVED BY REVISION DATE DESCRIPTION OF CHANGE AUTHOR PREPARED BY TITLE DATE ... Update the business continuity plan as needed based on the tests and exercises. 6 DISCLAIMER Any articles, templates, or information provided by Smartsheet on the website are for ...

  8. Business Continuity Plan: Example & How to Write

    Step 3: Establish the business continuity plan objectives. Step 4: Evaluate the potential impact of disruptions to the business and its workers. Step 5: List actions to protect the business. Step 6: Organize contact lists. Step 7: Maintain, review, and continuously update the business continuity plan.

  9. PDF BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLAN

    These are the activities most needed for the business to continue, and the recovery plan should target these essential business functions. The recovery plan should proceed as follows: A. DISASTER OCCURRENCE A disaster is declared and decisions are made to activate the rest of the recovery plan. B. PLAN ACTIVATION The Business Continuity Plan is ...

  10. Free Business Continuity Plan Template

    A business continuity plan is a document establishing your organization's strategies for dealing with a disaster. These procedures help you resume business quickly and reduce downtime and lost revenue. It covers essential processes like protecting assets, handling human resources issues, and dealing with business partners.

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    The purpose of the Business Continuity Plan is to assist the organization with ensuring that mission critical services and process are maintained, restored or augmented to meet the designated Recovery Time Objectives (RTO). Following the command/ICS structure, the Business Continuity Operations Branch will lead BCP activities to: a.

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    The Business Continuity Plan is an interactive template. In a step-by-step process this component guides the user in building a simple, but effective, plan to minimize damage and speed the resumption of office operations after a crisis. The template takes the user through four major planning steps:

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    concept of Business Continuity Planning. However, due to the urgency of the situation, ACCU deemed it necessary to develop a guide to accelerate the process of deploying BCP to as many credit unions as possible. The aim of the business continuity plan is to ensure the continuity of services to members despite disruptions.

  14. PDF Business Continuity Plan

    The Plan will be distributed to members of the business continuity team and management. A master copy of the document should be maintained by the business continuity team leader. Provide print copies of this plan within the room designated as the emergency operations center (EOC). Multiple copies should be stored within the EOC to ensure that ...

  15. 60+ SAMPLE Business Continuity Plans in PDF

    Step 3: Set a Plan for Maintaining Operations. Now for the meat of your BCP, state all your plans to maintain services and operations. The key is to organize your strategic plans instead of just writing in long paragraphs. You could categorize with a table, chart, checklist, diagram, and so much more.

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    How to Draft a Business Continuity Plan. As mentioned in this article by Forbes, having a business continuity plan can ease the pressure on everyone. If you don't have one planned, you must develop one in case another crisis unfolds. Here are a few ways on how you can plot the development of your business continuity plan. 1. Consider All the ...

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    Learn how to write a business continuity plan step-by-step with tips from experts and free templates. Download a quick-start template for print or mobile, and access a disruptive incident quick-reference card. Find out the key components, procedures, training, and insights of a plan.

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    Here are a few ways on how you can draft the business continuity plan; Consider all threats: Firstly, think about every disaster event that can negatively affect your business tasks. Do a risk assessment for each disaster event. Then, see if it will be safe for employees to continue work during that time.

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    Components and sequencing description. This document is designed to help explain the contents of an example Business Continuity Plans, so that team members will have a better understanding of how to relate a Business Continuity Plan contents to the efforts needed to create them.

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    There are five steps in testing a business continuity plan. These steps are as follows: Review the business continuity plan from start to finish. Set a schedule and duration for testing the plan. Communicate the continuity plan to the employees. Simulate a scenario. Evaluate the continuity plan's effectiveness.

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    Having a plan in place before the disruption occurs can greatly improve the likelihood of your business . surviving disruption or disaster. How to use this business continuity . plan template. This document has been designed to help small . business owners create a simple business continuity . plan to: • identify risks to your business

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    Whether that's going to be five, ten, or even a hundred years into the future, you'll need to make sure that you write about it as clear as possible. The reason for doing so is to motivate both you and your employees to work towards something. You may also see contingency plan templates. Printable Business Continuity Plan Example

  23. 7 Business Continuity Plan Examples

    6. Conduct a business impact analysis (BIA) Perform a BIA to understand the potential consequences of disruption to critical business functions. It has to be done in determining the maximum acceptable downtime and the resources needed for business continuity. 7. Start drafting the plan.