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

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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.

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5 Step Guide to Business Continuity Planning (BCP) in 2021

A business continuity plan provides a concrete plan to maintain business cohesion in challenging circumstances. Click here for the key steps that can help you formulate a formidable BCP.

A business continuity plan (BCP) is defined as a protocol of preventing and recovering from potentially large threats to the company’s business continuity. This article explains what a business continuity plan is today, its key benefits, and a step-by-step guide to creating a formidable plan.

Table of Contents

What is a business continuity plan (bcp), key benefits of having a business continuity plan, step-by-step guide to building a formidable business continuity plan (bcp) in 2021.

A business continuity plan (BCP) is a protocol of preventing and recovering from potentially large threats to the company’s business continuity. Such a plan often aims to address the need for updated business norms and operational standards in unpredictable circumstances such as natural disasters, data breach/ exposures, large scale system failures etc. The goal of such a plan is to ensure continuity of business with no or little damage to regular working environments, including job security for its employees.

It covers everything from business processes, human resources details, and more. Essentially a BCP provides a concrete plan to the organization to maintain business continuity even in challenging circumstances. 

Below are key reasons why businesses need to have a BCP today:

  • BCP’s relevance has gone up considerably after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and was also a major testing time for organizations that did have such a plan in place. The organizations which had a business continuity plan in place were better able to cope during these unprecedented circumstances better than those who did not have any such plans.
  • The recorded number of natural disasters has increased from 375 in 2016 to 409 in 2019 Opens a new window . Globally, the loss because of natural disasters was $232 billion in 2019, according to a study by Aon Opens a new window .
  • The number of cyberattacks has also increased in all geographies and all business verticals. MonsterCloud reported that cyberattacks have skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic. All this means that the organizations have to be better prepared to fight disasters. The importance of BCP can hardly be exaggerated in this context. Preparing a BCP is imperative for any enterprise, big or small, today. 

The end goal of a BCP is to ensure that the essential services continue to run in the event of an incident. For instance, if there is an earthquake where your customer service representatives operate from, your BCP will be able to tell you who will handle customer calls until the original office is restored.

Also Read: What Is Disaster Recovery? Definition, Cloud and On-premise, Benefits and Best Practices

Difference between a business continuity plan (BCP) and disaster recovery plan (DCP)

A BCP is often confused with a disaster recovery (DR) plan. While a DR plan is primarily focused on restoring the IT systems and infrastructure, a BCP is much more than that. It covers all areas and departments of the organization, including HR, marketing and sales, support functions. 

The underlying thought behind BCP is that IT systems can hardly work in silos. Other departments also need to be restored to cater to the client or for meeting the business demands. 

“Many people think a disaster recovery plan (DRP) is the same as a business continuity plan, but a DRP is only a small, yet essential, a portion of a full BCP. A DRP focuses solely on restoring an organization’s IT infrastructure while minimizing data loss. On the other hand, a BCP is a comprehensive guide on how to continue the mission and business-critical operations during a time of an unplanned disruption (natural disasters, pandemics, or malware),” says Caleb Pipkin, a security expert at Logically . 

Whether a business is small, big, or medium-sized, it needs a ‘plan B’ to recover quickly in the event of a natural disaster or a crisis and can survive the disruption. BCP helps you dust yourself and get back to business quickly and easily. It means that the enterprise will be better placed to address their customers’ needs even in the wake of a disaster. 

On the other hand, the lack of a plan means that your organization will take longer to recover from an event or incident. It could also lead to loss of business or clients. Let’s look at some key benefits of BCP.

1. It is a roadmap to act in a disaster

A well-defined business continuity plan is like a roadmap during a disruption. It allows the firms to react swiftly and effectively and maintain business continuity. In turn, this leads to a faster and complete recovery of the enterprise in the shortest possible timeframe. It brings down the business downtime and outlines the steps to be taken before, during, and after a crisis and thus helps maintain its financial viability. 

2. Offers a competitive edge

Fast reaction and business continuity during a disruption allow organizations to gain a competitive edge over its business rivals. It can translate into a significant competitive advantage in the long run. Further, your clients will be more confident in your ability to perform in adverse circumstances allowing you to build a long and sustainable relationship with your business partners.

Developing competence to act and handle any unfavorable event effectively has a positive effect on the company’s reputation and market value. It goes a long way in enhancing customer confidence. 

Also Read: Top 8 Disaster Recovery Software Companies in 2021

3. Cuts down losses

Disasters have a considerable impact on all types of business, whether big or small. Business disruption can lead to financial, legal, and reputational losses. Failure to plan could be disastrous for businesses. You may lose your customers while trying to get your business on track. In the worst circumstances, you may not be able to recover at all. A well-defined business continuity strategy minimizes the damage to an organization and allows you to bring down these losses as much as possible. 

4. Enables employment continuity and protects livelihoods

One of the most significant consequences of a disaster is the loss of employment. The loss of livelihood can be curtailed to an extent if the business continues to function in the event of a disaster. It leads to greater confidence in the workforce that their jobs might not be at risk, and the management is taking steps to protect their jobs. It helps build confidence in senior management’s ability to respond to the business disruption in a planned manner. 

5. Can be life-saving

A regularly tested and updated BCP can potentially help save the lives of the employees and the customers during a disaster. For instance, if the BCP plan for fire is regularly tested, the speed with which the workforce acts can help save lives. 

6. Preserves brand value and develops resilience

Possibly the biggest asset of an organization is its brand. Being able to perform in uncertain times helps build goodwill and maintain its brand value and may even help mitigate financial and reputational loss during a disaster. 

BCP curtails the damage to the company’s brand and finances because of a disaster event. This helps bring down the cost of any incident and thus help the company be more resilient. 

Also Read: 10 Best Practices for Disaster Recovery Planning (DRP)

7. Enables adherence to compliance requirements

Having a BCP allows organizations to have additional benefits of complying with regulatory requirements. It is a legal requirement in several countries.

8. Helps in supply chain security

A precise BCP goes a long way in protecting the supply chain from damage. It ensures continuity in delivering products and services by being able to perform critical activities.

9. Enhances operational efficiency

One of BCP’s lesser-known benefits is that it helps identify areas of operational efficiency in the organization. Developing BCP calls for an in-depth evaluation of the company’s processes. This can potentially reveal the areas of improvement. Essentially, it gathers information that can benefit in enhancing the effectiveness of the processes and operations. 

Also Read: 7 Ways to Build an Effective Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Plan  

The COVID-19 pandemic has put the spotlight on preparing for a disaster like never before. We make the job easier for you by listing out the key steps in building a formidable business continuity plan: 

How to Build a Business Continuity Plan

How to Build a Business Continuity Plan

Step 1: Risk assessment 

This phase involves asking crucial questions to evaluate the risks faced by the company. What are the likely business threats and disruptions which are most likely to occur? What is the most profitable activity of your organization? It is vital to prioritize key risks and operations, which will help mitigate the damage in the event of a disaster. 

Step 2: Business impact analysis

The second step involves a thorough and in-depth assessment of your business processes to determine the vulnerable areas and the potential losses if those processes are disrupted. This is also known as Business Impact Analysis . 

Essentially, Business impact analysis (BIA) is a process that helps the organization define the impact if critical business operations are interrupted because of a disaster, accident, or emergency. It helps in identifying the most crucial elements of the business processes. For instance, maintaining a supply chain might be more critical during a crisis than public relations.

While there is no formal standard for a BIA, it typically involves the following steps: 

  • Collating information: As a first step, a questionnaire is prepared to find out critical business processes and resources that will help in the proper assessment of the impact of a disruptive event. One-on-one sessions with key management members may be conducted further to gain insights into the organization’s processes and workings.
  • Analysis: This is followed by analyzing the collected information. A manual or computer-assisted analysis is conducted. The analysis is based on an interruption in which crucial activities or resources are not available. Typically it works on the assumption of the worst-case scenario, even when the chances of a risk likelihood are low. This approach is followed to zero in on the systems that, when disrupted or interrupted, threaten the organization’s very survival. This way, these processes are prioritized in the business continuity plan. 

The analysis phase helps identify the minimum staff and resources required for running the organization in the event of a crisis. This also allows the organizations to assess the impact on the revenue if the business is unable to run for a day, a week, or more. There might be contractual penalties, regulatory fines, and workforce-related expenditure which need to be taken into account while finding out the impact on the business. Further, there might be specific vulnerabilities of the firm, and they need to be considered in the BIA. 

  • Preparing a report: The next step is preparing a BIA report, which is assessed by the senior management. The report is a thorough analysis of the gathered information along with findings. It also gives recommendations on the procedure that should be followed in the event of a business disruption. The BIA report also shares the impact on the revenue, supply chain, and customer delivery to the business in a specific time frame. 

The business impact analysis report may also include a checklist of all the resources, such as the names of key personnel, data backup , contact information, emergency responders, and more.

  • Presenting the report: Usually, this report goes through several amendments before being cleared by the senior management. The involvement of senior management is crucial to the success of the business continuity plan. It sends out a strong signal in the organization that it is a serious initiative. 

Also Read: Will Extreme Weather Events Affect Your Business? Lessons From the Texas Winter Storm

Step 3: BCP Testing

Several testing methods are available to test the effectiveness of the BCP. Here are a few common ones: 

  • TableTop test: As the name suggests, the identified executives go through the plan in detail to evaluate whether it will work on not. Different disaster types and the response to them are discussed at length. This type of testing is designed to make all the key personnel aware of their role in the event of a disaster. The response procedure is reviewed, and responsibilities are outlined, so everybody knows their roles.
  • Walk through: In this type of testing, the team members go through their part in the plan with a specific disaster in mind. Drills or a simulated response and disaster role-playing are part of this. This is a more thorough form of testing and likely to reveal the shortcoming in the plan. Any vulnerabilities discovered should be used to update the BCP accordingly.
  • Disaster simulation testing: In this type of testing, an environment that simulates an actual disaster is created. This is the closest to the actual event and gives the best case scenario about the plan’s workability. It will help the team find gaps that might be overlooked in the other types of tests. Document the results of your testing so you can compare the improvement from the previous tests. It will help you in strengthening your business continuity plan. 

Frequency of testing – Typically, organizations test BCP at least twice a year. At the same time, it depends on the size of your organization and the business vertical you operate in.

Step 4: Maintenance

A business continuity plan should not be treated as a one-time exercise. It needs to be maintained , so the organization’s structural and people changes are updated regularly. The key personnel might move on from the firm, and this would need to be updated in the Business Impact Analysis and BCP. The process for regular updating of the documentation should be followed to ensure that the organization is not caught on the wrong foot in case of a business disruption. 

Also Read: Offsite Data Replication: A Great Way To Meet Recovery Time Objectives

Step 5: Communication

Sometimes executives tend to ignore communication while preparing a BCP. It is a crucial aspect, and your BCP should clearly define who will maintain the communication channels with the employees, regulators, business partners, and partners during the crisis. The contact information of the key people should be readily accessible for the BCP to work without any trouble.

In the end, the organizations should accept that despite preparing a formidable business continuity plan, several factors beyond your control may still affect its success or failure. The key executives might not be available in the event of a crisis; both the primary and the alternate data recovery sites might have been affected by the event; the communications network might be damaged, and so on. Such factors are common during a natural disaster and may lead to the limited success of the business continuity plan. 

The success of a business depends on it acting swiftly and efficiently when confronted with an unanticipated crisis. Any failure to do so results in a financial and reputational loss, which takes up a long time to recover. It can be avoided if the organization quickly gathers itself during a disaster. A business continuity plan is then of paramount importance for a business of any size. At the same time, it is crucial to ensure that the BCP is not a one-time exercise. It needs to be continuously evaluated, tested, amended, and maintained so it doesn’t let you down when you need it the most. 

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How to craft an effective business continuity plan

tips for business continuity plan

Let me take you back in time to the United Kingdom in the 1970s. Punk music was gaining popularity, and the Sex Pistols entered the punk rock scene with the force of a shooting star, capturing fans’ attention.

How To Craft An Effective Business Continuity Plan

But as quickly as they arrived, they quickly left the scene. When they broke up in 1978 after a period of internal conflicts, legal troubles, and their frontman’s imprisonment, fans were left both shocked and surprised.

Just like the Sex Pistols, plenty of companies experience rapid growth and success, only to face unexpected challenges and internal conflicts that result in their downfall.

In this article, we’ll draw inspiration from the Sex Pistols’ turbulent journey to explore the concept of business continuity planning (BCP). We’ll look at what a BCP is, why you need one and delve into the strategies and contingency measures that can help you maintain your rhythm and continuity, even when faced with the inevitable storms that can disrupt your operations.

What is a business continuity plan?

A business continuity plan describes how you’ll continue your business when disaster hits. It is a structured strategy outlining how your organization will maintain essential functions when disaster strikes, to ensure minimal downtime and guarantee that operations continue.

Why do you need a BCP in place?

The BCP is crucial and revolves around ensuring your resilience and ability to continue operating in the face of unexpected disruptions, such as natural disasters, cyberattacks, or other emergencies.

Let’s look at it a bit closer, and understand some of the key reasons to have a BCP better:

Minimize downtime

Protect revenue and reputation, compliance and legal requirements, resource allocation, maintain customer service, employee safety.

A BCP helps you minimize downtime. It does this by providing a structured approach to quickly recover and resume your critical business functions.

Example: You’re a retail company with an extensive online presence. If your website experiences a cyberattack that takes it offline, a well-prepared BCP outlines the steps to take to mitigate the attack, get your website back up in no time, and allow you to continue serving your customers.

No one likes disruptions as they result in revenue loss and can damage your reputation. A BCP helps you protect against financial losses and keep customer trust.

Example: You’re the owner of a restaurant chain with multiple locations and one of your branches has a food safety crisis. A BCP can guide you in managing the crisis, ensuring food safety compliance, and communicating effectively with customers to maintain trust in the brand and other locations.

Some industries, like the financial, and pharma industries, have regulatory requirements that mandate businesses to have BCPs in place. Failure to do so has legal and financial consequences.

Example: You’re the owner of a FinTech company. You are required by regulators to have robust BCPs to ensure customer data security and financial system stability.

When a crisis hits you need the right resources to get you back up and running. A BCP helps allocate resources effectively during a crisis, ensuring that personnel, equipment, and materials are used efficiently to address the most critical needs.

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Example: You’re a manufacturing company hit by a sudden supply chain disruption because the Suez Canal is blocked again. You use your BCP to allocate available resources to meet customer demands and minimize production delays.

When all hell breaks loose you want to make sure customer experience takes a minimum blow. A BCP outlines measures to maintain customer service and communication, so customers receive timely updates and support.

Example: You run an airline and there is a labor strike. Your BCP tells you how to manage customer inquiries, rebook affected passengers, and maintain a level of service.

Let’s not forget about the well-being of your employees. During a crisis, this is a top priority. A BCP includes procedures for evacuations, remote work arrangements, and employee support.

Example: There is a fire at your workplace. The BCP outlines evacuation routes, assembly points, and contact information for employees to report their safety status.

Business continuity planning: Steps for success

That’s a lot of reasons, right? Now that we addressed the necessity and urgency of having BCP, let’s look at 5 steps to creating a successful one:

  • Analyze your company
  • Assess the risk
  • Create the procedures
  • Get the word out
  • Iterate and improve

1. Analyze your company

In this phase you conduct an analysis to identify critical activities, determine which activities must continue, which can be temporarily paused, and which can operate at a reduced capacity.

You then assess the financial impact of disruptions. This involves asking yourself the question, “How long can I operate without generating revenue and incurring recovery costs?”

As this step covers your whole company, it’s important to get key stakeholders involved from the beginning.

2. Assess the risk

Now you have a good overview of your critical processes and the impact of disruption. At this point, pivot your attention to the risks they face, how well you can handle when things don’t work as usual, and how long you can manage if things go wrong.

The goal here is to understand what could go wrong and find ways to avoid, reduce, or transfer them. This assessment will help you strengthen your preparedness and resilience.

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Think about risks specific to your industry and location

It’s important to consider both internal (e.g. an IT system failure or employee shortage) and external threats (e.g. a natural disaster or supply chain disruption) to your critical business activities.

3. Create the procedures

Once you analyze and assess, you need to create procedures.

Develop detailed, step-by-step procedures to minimize risks to your organization’s people, operations, and assets. This can include changes to your operating model, such as using alternative suppliers or implementing remote work options.

4. Get the word out

A plan is just a plan and no one will know how to act if you don’t communicate.

This step is all about communication. Integrate the BCP into your operations, policies, and company culture, and train, test, and communicate with your employees.

And don’t forget that communication is not limited to your company only. Communicate with external stakeholders, customers, suppliers, and so forth.

5. Iterate and improve

Before implementing your BCP ensure its effectiveness.

Don’t worry there are plenty more options to test your BCP. Consider involving external stakeholders or vendors as it makes exercises more realistic. Frequently train those who are accountable for executing the BCP.

After experiencing a real incident or conducting a training exercise, update your plan to improve its ability to protect your business. Keep in mind that both your organization’s development and the circumstances you operate in change, so a regular review isn’t a luxury but a necessity.

How to structure your continuity plan

Now you have a high-level understanding, let’s look at how to structure your business continuity plan.

You can find a copy of the template I use here .

Make sure to include the following sections in your BCP:

Version history

Executive summary, functions and process prioritization, plan activation, governance and responsibilities, recovery plans, crisis communication plan, emergency location and contents, review and testing.

This section shows the revision history. It includes the version numbers of the changes made, by whom, when, and who approved the changes. The revision history allows anyone reading the BCP to understand how it has evolved over time.

The executive summary provides a brief summary of the key objectives, goals, scope, and applicability of the BCP.

This chapter outlines the critical functions and processes in scope of continuation in case of a disastrous event.

This section refers to the risk and business impact assessment outcome. Its aim is to set out what triggers the activation of the plan.

Governance and responsibilities talks about who has to act when the BCP is activated. It includes the members, a description of their responsibilities, contact details of the BCP team, and the chain of command during a crisis.

This section builds upon the business continuity strategies, specifically the one chosen when a disaster occurs. It describes the detailed recovery plans for each critical function, the procedures for restarting operations, resource allocation, and recovery time objectives (RTOs).

Here you cover the internal and external communication strategies. You also address employee awareness and training activities.

Now there is a good chance the disaster will require your crucial activities to temporarily continue at a different location. This section covers all details about the location and what needs to be available at the location.

The BCP is to be tested to reduce the risk of missing things or even worse failing. Here jot down the testing procedures and document results and lessons learned.

This section includes all appendices. Think about the following

  • Supporting documents, such as contact lists, maps, and technical specifications
  • References to external standards, guidelines, or regulations
  • Training programs for BCP team members
  • Review of insurance policies
  • Financial reserves and funding for recovery efforts
  • Procedures for keeping the BCP documentation up to date

Business continuity plan example

Earlier this year, the Koninklijke Nederlands Voetbal Bond (KNVB), which is the Royal Dutch Football Association, was hit by ransomware. The cyberattackers threatened to share personally identifiable information captured and the KNVB paid over one million euros to avoid this from happening.

What could have been done to mitigate the ransomware attack risk?

The Risk of the attack to succeed could have been mitigated with:

  • Regular data backups
  • Segmentation of networks
  • Intrusion detection systems

How to ensure business continuity in case of ransomware?

In response to the ransomware incident, and to allow for continued business as usual as soon as possible, steps could include:

  • Isolating affected systems
  • Activating backups
  • Notifying law enforcement
  • Engaging with a cybersecurity incident response team

Key takeaways

A business continuity plan (BCP) is like a safety net for your business when things go haywire. It helps you keep going, avoiding downtime, revenue loss, and reputation hits. On top of that, it’s a legal must in certain industries.

To make a solid BCP, just follow five steps: figure out what’s crucial for your business, spot the risks, plan how to bounce back, make sure everyone knows the plan, and keep fine-tuning it.

Structurally, your BCP should have sections like history, a quick guide, what’s most important, when to activate it, who’s in charge, the nitty-gritty recovery plans, how communication is done, where to go in a crisis, how to test the BCP works, and some extra info.

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A step-by-step guide to writing an effective business continuity plan.

Posted Aug 30, 2022

What is a business continuity plan?

A business continuity plan is a written document that describes the emergency procedures that should happen if a business-critical process fails.

Several sources can threaten businesses. Sometimes, disruption can take the form of Force Majeure circumstances, like extreme weather or political unrest. Other circumstances are less obvious, but just as disruptive: supply chain issues, web server downtime or power outages can leave permanent damage to a business’s finances after a certain amount of time.

Businesses must prevent unwanted downtime to ensure critical functions and services aren’t affected. The best way to ensure a consistent and effective response to potential issues is to implement a robust, documented business continuity plan.

Learn more with our in-depth guide to business continuity.

What is the purpose of a business continuity plan?

A strategically structured and rehearsed business continuity plan provides a number of benefits to both employees and the company itself.

With improvements to communication, technology and resilience, here are a number of examples of the positives that you can expect from a business continuity plan:

Helps your business to survive a disruptive event — Ensuring you have a robust plan in place will enable your business to recover in the shortest possible timeframe from an incident.

Protect your organisation’s reputation and brand — Whether it’s in the eyes of the public, suppliers and/or clients you work with, showing that you can respond well to the unexpected will instil confidence in your business and help to mitigate any negative feelings due to disruptions.

Strengthen your relationship with third parties and subsidiaries — With an effective business continuity plan, you’ll demonstrate that your company is being run well from the top down. By showing that you’re a reliable partner that can be depended on, you’ll attract new business and solidify your relationship with current clients and service providers.

Ensure staff safety — The well-being of your employees is a natural factor in a business continuity plan. By ensuring your team is looked after and knows what the procedure is during disruptions, you can establish clear roles and responsibilities to keep everyone under your care safe in an emergency.

Meet regulatory standards — Globally, there are corporate governance regulations that require directors and key stakeholders to exercise reasonable care, skill and diligence to mitigate risks facing an organisation. With an effective business continuity plan in place, you can ensure you’re meeting the requirements of a growing body of legislation.

What does a good business continuity plan look like?

The three key elements of a business continuity plan are:

1. Resilience

Businesses can increase their resilience by designing critical functions and infrastructures to protect against specific scenarios. Examples include; data redundancy, staffing rotations and maintaining a surplus of capacity. If implemented efficiently, resilience in business continuity can even keep essential services running on-site or remotely without interruption to daily operations.

2. Recovery

There’s no way an organisation can prepare for every eventuality. But with rapid recovery, you can future-proof your business by ensuring you have strategies in place to restore business functions in an emergency. With recovery time objectives for different systems, you can analyse and prioritise which needs recovering first.

3. Contingency

A contingency plan ensures that an organisation has procedures in place to distribute and delegate responsibilities for a range of external scenarios. These can include replacing hardware, sourcing an emergency workspace and contracting third-party vendors for assistance.

Who is responsible for a business continuity plan?

To ensure your organisation’s readiness, it’s important to designate who will be responsible for implementing and managing your business continuity plan. For small businesses, a single individual could be tasked with writing a business continuity plan. Or for larger organisations, a whole team could be involved with developing a business continuity plan.

In such cases, business unit leaders — such as payroll, corporate travel, human resources and security — will be given the responsibility of creating their respective unit’s business continuity plan with a program manager overseeing the process.

It is essential to make sure each person understanding their responsibilities and that there are clear lines of communication between employees and external stakeholders, in order to keep everything as smooth as possible during an disruptive scenario.

What is the first step in writing a business continuity plan?

The first step you should take when preparing to write a business continuity plan is to conduct a full Business Impact Assessment (BIA).

A BIA predicts the consequences of a significant disruption to your business processes. It clarifies the potential losses that could be incurred in each circumstance.

A BIA should include the following:

Potential losses — What would your lost sales and income look like for each hour of downtime, or each day?

Delayed sales — Could disruption create cash flow issues for you by delaying your sales or income? If so, to what extent? What lines of credit would you have to rely on?

Increased expenses — How much would you have to spend on resources to mitigate the issue? Think about things like overtime, outsourcing, and costs associated with expediting business-critical activities.

Regulatory fines — How much could you be fined by regulators for breaches to things like data privacy or health and safety?

Contractual penalties — Are there any charges you could incur for failing to meet SLAs with your business partners?

Customer satisfaction — How much damage to your public reputation could a disruption have? You can quantify by thinking of the number of additional negative reviews you could receive for each day of delays.

Delay of new business plans — Would you need to push back any planned launches or new business agreements while you deal with disruptions?

Writing your plan: Step-by-step instructions

Identify your business-critical processes — Critical business processes are those necessary for the survival of the company in the case of loss of revenue, customer service interruption or reputation damage. E.g. Manufacturing — what you would need to keep your production line going. Finance — how to recover important documents that contain sensitive information. IT — is home working feasible for your business?

Specify the target recovery time for these processes — How long would it take for the loss of a business-critical process to do irreparable damage to your business? Your target recovery time for each process you identified should be within this window. Determine how long you could tolerate a disruption: this is known as a recovery time objective (RTO). Your business continuity plan should enable you to mitigate disruptions within this time window.

Define the specific resources needed for each process — Once you’ve identified how long you’ll need to restore a process, you’ll need to outline everything you’ll need to do so, and plan within that time frame. You could split this into internal resources (key people in your organisation, passwords, office space, specialist equipment) and external resources (e.g. supplies, transportation). Along with identifying how readily available they can be, and for how long you’ll need them.

Describe the steps needed to restore each process — If your business is disrupted by an IT failure, fire, flood or an extreme weather event, what is your plan to address this? Devise a backup plan for each key operation you have, detailing who to contact, what resources you’ll need, and how much you might need to spend in order to restore each process.

Decide on a schedule to update the information — Once you’ve compiled the above 4 points, you’ll have a strong business continuity plan that you can action. But it won’t be bulletproof forever. As your business evolves, so will the technology it uses and the relationships it has. Therefore, you need to plan ways to keep the information up-to-date. It might be that you decide on a regular date that the whole plan needs to be revisited, whether that’s yearly, quarterly or even monthly. Alternatively, you might decide it’s better to update small elements of the plan as and when they change: e.g. if a password to a critical folder is changed, there’s someone in your organisation who is responsible for updating your business continuity plan accordingly.

What are the four P’s of business continuity planning?

The four P’s of business continuity are:

People — This covers your staff, customers and clients.

Processes — This includes the technology and strategies your business uses to keep everything running.

Premises — Covers the buildings and spaces from which your business operates.

Providers — This includes parties that your business relies on for getting resources, like your suppliers and partners.

You can use the four P’s when reviewing the initial draft of your business continuity plan to ensure you’ve considered the impact on each of them at every stage.

For example, how might your plan to recover important documents out of working hours impact your staff? How hard would it be to access the premises? When should you notify your clients and business partners?

What is the most important part of a business continuity plan?

Every element of your business continuity plan is important, but perhaps the most critical part to get right is how you plan to respond to potential issues. It’s advantageous to have precise calculations about potential losses and the impact of your business relationships, but without a clear and effective way of reacting to disruptions, your business will incur serious — and sometimes irreparable — financial damage.

Business continuity plan template

We’ve prepared an example business continuity plan to get you started.

1. Objective of the plan

Open with a short summary of the ‘why’ behind the how. Explain clearly and succinctly that the aim of your business continuity plan is to protect your business in the event of a disruption to business-critical processes.

2. Business-critical processes checklist

Your plan will need to contain a list of its most important processes. Below are a few examples:

3. Recovery plan

For each critical function you listed in step (2), you’ll need to specify a comprehensive, tailored recovery plan that should be followed in order to get the process back up and running within your RTO.

4. Contact list

Create lists of staff, suppliers and insurers that should be contacted in case of an emergency.

List of key staff: example

Supplier list: example

List of insurers: example

Ensure your business continuity

If you want to protect your business against all eventualities, putting in place reliable business continuity plans is a crucial step.

CMAC specialises in providing emergency assistance to businesses experiencing transport disruptions to keep things running smoothly and minimise potential losses. Learn more about CMAC’s full suite of industry-leading recovery solutions , from ground transport to emergency accommodation.

Other useful guides

What is Business Continuity and why is it important for your business? | CMAC Group

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What Is A Business Continuity Plan? [+ Template & Examples]

Swetha Amaresan

Published: December 30, 2022

When a business crisis occurs, the last thing you want to do is panic.

executives discussing business continuity plan

The second-to-last thing you want to do is be unprepared. Crises typically arise without warning. While you shouldn't start every day expecting the worst, you should be relatively prepared for anything to happen.

A business crisis can cost your company a lot of money and ruin your reputation if you don't have a business continuity plan in place. Customers aren't very forgiving, especially when a crisis is influenced by accidents within the company or other preventable mistakes. If you want your company to be able to maintain its business continuity in the face of a crisis, then you'll need to come up with this type of plan to uphold its essential functions.

Free Download: Crisis Management Plan & Communication Templates

In this post, we'll explain what a business continuity plan is, give examples of scenarios that would require a business continuity plan, and provide a template that you can use to create a well-rounded program for your business.

Table of Contents:

What is a business continuity plan?

  • Business Continuity Types
  • Business Continuity vs Disaster Recovery

Business Continuity Plan Template

How to write a business continuity plan.

  • Business Continuity Examples

A business continuity plan outlines directions and procedures that your company will follow when faced with a crisis. These plans include business procedures, names of assets and partners, human resource functions, and other helpful information that can help maintain your brand's relationships with relevant stakeholders. The goal of a business continuity plan is to handle anything from minor disruptions to full-blown threats.

For example, one crisis that your business may have to respond to is a severe snowstorm. Your team may be wondering, "If a snowstorm disrupted our supply chain, how would we resume business?" Planning contingencies ahead of time for situations like these can help your business stay afloat when you're faced with an unavoidable crisis.

When you think about business continuity in terms of the essential functions your business requires to operate, you can begin to mitigate and plan for specific risks within those functions.

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Crisis Communication and Management Kit

Manage, plan for, and communicate during your corporate crises with these crisis management plan templates.

  • Free Crisis Management Plan Template
  • 12 Crisis Communication Templates
  • Post-Crisis Performance Grading Template
  • Additional Crisis Best Management Practices

You're all set!

Click this link to access this resource at any time.

Business Continuity Planning

Business continuity planning is the process of creating a plan to address a crisis. When writing out a business continuity plan, it's important to consider the variety of crises that could potentially affect the company and prepare a resolution for each.

Business Continuity Plan

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How to create an effective business continuity plan

A business continuity plan outlines procedures and instructions an organization must follow in the face of disaster, whether fire, flood, or cyberattack. Here’s how to create a plan that gives your business the best chance of surviving such an event.

Professional Meeting: Senior Businesswoman and Colleague in Discussion

The tumultuous events of the past several years have impacted practically every business. And with the number of extreme weather events, cyberattacks, and geopolitical conflicts continuing to rise, business leaders are bracing for the possibility of increasingly more frequent impactful incidents their organizations will need to respond to.

According to PwC’s 2023 Global Crisis and Resilience Survey , 96% of 1,812 business leaders said their organizations had experienced disruption in the past two years and 76% said their most serious disruption had a medium to high impact on operations.

It’s little wonder then that 89% of executives list resilience as one of their most important strategic priorities.

Yet at the same time, only 70% of respondents said they were confident in their organization’s ability to respond to disruptions, with PwC noting that its research shows that too many organizations “are lacking the foundational elements of resilience they need to be successful.”

A solid business continuity plan is one of those foundational elements.

“Every business should have the mindset that they will face a disaster, and every business needs a plan to address the different potential scenarios,” says Goh Ser Yoong, head of compliance at Advance.AI and a member of the Emerging Trends Working Group at the professional governance association ISACA.

A business continuity plan gives the organization the best shot at successfully navigating a disaster by providing ready-made directions on who should do what tasks in what order to keep the business viable.

Without such as a plan, the organization will take longer than necessary to recover from an event or incident — or may never recover at all.

What is a business continuity plan?

A business continuity plan (BCP) is a strategic playbook created to help an organization maintain or quickly resume business functions in the face of disruption, whether that disruption is caused by a natural disaster, civic unrest, cyberattack, or any other threat to business operations.

A business continuity plan outlines the procedures and instructions that the organization must follow during such an event to minimize downtime, covering business processes, assets, human resources, business partners, and more.

A business continuity plan is not the same as a disaster recovery plan , which focuses on restoring IT infrastructure and operations after a crisis. Still, a disaster recovery plan is part of the overall strategy to ensure business continuity, and the business continuity plan should inform the action items detailed in an organization’s disaster recovery plan. The two are tightly coupled, which is why they often are considered together and abbreviated as BCDR.

Why business continuity planning matters

Whether you operate a small business or a large corporation, it’s vital to retain and increase your customer base. There’s no better test of your capability to do so than right after an adverse event.

Because restoring IT is critical for most companies, numerous disaster recovery solutions are available. You can rely on IT to implement those solutions. But what about the rest of your business functions? Your company’s future depends on your people and processes. Being able to handle any incident effectively can have a positive effect on your company’s reputation and market value, and it can increase customer confidence.

Moreover, there are increasing consumer and regulatory expectations for both enterprise security and continuity today. Consequently, organizations must prioritize continuity planning to prevent not only business losses, but financial, legal, reputational, and regulatory consequences.

For example, the risk of having an organization’s “license to operate” withdrawn by a regulator or having conditions applied (retrospectively or prospectively) can adversely affect market value and consumer confidence.

Building (and updating) a business continuity plan

Whether building the organization’s first business continuity plan or updating an existing one, the process involves multiple essential steps.

Assess business processes for criticality and vulnerability: Business continuity planning “starts with understanding what’s most important to the business,” says Joe Nocera, principle in the cyber risk and regulatory practice at PwC, a professional services firm.

So the first step in building your business continuity plan is assessing your business processes to determine which are the most critical; which are the most vulnerable and to what type of events; and what are the potential losses if those processes go down for a day, a few days, or a week.

“This step essentially determines what you are trying to protect and what you are trying to keep up for systems,” says Todd Renner, senior managing director in the cybersecurity practice at FTI Consulting.

This assessment is more demanding than ever before because of the complexity of today’s hybrid workplace, the modern IT environment, and the reliance on business partners and third-party providers to perform or support critical processes.

Given that complexity, Goh says a thorough assessment requires an inventory of not only key processes but also the supporting components — including the IT systems, networks, people, and outside vendors — as well as the risks to those components.

This is essentially a business impact analysis.

Determine your organization’s RTO and RPO: The next step in building a business continuity plan is determining the organization’s recovery time objective (RTO), which is the target amount of time between point of failure and the resumption of operations, and the recovery point objective (RPO), which is the maximum amount of data loss an organization can withstand.

Each organization has its own RTO and RPO based on the nature of its business, industry, regulatory requirements, and other operational factors. Moreover, different parts of a business can have different RTOs and RPOs, which executives need to establish, Nocera says.

“When you meet with individual aspects of the business, everyone says everything [they do] is important; no one wants to say their part of the business is less critical, but in reality you have to have those challenging conversations and determinations about what is actually critical to the business and to business continuity,” he adds.

Detail the steps, roles, and responsibilities for continuity: Once that is done, business leaders should use the RTO and the RPO, along with the business impact analysis, to determine the specific tasks that need to happen, by whom, and in what order to ensure business continuity.

“It’s taking the key components of your analysis and designing a plan that outlines roles and responsibilities, about who does what. It gets into the nitty-gritty on how you’re going to keep the company up and running,” Renner explains.

One common business continuity planning tool is a checklist that includes supplies and equipment, the location of data backups and backup sites, where the plan is available and who should have it, and contact information for emergency responders, key personnel, and backup site providers.

Although the list of possible scenarios that could impact business operations can seem extensive, Goh says business leaders don’t have to compile an exhaustive list of potential incidents. Rather, they should compile a list that includes likely incidents as well as representative ones so that they can create responses that have a higher likelihood of ensuring continuity even when faced with an unimagined disaster.

“So even if it’s an unexpected event, they can pull those building blocks from the plan and apply them to the unique crisis they’re facing,” Nocera says.

The importance of testing the business continuity plan

Devising a business continuity plan is not enough to ensure preparedness; testing and practicing are other critical components.

Renner says testing and practicing offer a few important benefits.

First, they show whether or how well a plan will work.

Testing and practicing help prepare all stakeholders for an actual incident, helping them build the muscle memory needed to respond as quickly and as confidently as possible during a crisis.

They also help identify gaps in the devised plan. As Renner says: “Every tabletop exercise that I’ve ever done has been an eye-opener for everyone involved.”

Additionally, they help identify where there may be misalignment of objectives. For example, executives may have deprioritized the importance of restoring certain IT systems only to realize during a drill that those are essential for supporting critical processes.

Types and timing of tests

Many organizations test a business continuity plan two to four times a year. Experts say the frequency of tests, as well as reviews and updates, depends on the organization itself — its industry, its speed of innovation and transformation, the amount of turnover of key personnel, the number of business processes, and so on.

Common tests include tabletop exercises , structured walk-throughs, and simulations. Test teams are usually composed of the recovery coordinator and members from each functional unit.

A tabletop exercise usually occurs in a conference room with the team poring over the plan, looking for gaps and ensuring that all business units are represented therein.

In a structured walk-through, each team member walks through his or her components of the plan in detail to identify weaknesses. Often, the team works through the test with a specific disaster in mind. Some organizations incorporate drills and disaster role-playing into the structured walk-through. Any weaknesses should be corrected and an updated plan distributed to all pertinent staff.

Some experts also advise a full emergency evacuation drill at least once a year.

Meanwhile, disaster simulation testing — which can be quite involved — should still be performed annually. For this test, create an environment that simulates an actual disaster, with all the equipment, supplies and personnel (including business partners and vendors) who would be needed. The purpose of a simulation is to determine whether the organization and its staff can carry out critical business functions during an actual event.

During each phase of business continuity plan testing, include some new employees on the test team. “Fresh eyes” might detect gaps or lapses of information that experienced team members could overlook.

Reviewing and updating the business continuity plan should likewise happen on an ongoing basis.

“It should be a living document. It shouldn’t be shelved. It shouldn’t be just a check-the-box exercise,” Renner says.

Otherwise, plans go stale and are of no use when needed.

Bring key personnel together at least annually to review the plan and discuss any areas that must be modified.

Prior to the review, solicit feedback from staff to incorporate into the plan. Ask all departments or business units to review the plan, including branch locations or other remote units.

Furthermore, a strong business continuity function calls for reviewing the organization’s response in the event of an actual event. This allows executives and their teams to identify what the organization did well and where it needs to improve.

How to ensure business continuity plan support, awareness

One way to ensure your plan is not successful is to adopt a casual attitude toward its importance. Every business continuity plan must be supported from the top down. That means senior management must be represented when creating and updating the plan; no one can delegate that responsibility to subordinates. In addition, the plan is likely to remain fresh and viable if senior management makes it a priority by dedicating time for adequate review and testing.

Management is also key to promoting user awareness. If employees don’t know about the plan, how will they be able to react appropriately when every minute counts?

Although plan distribution and training can be conducted by business unit managers or HR staff, have someone from the top kick off training and punctuate its significance. It’ll have a greater impact on all employees, giving the plan more credibility and urgency.

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Frequently Asked Questions

  • Business Continuity Plan FAQs

The Bottom Line

What is a business continuity plan (bcp), and how does it work.

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Investopedia / Ryan Oakley

What Is a Business Continuity Plan (BCP)? 

A business continuity plan (BCP) is a system of prevention and recovery from potential threats to a company. The plan ensures that personnel and assets are protected and are able to function quickly in the event of a disaster.

Key Takeaways

  • Business continuity plans (BCPs) are prevention and recovery systems for potential threats, such as natural disasters or cyber-attacks.
  • BCP is designed to protect personnel and assets and make sure they can function quickly when disaster strikes.
  • BCPs should be tested to ensure there are no weaknesses, which can be identified and corrected.

Understanding Business Continuity Plans (BCPs)

BCP involves defining any and all risks that can affect the company's operations, making it an important part of the organization's risk management strategy. Risks may include natural disasters—fire, flood, or weather-related events—and cyber-attacks . Once the risks are identified, the plan should also include:

  • Determining how those risks will affect operations
  • Implementing safeguards and procedures to mitigate the risks
  • Testing procedures to ensure they work
  • Reviewing the process to make sure that it is up to date

BCPs are an important part of any business. Threats and disruptions mean a loss of revenue and higher costs, which leads to a drop in profitability. And businesses can't rely on insurance alone because it doesn't cover all the costs and the customers who move to the competition. It is generally conceived in advance and involves input from key stakeholders and personnel.

Business impact analysis, recovery, organization, and training are all steps corporations need to follow when creating a Business Continuity Plan.

Benefits of a Business Continuity Plan

Businesses are prone to a host of disasters that vary in degree from minor to catastrophic. Business continuity planning is typically meant to help a company continue operating in the event of major disasters such as fires. BCPs are different from a disaster recovery plan, which focuses on the recovery of a company's information technology system after a crisis.

Consider a finance company based in a major city. It may put a BCP in place by taking steps including backing up its computer and client files offsite. If something were to happen to the company's corporate office, its satellite offices would still have access to important information.

An important point to note is that BCP may not be as effective if a large portion of the population is affected, as in the case of a disease outbreak. Nonetheless, BCPs can improve risk management—preventing disruptions from spreading. They can also help mitigate downtime of networks or technology, saving the company money.

How To Create a Business Continuity Plan

There are several steps many companies must follow to develop a solid BCP. They include:

  • Business Impact Analysis : Here, the business will identify functions and related resources that are time-sensitive. (More on this below.)
  • Recovery : In this portion, the business must identify and implement steps to recover critical business functions.
  • Organization : A continuity team must be created. This team will devise a plan to manage the disruption.
  • Training : The continuity team must be trained and tested. Members of the team should also complete exercises that go over the plan and strategies.

Companies may also find it useful to come up with a checklist that includes key details such as emergency contact information, a list of resources the continuity team may need, where backup data and other required information are housed or stored, and other important personnel.

Along with testing the continuity team, the company should also test the BCP itself. It should be tested several times to ensure it can be applied to many different risk scenarios . This will help identify any weaknesses in the plan which can then be corrected.

In order for a business continuity plan to be successful, all employees—even those who aren't on the continuity team—must be aware of the plan.

Business Continuity Impact Analysis

An important part of developing a BCP is a business continuity impact analysis. It identifies the effects of disruption of business functions and processes. It also uses the information to make decisions about recovery priorities and strategies.

FEMA provides an operational and financial impact worksheet to help run a business continuity analysis. The worksheet should be completed by business function and process managers who are well acquainted with the business. These worksheets will summarize the following:

  • The impacts—both financial and operational—that stem from the loss of individual business functions and process
  • Identifying when the loss of a function or process would result in the identified business impacts

Completing the analysis can help companies identify and prioritize the processes that have the most impact on the business's financial and operational functions. The point at which they must be recovered is generally known as the “recovery time objective.”

Business Continuity Plan vs. Disaster Recovery Plan

BCPs and disaster recovery plans are similar in nature, the latter focuses on technology and information technology (IT) infrastructure. BCPs are more encompassing—focusing on the entire organization, such as customer service and supply chain. 

BCPs focus on reducing overall costs or losses, while disaster recovery plans look only at technology downtimes and related costs. Disaster recovery plans tend to involve only IT personnel—which create and manage the policy. However, BCPs tend to have more personnel trained on the potential processes. 

Why Is Business Continuity Plan (BCP) Important?

Businesses are prone to a host of disasters that vary in degree from minor to catastrophic and business continuity plans (BCPs) are an important part of any business. BCP is typically meant to help a company continue operating in the event of threats and disruptions. This could result in a loss of revenue and higher costs, which leads to a drop in profitability. And businesses can't rely on insurance alone because it doesn't cover all the costs and the customers who move to the competition.

What Should a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) Include?

Business continuity plans involve identifying any and all risks that can affect the company's operations. The plan should also determine how those risks will affect operations and implement safeguards and procedures to mitigate the risks. There should also be testing procedures to ensure these safeguards and procedures work. Finally, there should be a review process to make sure that the plan is up to date.

What Is Business Continuity Impact Analysis?

An important part of developing a BCP is a business continuity impact analysis which identifies the effects of disruption of business functions and processes. It also uses the information to make decisions about recovery priorities and strategies.

FEMA provides an operational and financial impact worksheet to help run a business continuity analysis.

These worksheets summarize the impacts—both financial and operational—that stem from the loss of individual business functions and processes. They also identify when the loss of a function or process would result in the identified business impacts.

Business continuity plans (BCPs) are created to help speed up the recovery of an organization filling a threat or disaster. The plan puts in place mechanisms and functions to allow personnel and assets to minimize company downtime. BCPs cover all organizational risks should a disaster happen, such as flood or fire.  

Federal Emergency Management Agency. " Business Process Analysis and Business Impact Analysis User Guide ." Pages 15 - 17.

Ready. “ IT Disaster Recovery Plan .”

Federal Emergency Management Agency. " Business Process Analysis and Business Impact Analysis User Guide ." Pages 15-17.

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16 Business Continuity Plan Templates For Every Business

Download our free Business Continuity Plan Template Download this template

As a business leader, you know that unforeseen events can disrupt your business operations and impact your bottom line. That's why having a solid business continuity plan in place is essential.

But where do you start? That's where we come in. This article provides you with 16 free, customizable business continuity plan templates that are prefilled with examples, making it easy to create a plan that meets your unique needs. Whether you're a small business or a large enterprise, our templates are designed to help you prepare for any contingency.

In addition to the templates, we've included a step-by-step guide on how to create an effective business continuity plan. From identifying risks and critical functions to testing and updating your plan, our guide covers everything you need to know.

Free Template Download our free Business Continuity Plan Template Download this template

General Business Continuity Plan Template

business continuity plan template in cascade strategy execution platform

New to business continuity planning? No worries! Our general BCP Template is like a friendly guide—perfect for both newcomers and veterans. Use it to get the ball rolling on your continuity planning initiative and create robust strategies that will keep your business operational in times of crisis.

How to use this template? 👀

1. Sign up to get instant access to your chosen template. (Yes, it’s 100% free.) 

2. Customize the template to fit your needs: 

  • Define your focus areas or strategic priorities 
  • Set strategic objectives  
  • Assign KPIs and owners 
  • Create action plans and projects to achieve your desired outcomes 

3. Integrate all business data in one place for a comprehensive view of performance. 

4. Use reports and dashboards to monitor progress and identify risks before they escalate. 

5. Invite your team members to collaborate and ensure everyone is working toward the same goals. 

👉 Click here to get your FREE Business Continuity Plan Template

💡All templates below follow the same structure. The only difference lies in the pre-filled sample data, making them customized for specific industries and use cases.

Industry-Specific Business Continuity Plan Templates

Hospitality bcp template.

hospitality business continuity plan template in cascade strategy execution platform

Craft a resilience plan for your hospitality business, including hotels, restaurants, or travel services. This BCP template for Hospitality will help you establish measures to handle potential emergency situations and ensure customer satisfaction.

👉 Click here to get your FREE Hospitality Continuity Plan Template

Manufacturing BCP Template

manufacturing business continuity plan template in cascade strategy execution platform

Ensure uninterrupted production and operations with this Manufacturing Continuity Plan Template . Use this template to keep your business partner relationships, supply chains, and production lines strong, even when surprises pop up.

👉 Click here to get your FREE Manufacturing Continuity Plan Template

Transportation BCP Template

transportation business continuity plan template in cascade strategy execution platform

Need a solid game plan for spotting risks early and building strong strategies to manage disruptions in your transportation business? Create your own with the BCP Template for Transportation to maintain timely deliveries and operations.

👉 Click here to get your FREE Transportation Continuity Plan Template

Healthcare BCP Template

healthcare business continuity plan template in cascade strategy execution platform

In an industry where lives depend on service reliability, the Healthcare Business Continuity Plan Template helps you build and execute contingency plans to ensure uninterrupted care and handle emergencies effectively.

👉 Click here to get your FREE Healthcare Continuity Plan Template

Retail BCP Template

retail business continuity plan template in cascade strategy execution platform

Strengthen your retail business's resilience to unforeseen events like global pandemics, supply chain disruptions, or surges in demand. With this Retail BCP Template , establish plans for inventory management, customer service, and store operations.

👉 Click here to get your FREE Retail Business Continuity Plan Template

Pharmaceuticals BCP Template

pharmaceutical business continuity plan template in cascade strategy execution platform

Keep vital manufacturing and supply chain operations running like clockwork with our Pharmaceuticals BCP Template . This template has everything you need to hit the ground running on your continuity planning. Use it to ensure your business doesn’t miss a beat because of trade disputes, regulations, and recalls.

👉 Click here to get your FREE Pharmaceutical Business Continuity Plan Template

Financial Services BCP Template

financial services business continuity plan template in cascade strategy execution platform

The BCP Template for Financial Services is designed to assist financial professionals concerned about their continuity and resilience. Use it to identify and plan strategies to keep your business sailing steady and navigate business continuity management like a seasoned professional.

👉 Click here to get your FREE Financial Business Continuity Plan Template

Telecommunications BCP Template

telecommunications business continuity plan template in cascade strategy execution platform

Our Business Continuity Plan Template for Telecommunications is ideal for internet service providers, telcos, and MSPs that want to keep their telecommunication services humming along, no matter what. Use it to outline strategies to reduce the risk of disruptions such as new technology, regulatory changes, and cyber-attacks.

👉 Click here to get your FREE Telecommunications Business Continuity Plan Template

IT BCP Template

it business continuity plan template in cascade strategy execution platform

Create a comprehensive continuity plan for your information technology business with the IT Business Continuity Plan Template . This template will help you formulate and execute strategies for data center security, network downtime planning, and maintaining service levels. 

👉 Click here to get your FREE IT Business Continuity Plan Template

Nonprofits BCP Template

nonprofit business continuity plan template in cascade strategy execution platform

Ensure that your nonprofit's mission endures through unexpected events and map out your organization's preparedness with the Business Continuity Plan Template for Nonprofits . This template guides nonprofits in developing strategies for funding, communication, and service delivery during crises such as natural disasters. 

👉 Click here to get your FREE Nonprofit Continuity Plan Template

Small Business BCP Template

small business continuity plan template in cascade strategy execution platform

Build resilience and safeguard your small business to weather uncertainties with the Small Business Continuity Plan Template . With this prefilled template, you’ll be able to kickstart the strategic planning process to build effective recovery procedures and disaster mitigation strategies.

👉 Click here to get your FREE Small Business Continuity Plan Template

Special Focus Templates 

Supply chain continuity template.

supply chain business continuity plan template in cascade strategy execution platform

Strengthen the resilience of your supply chain with this Supply Chain Business Continuity Plan Template . Use it to create and track strategies to mitigate risks such as supplier failures, transportation disruptions, and inventory shortages, ensuring a steady flow of goods and services.

👉 Click here to get your FREE Supply Chain Continuity Plan Template

Operational Continuity Plan Template

operational continuity plan template in cascade strategy execution platform

Keep your business operations running smoothly, irrespective of unforeseen challenges, with the Operational Continuity Plan Template . With it, you can quickly create an actionable Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP) that guarantees your business’s preparedness when disaster strikes.

👉 Click here to get your FREE Operational Continuity Plan Template

Risk Assessment Plan Template

risk assessment plan template in cascade strategy execution platform

Risk management is at the heart of any successful continuity planning strategy. Why? Because knowing the risks your organization faces is the first step to preparing for, and effectively navigating unforeseen circumstances. 

If you're ready to start building your BCP, begin with the Risk Assessment Plan Template . This framework is designed to help you pinpoint potential risks, measure their impact, and craft proactive strategies to dodge business disruptions.

👉 Click here to get your FREE Risk Assessment Plan Template

Crisis Communications Plan Template

crisis communications plan template in cascade strategy execution platform

Effectively manage internal and external communications during a crisis with this Crisis Communications Plan Template . Ensure the right messages reach your stakeholders, employees, and customers on time. This will contribute to a well-coordinated response and support your human resources team in managing crisis-related communications effectively.

👉 Click here to get your FREE Communications Plan Template

How To Write A Business Continuity Plan 

A clear business continuity plan helps teams act quickly and effectively, minimizing disruptions to operations. If you want to build a resilient business continuity plan, here's a true-and-tried approach:

1. Identify critical business processes and types of threats

First, figure out which parts of your business are the most important. Why is this so crucial? When things go wrong, you can't keep every part of your business going—it's just not practical.

But, many senior management teams stumble at this stage because they:

  • Take a siloed approach to continuity planning.
  • Misidentify the core processes integral to business success.
  • Exclude critical stakeholders when trying to understand what drives the business.
  • Rely on outdated risk assessments and information for planning.
As PwC puts it, " Businesses struggle to do this well because it’s complex and can involve multiple departments and players. It’s not the usual approach in which business continuity is looked at solely within the siloed functions. ”

To build a resilient BCP, thoroughly examine your business, engage all stakeholders, and really understand your key business functions and processes.

2. Perform a risk assessment

Risk assessments help companies understand potential threats, their severity, and their likelihood. This crucial step aids in prioritizing planning, encourages strategic thinking, and empowers problem-solving abilities.

💡 Check out our article Risk Matrix: How To Use It In Strategic Planning for guidance . 

3. Conduct a Business Impact Analysis and prioritize strategies

A Business Impact Analysis evaluates the possible consequences of risks on your crucial business operations . It’s vital for gathering information, developing appropriate recovery strategies, and setting strategic priorities.

Consider impact such as:

  • Lost or delayed sales and income
  • Increased expenses
  • Regulatory fines
  • Loss of business opportunities
  • Operational setbacks
  • Reputation damage
  • Loss of shareholder confidence
  • Supply chain disruption

4. Build your business continuity plan

Finally, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and turn your research, risk assessment, and business impact analysis into a fully-fledged business continuity plan. 

Your continuity plan should act as a roadmap. It should outline how your organization will keep the gears turning in the face of disruptions.

Here are the key elements: 

  • 🎯 Objectives
  • ⏳ Timelines
  • 🏆 Priorities
  • 👥 Team members
  • 📝 Projects and action plans

If you’re using Cascade strategy templates , you’ll have these vital elements ready and waiting to help you plan faster and better.

💡Don't spend too much time on analysis and planning. There is no such thing as a perfect plan. Instead, focus on the execution and adapt your plan as you go. 

Tips For Writing And Executing Your Business Continuity Plan

Want to create a business that can ride the wave of any disruption? You'll need a fresh take on strategic risk management and continuity planning. The real magic happens when you blend centralized observability and fast execution . 

Creating your plan shouldn't be a one-and-done deal. You need to keep an eye on things and tweak your strategies as needed. This is where Cascade strategy execution platform shines.

Cascade’s customizable dashboards give you real-time insights into your business operations. See the big picture or drill down to team-specific details, all in one place. This helps in identifying issues early and implementing your continuity plan effectively.

example of a dashboard in cascade strategy execution platform

Time is of the essence when a crisis hits. Decision-makers need information fast. Cascade's Reports lets you create concise strategy reports with up-to-date data and charts with a click. No more wasting time on manual reporting.

Continuity planning is an ongoing, iterative process. Risks change, and your strategies should evolve accordingly. With Cascade, you can continuously monitor performance and make necessary adjustments to your business continuity plan in one place.

“Cascade provides our organization with a level of transparency we've never experienced before. Traditionally siloed teams have insight into what other groups are working on, facilitating a new level of engagement and cross-team collaboration.” - Katie B, G2

📚 Recommended reads for more tips and best practices: 

6 Steps To Successful Strategy Execution

Strategic Control Simplified: A 6-Step Process And Tools  

Get Faster Insights And Make Better Decisions With Cascade 🚀

As the world’s #1 strategy execution platform, Cascade cuts through the chaos of running business operations and paves a clear path forward.

Build continuity plans that are data-driven and aligned with your long-term vision.

Cascade helps you diagnose where you stand today and understand the factors affecting your performance, leading to informed and confident decisions.

What’s more, Cascade centralizes visibility over your execution process. This means you can swiftly identify dependencies and potential risks, and act proactively to mitigate them.

Ready to take control? Sign up for a free forever account today or book a 1:1 product tour with one of Cascade’s in-house strategy execution experts.

Business Continuity FAQs

What are the 4 ps of business continuity .

The 4 Ps of business continuity is a way of measuring the impact of disruptions on an organization. They stand for People (the impact on the lives of workers), Processes (the effect on operations), Profits (the impact on revenue generation), and Partnerships (the impact on the enabling business environment).

What is the difference between a business continuity plan and a disaster recovery plan? 

The main difference between a business continuity plan and a disaster recovery plan is its purpose. A business continuity plan aims to sustain the critical functions of an organization during disruptions, while a disaster recovery plan outlines the strategy for restoring normal business operations after major disruptions.

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5 Tips for Creating a Business Continuity Plan

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For a small business like yours, anytime you have to shut down operations or close your doors, you could be losing potential revenue. You also risk permanently losing customers because they may switch to your competitors if you can’t open quickly. Having a plan already in place will help you minimize downtime and loss after an emergency. A business continuity plan outlines the necessary steps to take to continue or resume business after an unexpected disaster. Keep reading to learn five tips for creating your small business’s continuity plan.

1. List possible events

Make a list of any disasters that are likely to affect your small business, including natural and man-made disasters. Consider things like hurricanes, tornadoes, fires, floods, active shooters, and cyber-attacks . By listing the events that are likely to happen, you won’t waste time coming up with plans for the events that are nearly impossible. For example, if your business is located in the Midwest, you probably don’t have to worry about hurricanes.

If you already have an emergency preparedness plan, you can use the list from that plan to save time. Learn more about creating an emergency action plan for your small business.

2. Determine what’s essential

After a disaster, it can be difficult to operate for several different reasons: high staff absenteeism; the inability to get supplies or materials; interruptions in power, transportation, or your existing equipment, and so on. It’s important to know what’s essential, so you can plan how to access everything you need quickly.

  • Determine what needs to be up and running quickly to keep your business afloat. For example, you may need access to your inventory and point-of-sale system immediately, so you can start selling to customers again.
  • Decide what can be suspended for a short period of time and determine what that length of time is. For example, you may be able to suspend incoming shipments while you sell your existing inventory. 
  • Determine what can be suspended for a long period of time. For example, if you primarily sell in store but occasionally ship to Instagram followers, you may be able to suspend that option until your store is back on its feet.

After you’ve identified what you need to stay in business, make a list of necessary personnel, equipment, data, and infrastructure. When you’re making this list, keep a few things in mind:

  • You may not be able to pay your entire staff during the recovery period. Consider the individual financial needs and situations of your team members before selecting your essential crew.
  • You may not be able to use your equipment after a disaster due to damage or power outages. Contact nearby businesses who use similar equipment and work out a deal to use their equipment during your recovery period.
  • You may be unable to work with your current supplier during the recovery period. Consider adding a secondary supplier who can work with you on short notice.

3. Create a communication plan

After a disaster, it’s important that you contact your staff, customers, and suppliers as quickly as possible to let them know what your plans are for continuing operations.

Ask your staff to keep their contact information updated in your HR system . Consider creating a phone tree so everyone is notified as quickly as possible.

Let your employees know who is responsible for contacting your suppliers to postpone shipments or make other arrangements and who will communicate with the public via press releases, your website, and your social media channels. Consider assigning multiple people to these tasks in case the primary person is unavailable.

4. Check your insurance

Your insurance company can help your small business get back on its feet quickly. Review your insurance policy before a disaster to ensure your information is up to date and that you have enough coverage.

Make sure you know how to contact the company and make a claim. Keep copies of your policy in a waterproof and fireproof container, so you can always access it when needed.

5. Document your entire plan

After you’ve determined which operations are necessary to your business and created a strategy to have them back up and running as quickly as possible, put it in writing. Keep digital copies and printed copies, in case you don’t have access to a computer or the internet immediately following a disaster.

Consider including a copy of your business continuity plan with your emergency preparedness plan, so your employees can access both if needed.

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Maintaining Business Continuity: 7 Tips for Organizations of All Sizes

As an emergency-management professional, I’ve seen companies big and small face the same fundamental challenge over and over: how to keep operations running in the face of disruption. Disasters, cyberattacks, and pandemics—whatever the hazard and whatever the scenario—can have a significant impact on business operations, but the businesses that have survived more than a year after the event have one thing in common: preparation. That’s why it’s crucial for organizations of all sizes to have a solid plan in place to ensure their critical business functions can continue, even in difficult circumstances. Planning helps you think ahead; it’s worth the exercise and can give your business a head start down the road for incrementally improving company resiliency. Here are seven tips to help companies maintain business continuity and keep operations running smoothly:

#1 Conduct a Thorough Risk Assessment

Conducting a thorough risk assessment is key to business continuity planning. Risk assessment is an organized thought process. It’s your research term paper to a passing grade. This process involves identifying potential risks and vulnerabilities in your operations and determining their likelihood and impact. By forming a cross-functional team to gather information about facilities, systems, processes, data, employees, customers, and suppliers, you can ensure that all aspects of your operations are considered. You can then use the results of the assessment to develop an emergency-preparedness plan , then train and obtain assets that prioritize for sustainment of critical business functions. An example of risk evaluation in practice: While consulting with a global computer company in Europe, I found that its critical facility and key engineers were located near railway tracks carrying chemical trains. During the evaluation of the company’s emergency plan, I began looking into “what if” scenarios and discovered that the engineers were in the path of a potential chemical release from the nearby factory. This situation highlights the significance of conducting thorough risk evaluations for maintaining business continuity.

#2 Develop a Comprehensive Business Continuity Plan

Once you have a clear understanding of your risks, it’s time to develop a comprehensive plan to keep critical operations running in the event of a disaster. This plan should include a detailed incident response plan, communication procedures, access to critical systems and data, and alternative work arrangements for employees. Regularly reviewing and updating the plan, including conducting regular tabletop exercises and simulations, and gathering feedback from employees, customers, and stakeholders, can improve the plan’s effectiveness. Business continuity planning is not just a privilege for large corporations but a necessity for businesses of all sizes. The objective is to have a strategy in place to maintain operations during times of income disruption.

Take, for instance, a small pizza shop owner who understands the significance of being ready for emergencies and decides to create a business continuity plan. They perform a comprehensive risk assessment, considering the potential impact of incidents such as power failures, natural disasters, and supply chain interruptions. Based on the risk assessment results, the owner creates a plan that includes backup generators, alternate food suppliers, and other delivery options for customers during emergencies. Additionally, the owner trains all staff on the plan, conducting periodic tabletop exercises to ensure everyone understands their roles and responsibilities. If the owner can’t get to the pizza shop, someone else knows where the key is to unlock the door and turn on the oven without starting a fire.

Often, people say “we were lucky to survive those tough times.” However, luck is just preparation meeting opportunity.

#3 Utilize Tools to Identify Risks

To help identify potential risks, tools such as vulnerability assessments, IT penetration testing, and disaster simulations are available. These tools can help guide the development of a robust business continuity plan. Regular training and drills for employees with nearby businesses, local emergency services, and suppliers are also crucial to help them understand their roles and responsibilities and become familiar with emergency-response procedures. Take, for instance, the security engineer at a large digital media provider who was worried about data privacy and the protection of sensitive customer information stored on their servers. One of the ways they ensure the security of the company’s systems is by conducting periodic penetration testing to simulate potential attacks by cyber hackers. The engineer uses specialized tools to scan the target systems for vulnerabilities, such as missing patches or misconfigured servers. If any vulnerabilities are found during the scanning phase, the engineer then attempts to exploit them to see how far they can penetrate the system and what kind of information they can access. The engineer documents the results of their testing, including any vulnerabilities they discovered, and then provides a report to the appropriate departments within the company, such as IT, Compliance, Legal, and management.

#4 Implement Mobile or Remote Work Arrangements

Implementing mobile or remote work arrangements is an important part of business continuity planning. In the event of a disaster, employees may not be able to access the company’s physical premises and having remote work arrangements in place can keep many critical operations running. The recent COVID-19 pandemic has shown that remote work can be effective, and many companies were able to continue operations with little interruption by increasing the capabilities of existing systems. Many organizations that face frequent weather emergencies have implemented an emergency messaging and voicemail system that provides updates to employees on commute conditions and instructs them to work from home if the conditions are deemed to be unsafe. Likewise, the employee can simply send a text message to let the organization know if they will be choosing to work from their home location.

#5 Utilize Cutting-Edge Backup and Disaster-Recovery Systems

Backup and disaster-recovery systems, such as an off-premises, cloud-based data storage solution, are a crucial part of a comprehensive business continuity plan. These tactical backup processes can quickly restore critical systems and data in the event of a disaster, thus minimizing disruption to operations. The use of advanced technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, can help organizations to automate key emergency-management processes, such as incident response and communication with employees and stakeholders. Additionally, the use of cloud-based technologies can help organizations to quickly restore critical systems and data in the event of a disaster, thereby reducing the impact of disrupted operations.

#6 Have Clear and Well-Defined Roles for All Staff

Having clear and well-defined roles and responsibilities for all employees is important to ensure response activities are coordinated and everyone knows what’s expected of them—to include filling in for an absent colleague—in the event of a disaster. Regular training and drills can also help employees understand their roles and responsibilities and become familiar with emergency-response procedures. Involve employees at all levels and from all departments in the development of the emergency-preparedness plan. One example of activating this plan is through the use of a “call tree”—an internal phone-chain system. In the event of an emergency, the backup contact list of multiple non-office phone numbers and alternate email addresses provide flexible communications. The call tree is used to alert and mobilize employees, and it could be a supervisor’s responsibility to verify the status of every team member (a safety wellness check). The supervisor and the employee may be asked to report up the chain multiple times a day, especially in longer, evolving emergencies like hurricanes and the flooding aftermath. Circumstances change quickly for a family in any emergency, whether a toxic chemical release or a wildland fire; employees may be evacuating and in need of company assistance.

#7 Maintain a Culture of Preparedness

Finally, it’s important to maintain a culture of preparedness by regularly communicating the importance of business continuity planning and involving employees in the planning process. Encourage employees to prepare for emergencies in their personal lives and provide them with resources to do so. By fostering a culture of preparedness, you can ensure that everyone is prepared to respond effectively in the event of a disaster. Imagine a company in a coastal city that is prone to hurricanes and tropical storms. It’s important for the company to be prepared for these regular disruptive events, so its management takes proactive measures to ensure business continuity. Determining how we contact each other and where we reassemble are key first steps. In summary, let all employees in on the action. Let them see that the company invests in a robust disaster recovery plan, which includes backup generators, redundant internet connections, and cloud-based data storage. They also regularly train on evacuation procedures, and the company provides them with the necessary equipment and supplies to work remotely.

When a severe hurricane hits the city, the company’s offices could become badly damaged, but its employees are able to continue operating with minimal interruption. The backup systems allow for seamless communication and data access. The company’s preparation and quick response to the disaster not only protect its employees and assets but also ensure that its clients and customers are minimally impacted.

Tailor Business Continuity Plans to Your Company

It’s crucial to remember that no two organizations are the same and that each emergency-management plan should be tailored to meet your specific needs. By having a well-structured emergency-management plan in place, you can protect your employees, customers, and assets and minimize the impact of an emergency.

If you’re looking to create and implement (plan-train-exercise) an effective emergency-management plan, reach out to GP Strategies today. Our team of experts will work with you to develop a customized solution that meets your specific needs. To get started with your consultation, email us today at [email protected] .

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5 Tips for Improving Business Continuity

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The effectiveness of a business continuity plan is measured by an organization’s ability to continue operations and maintain solvency, regardless of critical events and the circumstances – both expected and unknown – leading to them. What does it take? Proactive preparation and the resources to put your plan in motion are at the core.

Here are five tips that can help improve your business continuity strategy , and how you can make them work for you:

1. Confluence is inevitable: Prepare for interconnected critical events.

  • How do your different departments affect each other’s operations and delivery metrics?
  • Have you mapped out how a critical event in one sector might affect outcomes in another?
  • What’s your plan to isolate critical events and prevent them from escalating and/or creating derivative emergencies? 

Nearly three-quarters of firms experienced at least two types of incidents in the last 18 months, and more than one-third experienced three incidents in that timeframe.   –  Failing To Plan Is Planning To Fail, Forrester Consulting [1]

2. Communication is key: Consider all stakeholders.

  • What’s your plan to deal with events that have ramifications for internal and external stakeholders, i.e., employees, supply chain and customers?
  • How will you ensure everyone receives procedural instructions, safety directives and status updates as a dynamic situation unfolds?
  • When it comes to customers and investors, have you considered how you will deliver the right messaging to protect your organization’s reputation during a crisis?

The most common impact of incidents on organizations is damage to the company’s reputation, followed by operational disruption and threats to employee safety and morale. –  Failing To Plan Is Planning To Fail, Forrester Consulting

3. Learn from history: Stay connected to the growing complexity of risk.

  • Can you identify the biggest changes in your industry in the past two to five years?
  • Where have those changes created new or increased risk?
  • What benchmark events (in your organization, your industry and the overall business environment) can you identify and utilize to gather lessons learned?

Only 30 percent of organizations are very confident they can handle the increasing complexity of risk management in the future.  –  Failing To Plan Is Planning To Fail, Forrester Consulting

4. Know your repercussions: Set aside funds to cover potential damages.

  • Have you analyzed your areas of impact?
  • What are their expected associated damages and how much do you estimate resolution will cost?
  • Does your recovery budget correspond to the breadth and likelihood of each set of potential damages?

Every category of extreme weather or natural disaster increased year over year, leading to a possible $2.5 million in damages on average. – CEO Brief: Global Risk Impact Report

5. Take advantage of technology: Get the right resources.

  • Is your existing critical event management (CEM) platform easy to use and reliable, enabling you to rapidly reach everyone? 
  • Are you aware of the advances in AI and risk intelligence and their measurable advantages in quickly detecting threats and improving efficient responses?
  • Do you have the ability to see a big-picture overview of your threat landscape before, during and after a critical event?

Organizations with advanced CEM capabilities were 72 percent more likely to say their CEM program reduces the impact of a critical event to business operations.  – Failing To Plan Is Planning To Fail, Forrester Consulting

Learn more about strengthening organizational resilience and improving business continuity in our ebook.

[1] A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of OnSolve

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Preparation Prevents Panic: Building Business Continuity for Resiliency in a Chaotic World

Find out how to proactively prepare for threats to your organization and build resilience with business continuity planning.

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OnSolve® proactively mitigates physical threats, allowing organizations to remain agile when a crisis strikes. Using trusted expertise and reliable AI-powered risk intelligence, critical communications and incident management technology, the OnSolve Platform allows organizations to detect, anticipate and mitigate physical threats that impact their people and operations.

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Business Continuity Planning

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Organize a business continuity team and compile a  business continuity plan  to manage a business disruption. Learn more about how to put together and test a business continuity plan with the videos below.

Business Continuity Plan Supporting Resources

  • Business Continuity Plan Situation Manual
  • Business Continuity Plan Test Exercise Planner Instructions
  • Business Continuity Plan Test Facilitator and Evaluator Handbook

Business Continuity Training Videos

The Business Continuity Planning Suite is no longer supported or available for download.

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Business Continuity Training Introduction

An overview of the concepts detailed within this training. Also, included is a humorous, short video that introduces viewers to the concept of business continuity planning and highlights the benefits of having a plan. Two men in an elevator experience a spectrum of disasters from a loss of power, to rain, fire, and a human threat. One man is prepared for each disaster and the other is not.

View on YouTube

Business Continuity Training Part 1: What is Business Continuity Planning?

An explanation of what business continuity planning means and what it entails to create a business continuity plan. This segment also incorporates an interview with a company that has successfully implemented a business continuity plan and includes a discussion about what business continuity planning means to them.

Business Continuity Training Part 2: Why is Business Continuity Planning Important?

An examination of the value a business continuity plan can bring to an organization. This segment also incorporates an interview with a company that has successfully implemented a business continuity plan and includes a discussion about how business continuity planning has been valuable to them.

Business Continuity Training Part 3: What's the Business Continuity Planning Process?

An overview of the business continuity planning process. This segment also incorporates an interview with a company about its process of successfully implementing a business continuity plan.

Business Continuity Training Part 3: Planning Process Step 1

The first of six steps addressed in this Business Continuity Training, which detail the process of building a business continuity plan. This step addresses how organizations should “prepare” to create a business continuity plan.

Business Continuity Training Part 3: Planning Process Step 2

The second of six steps addressed in this Business Continuity Training, which detail the process of building a business continuity plan. This step addresses how organizations should “define” their business continuity plan objectives.

Business Continuity Training Part 3: Planning Process Step 3

The third of six steps addressed in this Business Continuity Training, which detail the process of building a business continuity plan. This step addresses how organizations should “identify” and prioritize potential risks and impacts.

Business Continuity Training Part 3: Planning Process Step 4

The fourth of six steps addressed in this Business Continuity Training, which detail the process of building a business continuity plan. This step addresses how organizations should “develop” business continuity strategies.

Business Continuity Training Part 3: Planning Process Step 5

The fifth of six steps addressed in this Business Continuity Training, which detail the process of building a business continuity plan. This step addresses how organizations should define their “teams” and tasks.

Business Continuity Training Part 3: Planning Process Step 6

The sixth of six steps addressed in this Business Continuity Training, which detail the process of building a business continuity plan. This step addresses how organizations should “test” their business continuity plans. View on YouTube

Last Updated: 12/21/2023

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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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Can your company operate under challenging circumstances? Establish a business continuity plan, so you know the answer is yes.

 Five employees stand in a group in a high-end restaurant. The group's focus is on the woman in the middle of the photo; she holds an electronic tablet and wears a white blouse and dark blue pants. The other employees are dressed in button-up shirts under either aprons or vests. In the background is a set of shelves filled with various wine bottles and a large indoor plant, the leaves of which reach the ceiling.

Business disruption costs your company money. It can result in lost revenues and extra expenses. The worst part is that potential threats can come anytime and anywhere. A natural disaster or sudden illness can leave your company without a leader, supplier, or office space. A business continuity plan (BCP) ensures your organization can function during a crisis.

In 2020, more than 50% of companies worldwide didn’t have a business continuity plan. While many have since implemented one, others lag behind. Learn what a BCP is, how it benefits your company, and how to start.

What is a business continuity plan, and who needs one?

A business continuity plan is a written document that outlines the steps your organization takes during an emergency. On a basic level, your BCP explains who handles essential business operations and highlights time-sensitive tasks. You assign each person a role and describe operational processes so that you can fill empty positions with another team member or new employee as needed. It should be updated regularly and accessible to all staff in digital and paper forms.

All companies benefit from having a business continuity plan, even solo entities. After all, if you are a solopreneur, who will communicate with your clients if you can’t? Also, corporations in some industries must create a BCP. For instance, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) requires member firms to keep plans according to Rule 4370 .

[ Read more: 5 Types of Organizational Structures for Small Business ]

Core components of business continuity plans

Although business continuity plans vary according to industry and company size, most include similar sections. A solopreneur without employees will have a less extensive guide than an entrepreneur with multiple locations and a large staff.

Your business continuity plan may include the following:

  • A list of roles and responsibilities.
  • Communication protocols for staff, vendors, and customers.
  • An outline of critical functions like payroll and revenue operations.
  • Your strategy for assessing risks, testing your plan, and updating it.

Assessing threats and having an actionable plan gives your company a competitive edge.

Business continuity vs. disaster recovery

A disaster recovery plan (DRP) helps your company move forward after an incident. It’s focused on returning to business as normal. In contrast, a business continuity plan prioritizes keeping your store open and running regardless of the circumstances. A DRP is often part of a more extensive business continuity plan; alternatively, it can be a stand-alone document. The key to creating a resilient business is having both strategies in place.

[ Read more: How to Write an Emergency Preparedness Plan ]

How small businesses benefit from having a BCP

Assessing threats and having an actionable plan gives your company a competitive edge. It ensures that you’re prepared to handle anything that comes your way while reassuring your customers, employees, and suppliers that your business will remain open during trying times.

Here are a few ways business continuity planning benefits your company:

  • Increases organizational awareness: Going through the planning process can alert you to insurance issues, unknown risks, or supply chain concerns . It also encourages your staff to take their roles seriously and understand what’s expected of them.
  • Reduces financial risks: Having strategies to resolve employee, supply chain, or location problems can decrease downtime, allowing you to continue to generate revenue during an emergency.
  • Prevents customer dissatisfaction: Communication issues and business disruption can lead to clients turning to your competitors. Remaining operational means you can fully support customers in their time of need.
  • Improves employee relations: Instability can lower worker retention rates. A BCP shows your staff how and when you will communicate during a crisis. Also, you can engage them during the process to demonstrate their importance to your small business.

Getting started: BCP tips and resources

Ready.gov provides top-notch resources to help you throughout the business continuity planning process. Along with guides and templates, you can view training and testing information or learn how to complete a risk assessment.

Check out free business continuity plan templates from the following agencies:

  • Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
  • Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

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Home » 5 Helpful Tips for Business Continuity Planning

5 Helpful Tips for Business Continuity Planning

Tips on business continuity planning

There are many occurrences that could disrupt your business, leading to loss of revenue and possibly additional, unplanned expenses. The biggest concern for many businesses used to revolve around inclement weather or natural disasters.

These days, data breaches are a more immediate threat. Whatever the cause of disruption, however, a company’s ability to move ahead relies on having a solid business continuity plan in place to address the issue and recover in a timely manner. Here are a few tips to help you create a continuity plan for your operation.

1. Identify Potential Threats

Your business continuity plan may apply to any number of scenarios in which business is disrupted, from power outages, to employee strikes, to cyber-attacks on computer networks. However, identifying and understanding potential threats can only help you to better prepare for every possible contingency.

2. Identify Potential Outcomes

In addition to knowing the threats that could derail your operations, it’s important to walk through what will happen in the wake of such catastrophes. What happens when your company becomes the victim of ransomware?

If you’re unprepared for this possibility, chances are you’ll end up paying the ransom in order to regain control of your network and access to your files. The other potential outcome is that you refuse to pay and you have to start from scratch.

The third option, of course, is preparing with a business continuity plan that includes appropriate technical support. This might include a managed services provider that hosts off-site system backups you can implement in just such an emergency to keep your business up and running.

3. Build a Recovery Team

Whether you hire in-house IT staff or you work with a third-party vendor, you’re going to need a team in place that can spring into action when a disaster occurs. This team could help to create your business continuity plan as well as implement it should the need arise.

4. Create a Recovery Plan

A solid business continuity plan will have to identify essential business functions and find ways to restore them in the event of a partial or complete shutdown. The goal is to disrupt normal operations as little as possible.

5. Train Employees

Employees are trained not only to do the jobs for which they were hired, but also to interact appropriately with coworkers, observe basic computer security protocols, and generally behave in a safe, responsible, and appropriate manner in the work environment. Part of their training should also include steps to follow in the event that business is somehow disrupted, including informing superiors, contacting a recovery team, or following other prescribed protocols.

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Five tips for successful business continuity planning.

There are various common areas where business continuity plans fall down. Here, Colin Jeffs highlights some of these, providing his top tips to keep your business continuity planning on track, and to improve the quality of your plans.

Plan smart, not big!

Over the years, I’ve seen many organizations try to plan for just about every possible eventuality. But in reality, it simply isn’t possible to plan for everything that ‘might’ happen - so don’t try to. A good business continuity plan isn’t one that tells you what to do in a specific scenario, but one that helps and supports you in making informed decisions for ‘any’ scenario. A good plan is one that will be used because it is helpful, so consider when you create your plan(s) what information is vital in helping you make those decisions. Anything else probably isn’t required, it just makes the plan unwieldy and unusable. If you feel you need a plan that is for a specific scenario, make sure it only focusses on that scenario and most importantly, make sure that people understand its purpose.

Understand what is important and why

My simple rule of thumb here is, how can you hope to protect your business if you don’t understand what is critical in your business and what those critical things depend on? You might be focusing your efforts in the wrong areas of your business, or you could be overlooking other areas that have a dependency. Performing a business impact analysis (BIA) can be very time consuming and let’s face it, boring and tedious to those who have to take part. It is vitally important that anyone who participates in anything to do with business continuity or operational resilience understands why it is important and what it means to them to fully get their buy-in.

Board engagement is key

I’ve heard it said many times that management buy-in is critical to a successful resilience programme - this is 100 percent true. If the management haven’t bought into the programme, how will you expect the rest of the staff to? It’s important that staff understand the resilience programme is sponsored and mandated by the board. It’s not something that people could ’ do or take part in, but something they must do and take part in to protect the business. It becomes a part of the culture of the business.

You are only as good as your last test!

You can have the best plans in the world but if you have never tested them, how do you know that they work? More to the point, how do you know your staff will know what to do and when to do it? Do staff know the part they play during an incident? Do they know the process to follow? Testing is one of the best ways to ensure people feel included and to help them to understand the role they must play during an incident. It not only helps them to feel more comfortable with what is expected of them, but it also allows them to practice their response in a ‘safe’ environment without fear of messing up. Remember, it’s far better to find out that something doesn’t work, or some critical data is missing during an exercise than during a real incident, just at the point you depend on it.

Your suppliers play a big part in your success and many of them provide extremely critical or important services and/or data to you. Treat them as an extension of your own business or as an additional department and make sure you understand them in detail. Including them in your planning and testing is an important part of making sure the relationship is resilient and that you both understand the importance of what they provide to you. It’s also very important that you understand their resilience capabilities and how they will continue to provide services to you in the event they have an incident. Bring them into your programme and get to know them better.

Colin Jeffs MBCI is Head of Business Continuity Management at Daisy Corporate Services . He moved into the realm of business continuity from IT project management where, as part of implementing IT systems, he had to implement resiliency. Colin has worked in business continuity and crisis management for more than 25 years, holding senior roles in both disciplines for many years at major financial institutions in the city. Colin now heads up Daisy’s award-winning business continuity management division.

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tips for business continuity plan

AFP TiP Guide to Business Continuity Planning: Why Treasury Needs a Plan B

tips for business continuity plan

Disaster can strike at any time. In today’s ever-changing world, extreme weather, power outages, cyber events and other incidents can severely disrupt operations. That’s why it is essential for corporates to have a business continuity plan in place. And since the treasury function is at the forefront of a company’s money, there may be no better department to be a leader in this area.

Unfortunately, business continuity planning simply isn’t a high priority for many treasury departments, and that can no longer be the case. Oftentimes, there are payments that need to be made, and they can’t wait for the office to reopen. Treasury needs to have a plan in place for it to do its job even when the office is inaccessible.

In this new Treasury in Practice Guide, we will hear from corporate treasurers and other experts on how treasury departments can implement a successful business continuity plan , so that the next time disaster strikes, you’ll be ready.

Table of Contents

Why Treasury?

Determine your critical assets, use a template or standard, don’t forget the basics, beware the weakest link, test it out, don’t sacrifice security, it’s up to treasury.

As treasury’s role has grown over the past decade to become more strategic , we hear time and time again that the treasury function has more of a voice across the organization, working frequently with other departments. And when it comes to business continuity planning (BCP), treasury has yet another opportunity to truly be a leader.

“The treasury department is critical to the business,” noted Claudia Swendseid, senior vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. “They collect cash. They deal with bills. They deal with investing cash. They deal with financial institutions. These are all, by definition, critical components of a company’s ability to run day-in and day-out.”

But given the multitude of responsibilities treasury commands, BCP simply isn’t a top priority right now for many treasury departments. As David Neshat, treasurer for Akamai, noted, “If a treasury department has 10 priorities, BCP is unfortunately number 10.” That needs to change.

Critical Assets

The first thing a treasury department needs to do when creating a business continuity plan is figure out all of its critical assets, noted Swendseid. One of the best ways to determine this is by calling a meeting with the CEO and CFO to hash out the business’ priorities and the risks that can impact them. That way, when an event occurs—be it a natural disaster, a power outage, or a change in the marketplace, a change in a certain customer environment—the company will fall back on the “vision” it has set for itself, explained Dr. Mark Zecca, senior vice president, cloud services and engineering for Kyriba. “Business continuity is actually putting your vision down on paper,” he said.

Six Quick Tips for Creating a Business Continuity Plan

  • Determine your critical assets. List all of your organization’s critical assets and the risks to them.
  • Use a template or standard. Use a generic BCP template or a national standard for guidance when drafting your plan.
  • Don’t forget the basics. Make sure you have contact information for everyone on your staff, your banks, and your vendors.
  • Beware the weakest link. Make sure you can count on every link in the chain, but be ready in case one of them isn’t up to par.
  • Test it out. Test your plan, and test it regularly, so there aren’t any surprises when it’s time to use it.
  • Don’t sacrifice security. Either equip your employees with company-issued devices to perform critical functions remotely, or implement a secure BYOD policy.

While assets will vary from company to company, there are a few constants that will always be among the top priorities in a business continuity plan. First of all, systems need to be protected, Swendseid stressed. “If my accounts payable is down for two hours, that might not matter. But if my international treasury workstation is down for two hours, that could mean I lose my business x amount of money. So how quickly do I need to be able to recover these kinds of systems? Once I understand what I need to protect and the cost implications for these things to function, I can now determine the cost benefit in terms of my plans,” she said.

Once the conversation with upper management happens, then treasury can begin to work out the plan. “At that point, you can sit down and say, ‘This is priority number one, this is priority number two, etc. I think you’ll find that many treasurers already know this; they’ve just never written it down, they’ve never really tried it out, and they’ve never thought about what the various alternatives to those priorities might be,” Zecca said.

It is important to note that meeting with the CEO and/or CFO is not a one-time thing. A company’s priorities can change, and treasurers need to stay on top of those changes. Therefore, treasury should be meeting regularly with high-level executives. “The last thing you want to do is be in a situation where you find out that you’re out-of-sync with your CFO or CEO,” Zecca said. “It really comes down to good communication; everyone has to agree on top priorities. And in many cases, the treasurer not only has to look for it; they have to drive it.”

Beyond the C-suite, treasury should also make sure that other department heads and even regular third-party vendors know their roles should something happen. “Plan for conditions, not scenarios. You need to know that these groups will be there to provide their features and functionalities under general conditions. This is important, because you can plan for all sorts of scenarios, but if an entire group goes away quickly, there go your plans. Stick to simplicity, prepare for conditions, not scenarios. You’ve got to watch that you don’t build your house on sand,” Zecca said.

Template or Standard

Once you iron out the business’ priorities, it’s time to actually write the plan. Writing out a plan is not easy, which is why many organizations utilize BCP templates to get started. Jeff Johnson, CTP, chief financial officer for Amesbury Truth and vice chairman of AFP’s Board of Directors, believes that treasury departments should begin with a generic BCP template and adapt it for their needs. “The challenge a lot of organizations have is that often they want to put something together, but they have no template,” he said.

Sample templates can be found rather easily online. Although corporates may not always be the target audience for a particular template, many of these samples can be adapted for their use. For example, this template from FEMA is intended primarily for non-federal governments, but many of its tenets can also be applied to the private sector. This plan, by FINRA, is directed at small businesses, but again, many of its principles can be applied to large corporates.

Although the structure for a business continuity plan can vary, a good plan will provide an overview of the organization, identifying key assets and the risks to them. It will specify the steps that can be taken in the event of an emergency, what their objectives are, and who is tasked with putting them into motion. It should also include a full distribution list of the plan recipients, as well as tables where any updates to the plan can be recorded.

Johnson, whose organization has been building a cohesive business continuity plan over the past six months, stressed the importance of including a business impact analysis (BIA) — a special section that attempts to identify, understand and quantify all risks to continuity. For treasury, the BIA will focus on risks to sending wires, payroll, and cash concentration. “So you look into each one of those items and the equipment you need to get yourself up and running, what you might need for software, your supplier list, your business recovery functions, your recovery time objectives, operational risks and any data you need,” he said. “For treasury business continuity, you’re probably going to have half a dozen of those areas, depending on how big you are.”

For an even more in-depth look at structuring a business continuity plan, it is also worth reviewing disaster recovery /business continuity standards like the NFPA 1600, the U.S. standard for emergency preparedness. The NFPA 1600 applies to public or private sector entities and provides detailed guidelines that an organization can follow when developing its plan.

  NFPA 1600 has been organized in the Plan-Do-Check-Act format:

  • Plan: The process to determine goals and objectives and the desired outcome(s).
  • Do: Executing the actions needed to achieve the desired outcome(s).
  • Check: Evaluating whether the desired outcome has been achieved by those actions.
  • Act: Addressing any gaps between the desired outcome and the actual outcome.

After explaining its purpose and providing a series of definitions, the standard delves into criteria for program management and the planning process (Plan), followed by a section on actual implementation (Do). Next, it provides guidance on training and education, as well as exercises and tests (Check) and concludes with a section on program maintenance and improvement (Act).

Dont Forget the Basics

In January 2016, Winter Storm Jonas hit the East Coast and buried major cities like Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New York. Many businesses were forced to shut down their offices and employees had to work remotely, AFP included. But an important factor to keep in mind is that you can only work remotely if your servers are intact.

Akamai’s Neshat explained that in early 2015, his company had to exercise its business disaster recovery plan. Cambridge, Mass., where Akamai is located, was forced to close its offices for non-network operations command center employees due to snowstorms. “In order for our employees to be able to work from home, our company failed over to our disaster recovery center elsewhere in the country,” he said. “Had that not happened, working remotely would not have been an option. Employees wouldn’t have had the ability to logon to emails/ERP systems/HR systems/etc.”

If you can’t reach them through work email, how do you reach them?” Neshat said. “BCP goes back to simple things like that. People should have a folder at home with that contact information.”

But if work email is down, that’s when treasury needs a “plan B” to communicate. Members of the treasury staff should have each other’s mobile numbers and even personal emails so that they can get in touch with them as needed. It’s also a good idea to have personal contact information for key members of the IT staff, as well as departments that treasury works frequently with, like accounting. “If you can’t reach them through work email, how do you reach them?” Neshat said. “BCP goes back to simple things like that. People should have a folder at home with that contact information.”

Zecca recommended going a step further and setting up a contact center that is offsite or off-system. “Ask yourself and then answer: ‘Where is the one place that everyone can go to get contact information?’ Printing lists of people’s names and having that in the hands of lots of people may not be the best answer,’ he said.

Swendseid added that having a plan in place only works if there are specific individuals appointed to put it to work when it’s needed. “Who are the decision-makers? This needs to be clear. For example, who sends out the memo that says, ‘Non-critical staff can be released early’? Who is that person in a particular company, and how does that translate to the treasurer or the CFO? Who gets to make that call? If the disaster is predictable, who informs employees that they don’t need to come into the office? That communication needs to be laid out,” she said.

Sarah Schaus, assistant treasurer and assistant vice president for Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America and chairwoman of AFP’s Treasury Advisory Group, explained that her company has actually appointed a business continuity management (BCM) team to be the “first line” in any type of black swan event. Should the event last longer than 24 hours, then a second line gets called in. “Everyone knows their accountability before we get into a situation,” Schaus said. “We even make little laminated business cards for people so everyone has the phone numbers of the team that is part of that first line.”

This communication should also extend to external partners that treasury works with regularly, Neshat added. Treasury staff should have contact information for bankers, treasury vendors, etc. in case they need to be reached and their systems are down. “Do you have your bank account information, contact information for your banking people, and your treasury vendors in a folder? It’s really just going back to basics. Technology has advanced to the point where we’ve forgotten about the basics,” he said.

Furthermore, what happens when you need to pay your employees or a vendor and the systems at one of your core banks have shut down entirely? “Let’s say your cash management bank is under a [distributed denial of service (DDoS)] attack and is shut down,” Neshat said. What do you do at that point? Treasury should have these conversations with their banks to understand and take note of the bank’s BCP. Often times it can be as simple as faxing in payment instructions signed by authorized signers to a certain area.

While most treasury departments are equipped to work from home, there’s always the possibility that your internet at home could go down—not something that’s too outside of the realm of possibility when your area is facing extreme weather or (obviously) power outages.

Again, this is why you need a folder with direct contact information for your banks. “You have to make sure that you do have the ability to do phone-in wires; to be able to call into the financial institutions to get your balances over the phone as opposed to going online,” said Anita Patterson, CTP, director, treasury services and Patriot Act compliance officer for Cox Enterprises Inc.

Cox has contact information for multiple financial institutions, should its employees not be able to get online, or conversely, if networks at the banks are down. Transacting this way is fairly safe, as Cox has passcodes that have to be used over the phone or via fax in order to access the company’s accounts. “And we work close enough with the financial institutions that there is a recognition factor there too,” Patterson said. “So if you called in on my behalf to try to do a wire, they’re not going to take it from you. You’re not approved, you can’t identify yourself or provide the necessary checks and balances that would allow you to do that on our behalf.”

Speaking of security, it is also important to make sure that any work performed from home online is not putting the company at risk. Schaus makes sure that any time her staff works remotely, they are doing so securely. “We strongly encourage, when anyone does work from home, that their wireless connection is encrypted,” she said. “I know when I login at home I can see my seven neighbors’ Wi-Fi out there that I could connect to. So we ask that everyone’s Wi-Fi is password protected so that no one can tap into it.”

Beware the Weakest Link

A business continuity plan only works if all of the pieces are in place. Sometimes it is best to utilize a third-party provider for certain functions because that frees up treasury to do other things. But if that provider is unable to do their job, that can create a huge problem and treasury has to be ready to pick up the slack.

So regardless of tornadoes and storms shutting down the office, what happens if there’s just a mistake somewhere — a keying mistake, a file mistake — and your employees are not going to be paid on that day? What’s your backup plan?”

For example, many companies outsource payroll. But what if your payroll provider makes a mistake and the company doesn’t realize it until payday? The provider should be able to redo its entire payroll process, but that can take a couple days. Thus, employees won’t get their paychecks on time unless treasury manually issues them.

Johnson stressed that if treasury is going to outsource a certain function like payroll, it needs to consider what to do if that third-party vendor fails. If the third party makes a huge mistake, treasury can end up paying the price for it. “So regardless of tornadoes and storms shutting down the office, what happens if there’s just a mistake somewhere — a keying mistake, a file mistake — and your employees are not going to be paid on that day? What’s your backup plan?” he asked.

On the other side of the coin, relying too much on your own people can create its own risks. It can be a good idea to bring in an outside set of eyes once your business continuity plan is in place. “Bringing in a third-party vendor to do an audit of your procedures and practices can offer a lot of insight into where you may have some gaps,” Swendseid said. “Any company would get some benefit in having an outside eye look at what they have in place.”

Test it Out

Once you’ve drafted your plan, it is crucial that you test it. If you don’t, how do you really know if it works? Even treasury departments who do have well thought-out plans in place often find some aspects need to be tweaked once confronted with a real black swan event. So testing, and testing regularly, is a very important step in implementing BCP.

Johnson noted that at his former company, Deluxe Corp., he would routinely have his treasury team work from home in order to ensure things would run smoothly should they not be able to make it into the office. “We’d work remotely to show that we didn’t need to be in the office,” he said.

Schaus noted that Allianz performs regular BCP exercises across the organization, including groups like treasury, investment and operations. “We do tabletop exercises, where we’ll sit in a closed room for three hours and go through a scenario,” she said. “We’ll say, ‘There’s a fire on the fourth floor, it’s noon and no one can get back to their desks or get home.’ Then, the next level is, ‘Now it’s 5:00 at night, these people are stressed and they need to get their kids from daycare. They’re starting to panic.’ So we do all that scenario role playing.”

Allianz even has a business continuity management site where its employees can go and run through more tabletop exercises. “At least once a year, we’ll physically go there and test our systems. We have a test plan, we look at what didn’t work and we make sure we get it fixed,” Schaus said.

Swendseid agreed that tabletop exercises are critical to a business continuity plan’s success. “Tabletop exercises can be very effective for, say, unanticipated disasters,” she said. “What if there’s a bomb? What if there’s a chemical release? What if there’s a fire? You can practice that in a tabletop exercise. You can have an exercise that says, ‘There’s a bomb threat at 3:00 p.m. What should we do? How do we inform people? If there’s a bomb threat, that means we have to evacuate. Do we send people to a remote location?’ Those are all the sorts of things that a treasury function needs to plan for. Disaster recovery is really about scenarios and having plans in place to respond to them.”

It’s the same thing if the business is hit with a cyberattack. Treasury and other departments may not physically need to relocate, but they will likely need to shut down certain systems. Again, exercises can help to prepare for that. “What if some sort of virus has affected my network with my financial institution?” Swendseid posited. “That financial institution may take me offline and may not allow me to continue to do business with them until I’ve addressed that problem. Do I have offline procedures in place to send critical wire transfers? There are all sorts of things that an organization needs to think about and practice.”

But while tabletop exercises are important, Zecca warned treasurers against scenario chasing. “Tabletop exercises are a good practice, but they should target conditions, not scenarios,” he said. “Once in a condition, and with the resources engaged for that condition, you can run all sorts of scenarios against it,” he said.

Of course, no amount of testing can prepare you for the real thing, right? You’re always going to find some flaws in your system, aren’t you? Not necessarily.

Fred Butterfield, CTP, a former treasury manager for a Denverbased RIA technology company, explained that when his former company had to enact its business continuity plan when the area was hit with a blizzard that closed most businesses, shut down streets, and made moving about very difficult, if not impossible. “That day was the first full test of the business continuity protocols by all departments,” he said. “It was completely successful. No one outside of the company knew that things were not completely normal until someone told them. The team that had worked to create the protocols and test them, of which I was one, received individual awards and recognition afterward. All of us had notes on what had worked well and what needed improvement. The continuity team was increased and the plan was refined and documented.”

At the time Butterfield left the company, each department was responsible for maintaining its own documentation and performing its own semi-annual testing. “Documentation of the entire process was reported to the compliance department, who maintained it for audit and regulatory review,” he said. “There were different parts to the plan to cover other natural disasters or other material events, such as floods, fires, power failure, terrorist attacks, etc. As many contingencies were included as could be thought of by the team. A regular annual review of the whole program was done, at a high level, on an annual basis by the compliance department.”

Patterson noted that in 2014, Cox had two separate instances of ice storms that resulted in its Atlanta headquarters being shut down. Atlanta is not known for extreme winter weather, and up until this point, the building had never been closed. Fortunately, treasury had a BCP in place and had practiced using it multiple times. Staff members worked from home, and were able to take care of all the needs of all the businesses Cox supports, which are all over the country. “If you’re in California, you don’t really care what’s going on in Georgia. You just want your money,” she said.

The building ended up being closed for three days each time, but treasury was still able to access every system, financial institution and report it had to. “But we had practiced before that happened,” Patterson said. “I can’t stress that enough. When the event is occurring—that’s not a good time to find out whether your plan works or not.”

Dont Sacrifice Security

During a cybersecurity session at a recent cash management conference, attendees joked that BYOD (bring your own device) should actually stand for “bring your own disaster”. While it may not always be realistic for a company to provide all of its employees with laptops, mobile phones, etc., working remotely in the case of a black swan event requires employees to connect to the company network—therefore, those devices need to be secure. The more the company can control that process, the better. A company’s plan should never sacrifice the security that it already has in place.

At Allianz, employees who play critical roles in BCP have company issued laptops that they take home every night. However, should they need to log into Allianz at home using their personal computer, they need to use a token, which is issued by the company. Lastly, no one can approve wires through mobile phones. “There is no business need to have to approve wires that way,” Schaus said. “I believe the company issued laptops are the safest.”

Patterson explained that, at Cox, the company provides treasury employees with laptops. Cox also provides iPhones, though some employees do use their own. Employees who use iPads also typically use their own devices. “However, any personal device we use to connect for our email, etc. has to be protected as specified by our IT and security organization,” she said.

Swendseid noted that the risks with a BYOD policy are substantially higher, because it makes it more difficult for the company to control the deployment and management of the device. “Plus there are issues like network monitoring and ongoing software patch deployment, and there are all sorts of policy issues to consider such as if you can you wipe a device that is lost if it’s BYOD,” she said.

However, BYOD can be secure; corporates just need to understand the risks and take the rights steps to mitigate them. Zecca noted that a BYOD capability with the right mobile security apps can make BYOD laptops even more secure than company laptops. “The risk is to the personal data,” he said. “It is possible with external control to freeze the laptop or render it useless due to a possible attack, possibly erasing personal data. But this is the risk that the user accepts when submitting to BYOD protocols.”

Its Up to Treasury

Although BCP is not, and should not be, the sole responsibility of treasury, it is an area where treasury must be a leader. Again, who better to make sure things stay up and running than those who truly understand the inner workings of the business? Treasury is heavily involved in risk management, is accustomed to taking an analytical approach to address problems, and is well-versed in compliance — simply put, treasury a perfect fit for BCP.

“The treasury department needs to protect the company because they’re the ones who have the money,” Swendseid said. “If there is any part of a company that needs to be especially well-controlled and provide the most stringent controls, it’s treasury. And if the treasury department is not doing it, that’s just bad business.”

Johnson agreed. “In the end, everything boils down to cash,” he said. Of course companies need to produce and ship their products, but getting the money in the door and paying employees and vendors can’t be taken for granted. “Those things are incredibly critical to the organization and people just assume they happen,” said Johnson. “If you can build a strong business continuity plan around the treasury group, pushing it out further is probably not as hard as you think.”

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4 Things to Consider When Developing a Business Continuity Plan

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Many businesses that lose access to their data never reopen their doors. Even when businesses lose some data but avoid a total outage, their employee productivity, customer satisfaction, and company reputation can plummet. This means that service providers have a moral obligation (in addition to their profit motive) to make sure that their customers have a well-structured  business continuity plan .

Business continuity is the process of making sure business information services are resilient enough to withstand accidental, intentional, or natural disruptions to their data. Sometimes, the business continuity issue is simply human error – someone deletes a key file from a system, causing it to break. Other times, device failures and even natural disasters will necessitate the launch of a business continuity plan.

For service providers helping business customers build out business continuity plans and disaster-proof their operations, there are four key considerations to keep in mind:

1. Where are the company’s weak points?

First, make sure you thoroughly understand the customer’s entire  IT infrastructure  to determine where the weak points are. Perhaps there are many mobile employees using remote endpoint devices, tablets, and smartphones, or public cloud is being used in the stack. What makes up that stack will help determine what the business continuity plan needs to take into account.

2. What’s the maximum acceptable data loss and total outage time?

A second consideration is the relative impact on their business if information is lost or inaccessible for a period of time. The more time, money, and effort put into a customer’s business continuity plan, the sooner you will be able to recover a system. 

If a system is mission critical, there should be a plan in place whereby the data can be re-established in just a few minutes. Some of the most rapidly responsive products on the market today can use a virtualized environment to recover an image in a matter of minutes.

3. How complex are the system dependencies?

Third, consider how the business’ systems are tied together. If there are a lot of dependencies, the business continuity plan you develop will need to take this into account. It’s important that when systems are coming back online, the business continuity plan has runbooks that bring the systems up in a reliable order. This enables employees to get back to work quickly. For an extra layer of protection consider adding Acronis Backup Cloud and Acronis Disaster Recovery Cloud to your MSP service portfolio. These products ensure that systems, and entire data centers, can be brought back online — even during a complete failure.

4. Is your plan clearly defined and documented?

Finally, the business continuity plans you develop for your customers’ have to be written and internally distributed. Invariably, disruptions will occur when the key employee who created the plan is sick, gone for the day, or on vacation. A documented business continuity plan eliminates this risk and ensures that you will have demonstrated value throughout your customers’ entire organization.

Your plan must include all of the necessary steps for recovering each and every system in the IT stack, including an overarching plan for the entire data center. It should always be accessible and employees in every business window should be thoroughly trained on how to implement it. Moreover, these plans should be tested regularly and key employees should be able to demonstrate they can perform them independently.

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Acronis is a Swiss company, founded in Singapore. Celebrating two decades of innovation, Acronis has more than 1,800 employees in 45 locations. The Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud solution is available in 26 languages in over 150 countries and is used by 20,000 service providers to protect over 750,000 businesses.

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Travel may be restricted and conferences canceled, but this crisis will eventually pass. To give us something to look forward to, let’s look at the session tracks for the 2020 Acronis Global Cyber Summit.

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Tips for Building a Strong Business Continuity Plan

Julia Tasiopoulos Corporate , Critical Communication , Incident Collaboration , Mass Notification , Rave Alert

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One way to maintain a healthy business , in the long run, is to plan for the future. By forecasting and anticipating what will happen in the coming weeks, months and years, businesses can better respond to an emergency situation or natural disaster .

When an unexpected emergency occurs, we rarely get enough advance notice that it will happen, if any notice at all. That’s why a business continuity plan is essential for your organization. A business continuity plan outlines your organization’s procedures and policies to follow in the event of an emergency to improve its response and recovery.

Let’s discuss what a business continuity plan encompasses and how you can create a strong plan for your organization.

What is a business continuity plan?

A business continuity plan (BCP) outlines your business’s system of prevention and recovery from emergencies or potential threats, such as extreme weather, cyberattacks, power outages and more. Your organization needs a strong business continuity plan to ensure both personnel and assets are able to function quickly in response to such events.  

Without a business continuity plan, your organization may be slower and less effective at recovering from the negative impact of emergencies: financial loss, disruptions to operations, damage to physical locations, loss of productivity and so on.

With a business plan, you have peace of mind knowing that you’re protecting your people, brand and reputation. You’ll also decrease risk and build trust among your customers.

A business continuity plan is not to be confused with an emergency communication plan . An emergency communication plan focuses on sharing and disseminating information internally and externally during an emergency.

Have a team identify your objectives

Whether your company is starting fresh with a new BCP or updating a current business continuity plan, it’s important to state your objective for your business continuity plan. It may be as simple as “minimize disruptions to operations,” but the objective should be stated so that the rest of your plan can align with it.

As for your business continuity management team or emergency preparedness team, the size and composition of your team will depend on your company but choose leaders with good leadership, communication and decision-making skills. 

Complete a business impact analysis

To conduct a business impact analysis, you must identify which processes and functions are essential and would be most impacted by an emergency. What are the biggest threats to your business? What would happen if your processes or functions were inoperable or had to be modified?

Risks to your business may differ depending on your industry, but some threats are common to all types of organizations.

  • Worldwide pandemics: The COVID-19 outbreak in 2020 changed the way employees worked in-office, affected the supply chain and, of course, impacted the health and safety of organizations. Consider how your organization responded to this pandemic and how it can better prepare for similar situations in the future.
  • Severe weather events : Fires, floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, blizzards and tornadoes can occur in an instant. They can impact your business by threatening the safety of your people, causing physical damage to facilities and disrupting operations, leading to financial loss.  
  • Power outages: Similar to natural disasters, loss of power and utilities can severely impact day-to-day operations and damage physical assets. In turn, this can disrupt services to customers and decrease productivity.
  • Cybersecurity breaches: Data breaches, hacks, data theft and other cybersecurity attacks can cause you to lose business data or expose confidential data. A serious breach may affect your business’s reputation and finances.

This step in creating your plan may take some time. However, it’s crucial to create a comprehensive business continuity plan that addresses risks to your business. Without identifying these threats, building plans to combat them will be more difficult.

Outline recovery strategies

So far, you’ve:

  • Put together a business continuity management team
  • Identified the objectives of your business continuity plan
  • Determined which processes and functions are essential to your business
  • Assessed potential threats and risks to your business

Next, you’ll build recovery strategies that address these risks and protect your essential business functions from the negative impact of an emergency, as well as improve your overall emergency response.

In your recovery strategies, address questions such as the following:

  • What will the organization do if those in leadership roles are unavailable? What about essential personnel?
  • What must be done if the facilities are damaged or inaccessible?
  • What is the recovery process for a cybersecurity attack or data breach?
  • What must be done if you have low or no inventory?
  • What is the communication system for when power, water, or other utilities are down?
  • What is the policy for remote work if the health and safety of employees are impacted?

You might also take a different approach to your recovery strategy and plan according to the department or team instead. Consider departments such as:

  • Customer service
  • Management and supervisors
  • Inventory and floor workers
  • Shipping and receiving
  • Maintenance
  • Administration
  • Stakeholders
  • Third-party partners or vendors

Think about how each department’s needs differ, and so should their part in your business continuity plan.

Test and improve your plan

Testing your completed business continuity plan is essential. Present the plan to your stakeholders for formal review so that it can be modified or expanded as needed. Encourage those reviewing the plan to point out weaknesses or gaps in the plan.

Once updates have been made, perform walkthroughs and training exercises. In a walkthrough, t eam members walk through each component of the business continuity plan to identify any issues that must be addressed. You might perform drills or full-scale exercises to test your team on what they’ve absorbed in their training. 

Another way to test your plan is to conduct a tabletop exercise . These are typically held in a meeting room, in which a facilitator for the exercise leads a team through the plan. Questions are asked and answered and the scenario is played out through discussion. 

Prevent and recover from threats with effective communication solutions

A proper business continuity plan prepares your organization for the unexpected, whether it be a natural disaster, security threat, power outage, or public health crisis. Your business continuity plan helps decrease risk and minimize damage to your facilities, as well as your brand reputation.

Business continuity planning goes beyond recovering physical assets or lost data, however. It’s also about strengthening your organization’s communication skills, both internal and external. That’s why Rave Mobile Safety provides critical communication solutions to many corporations, but also for healthcare facilities, schools, government organizations and communities. 

A critical communication solution empowers your team to share and receive the right information during emergency situations. And it does even more. Our suite of communication and collaboration solutions includes:

  • A secure mass notification system that reaches people via text, email, desktop, digital signage and public address systems
  • A personal safety app that protects employees with check-in features, safety resources and anonymous text-to-tip systems
  • An online portal where users can access emergency policies and procedures from any device
  • A communication tool that activates quick response and real-time collaboration with emergency responders

Strengthen your business continuity plan with the best communication solutions from Rave. To learn more about Rave’s solutions for corporations, or to learn about customizing your own solutions package, schedule a demo today.

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Business Continuity and Crisis Management Consultants

Tips for creating an effective business continuity plan

tips for business continuity plan

May 3, 2022 By //  by  Bryan Strawser

You are ready to begin writing an effective business continuity plan (BCP) for your organization and its critical functions. You have followed our advice on how to communicate your business continuity program to senior executives . You know that business continuity planning is a process that begins with a thorough business impact analysis (BIA). You’ll also know you’re at the home stretch when you have written the training plan for your team and set in motion the periodic review to keep your plan viable as your business grows and changes.

Between the BIA and the automatic review, you have lots of work to do. You’re feeling pretty good about yourself and have a clear vision of how BCP fits into your business. But how can you get everything going without collaboration and cooperation between all the elements of your organization?

You can’t. You need to collaborate, cooperate, and spread the good news about how your business continuity program can keep the organization’s people, processes, and business safe. Ready.gov provides a four-step description of the BCP planning process. We will elaborate on those steps and how collaborating can help the process be successful.

Step 1: Conduct a BIA

I dentify critical business functions as well as the business processes that support those functions. The BIA is your tool to predict the consequences of disruption to all or part of your business. You gather information needed for recovery strategies and identify loss scenarios as a  risk assessment.  The risk assessment involves a realistic approach to detect potential sources of business disruptions, with a priority focus on human safety.

The risk assessment identifies natural hazards (fires, floods, loss of IT, etc.) and damage to company property. Also, the BIA needs to state the impact of those hazards and the potential harm to your people and the business, both monetarily and to your reputation and customer base.

You could jump-start your risk assessment by setting up your business continuity team (Step 3) right away. Or you could circulate BIA Impact Analysis Worksheets to your managers and key people in the business. The worksheets are a good starting point in identifying what would happen to the entire company if something under their responsibility was stopped suddenly. They also promote early buy-in as your efforts in collaboration continue.

Step 2: Develop recovery strategies

If the business is going to get back in line quickly, your collaborative BCP must identify the resources required to restore business operations following a disaster. Distribute the Business Continuity Resource Requirements Worksheet for that purpose.

In addition to materials, your recovery strategy needs to identify critical business processes. Based on your consultation and collaboration across organizational lines, you will also have determined critical business processes and the resources your business needs to operate at different levels. For example, if disaster strikes, what would happen to your supply stream? What are the most essential materials your manufacturing operation needs? How many days’ supply does your warehouse stock?

So, recovery strategies involve tagging resources that consist of people, facilities, equipment, materials, and information technology. They could include contracting with outside suppliers or entering into reciprocal or partnership agreements, along with modifying or displacing other activities within the company.

Step 3: Develop the plan and present it to management

The framework for your plan will mature through the BIA process and the expert collaborative help you receive from others within the business. At this step, it is time to formalize your recovery team membership and distribute the responsibilities identified in Step 2.

Also, in this step, you write the actual plan. In collaboration with your IT experts, you also need to prepare IT disaster recovery procedures. IT encompasses your networks, servers, computers, and mobile devices distributed throughout the company. Your business undoubtedly relies heavily on productivity, financial and enterprise software. Your organization needs IT recovery strategies  in place to restore business operations quickly.

Step 4: Do your training and test the plan

Your plan is in writing, and your CEO has signed off on it. The BCP makes sense and is focused on your business, as well as suited for your local conditions and reasonable contingencies. In Step 4, your goal is to train everyone involved so that the plan stays fresh and current and does not become overtaken by attrition or changes in company priorities or functions.

Your training plan must encompass all employees, your Emergency Response/Business Continuity Team and employees designated for crisis communications. Your training consists of employee orientation, disaster readiness drills and table-top simulations. See the suggested training matrix in the ready.gov  online article .

A distinct element of part four is the review, maintenance, and updating of the plan. Your collaboration across company lines of responsibility will eventually result in BCP becoming part of the company culture. That culture will remain in place when everyone involved in the BCP owns it and believes in it. Part of the BCP plan must include a requirement for periodical review or automatic triggers when the company takes on new products, goals, and objectives.

Want to learn more about Business Continuity?

Our Ultimate Guide to Business Continuity contains everything you need to know about business continuity.

You’ll learn what it is, why it’s important to your organization, how to develop a business continuity program, how to establish roles & responsibilities for your program, how to get buy-in from your executives, how to execute your Business Impact Analysis (BIA) and Business Continuity Plans, and how to integrate with your  Crisis Management  strategy.

We’ll also provide some perspectives on how to get help with your program and where to go to learn more about Business Continuity.

Read our Ultimate Guide to Business Continuity

More on the collaborative approach to BCP

Philippa Chappell, a BCP guru at ContinuitySA describes how to integrate what is necessary to become resilient—“to be able to anticipate, adapt and respond” to changes or disruptions. The challenge, according to Chappell,  is “while each of these three components or organizational resilience is critical, they are typically the responsibility of different role-players.” Specifically:

  • Anticipating involves scoping the landscape of the threat, and the risk management department usually handles that.
  • Adapting focuses on operational resilience is a responsibility of the COO and individual departments.
  • The third element, response, is your responsibility as the business continuity manager.

While Chappell notes that the obvious way to overcome threats is, among other things, collaboration and working closely. The BCP can be the catalyst to integrate the response as part of company readiness and culture. Collaboration leads to awareness.

Coupling collaboration with the BCP process can make BCP part of your business culture. Your goal is to get all your teams and departments on board. You involve top management because the mission of BCP is to support the company. BCP is one of the three components to strengthening organizational resilience.

Finally, don’t forget other players

In your business continuity planning it is crucial to include vendors, customers, and communication carriers. IT and network vendors are also key players in helping your company maintain business continuity. Leave them out of the picture, and you could overlook ways to build redundancy and backup when you need it.

It may be possible to do the planning and write the BCP without consultation and collaboration with the people the plan will affect. But those people have years of experience and insights on the business processes the BCP seeks to preserve. Likewise, there is an old military aphorism that goes, “Those who help you plan the fight won’t fight the plan.”  You get your buy-in through effective collaboration. You avoid weak links by including everyone in the process.

Do you need help creating an effective business continuity plan?

Bryghtpath can help.

Our process gleans the best of our collective 50 years of experience helping  Fortune 500 companies and large nonprofits  successfully build and mature their business continuity and crisis management capabilities to respond to emergent crises and threats.

With customized help from our tight-knit team of business continuity experts, we can help you ditch the “scare factor” in modernizing your continuity capabilities so you can face your next crisis (or board meeting) with confidence. Learn more about our approach and thought process around business continuity in our Ultimate Guide to Business Continuity .

Contact us today  for a discussion about how we might be able to work together.

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About Bryan Strawser

Bryan Strawser is Founder, Principal, and Chief Executive at Bryghtpath LLC, a strategic advisory firm he founded in 2014. He has more than twenty-five years of experience in the areas of, business continuity, disaster recovery, crisis management, enterprise risk, intelligence, and crisis communications.

At Bryghtpath, Bryan leads a team of experts that offer strategic counsel and support to the world’s leading brands, public sector agencies, and nonprofit organizations to strategically navigate uncertainty and disruption.

Learn more about Bryan at this link .

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COMMENTS

  1. How to Write a Business Continuity 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.

  2. Business continuity plan (BCP) in 8 steps, with templates

    Step 1: Establish an emergency preparedness team Assign a team the responsibility for emergency preparedness. Select a few managers or an existing committee to take charge of the project. It's advisable to assign one person to lead the planning process. You should also ensure that this "emergency manager" has the authority to get things done.

  3. 5 Step Guide to Business Continuity Planning (BCP) in 2021

    A business continuity plan (BCP) is defined as a protocol of preventing and recovering from potentially large threats to the company's business continuity. This article explains what a business continuity plan is today, its key benefits, and a step-by-step guide to creating a formidable plan. Table of Contents

  4. Seven Ways to Start Your Business Continuity Plan

    Establish your Power Needs. Have an electrician determine your power needs. Know what kind of back-up generator will work for you, but first find out if you have the landlord's permission to bring in a generator. Create a communications plan. Establish an e-mail alert system to keep your employees and key stakeholders in the loop.

  5. How to craft an effective business continuity plan

    Get the word out. Iterate and improve. 1. Analyze your company. In this phase you conduct an analysis to identify critical activities, determine which activities must continue, which can be temporarily paused, and which can operate at a reduced capacity. You then assess the financial impact of disruptions.

  6. A step-by-Step Guide to Writing an Effective Business Continuity Plan

    Blog A step-by-step guide to writing an effective Business Continuity Plan Posted Aug 30, 2022 What is a business continuity plan? A business continuity plan is a written document that describes the emergency procedures that should happen if a business-critical process fails. Several sources can threaten businesses.

  7. What Is A Business Continuity Plan? [+ Template & Examples]

    Published: December 30, 2022 When a business crisis occurs, the last thing you want to do is panic. The second-to-last thing you want to do is be unprepared. Crises typically arise without warning. While you shouldn't start every day expecting the worst, you should be relatively prepared for anything to happen.

  8. Business Continuity Plan: Example & How to Write

    1. BCP Team In the midst of a disaster or emergency, having a team or point person to go to will be essential. The BCP team will be responsible for planning and testing business continuity strategies. Background of each member in the BCP team can vary from organization managers or supervisors to specialists. 2. Business Impact Analysis

  9. How to create an effective business continuity plan

    A business continuity plan outlines procedures and instructions an organization must follow in the face of disaster, whether fire, flood, or cyberattack. Here's how to create a plan that...

  10. What Is a Business Continuity Plan (BCP), and How Does It Work?

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  11. 16 Business Continuity Plan Templates For Every Business

    Set strategic objectives. Assign KPIs and owners. Create action plans and projects to achieve your desired outcomes. 3. Integrate all business data in one place for a comprehensive view of performance. 4. Use reports and dashboards to monitor progress and identify risks before they escalate. 5.

  12. 5 Tips for Creating a Business Continuity Plan

    A business continuity plan outlines the necessary steps to take to continue or resume business after an unexpected disaster. Keep reading to learn five tips for creating your small business's continuity plan. 1. List possible events. Make a list of any disasters that are likely to affect your small business, including natural and man-made ...

  13. Maintaining Business Continuity

    Here are seven tips to help companies maintain business continuity and keep operations running smoothly: #1 Conduct a Thorough Risk Assessment Conducting a thorough risk assessment is key to business continuity planning. Risk assessment is an organized thought process. It's your research term paper to a passing grade.

  14. 5 Tips for Improving Business Continuity

    Here are five tips that can help improve your business continuity strategy, and how you can make them work for you: 1. Confluence is inevitable: Prepare for interconnected critical events. How do your different departments affect each other's operations and delivery metrics?

  15. Business Continuity Planning

    Business Continuity Training Part 3: Planning Process Step 1 The first of six steps addressed in this Business Continuity Training, which detail the process of building a business continuity plan. This step addresses how organizations should "prepare" to create a business continuity plan. View on YouTube

  16. 7 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.

  17. Business Continuity: Small Business Planning and Considerations

    Your business continuity plan may include the following: A list of roles and responsibilities. Communication protocols for staff, vendors, and customers. An outline of critical functions like payroll and revenue operations. Your strategy for assessing risks, testing your plan, and updating it. Assessing threats and having an actionable plan ...

  18. 5 Helpful Tips for Business Continuity Planning

    Here are a few tips to help you create a continuity plan for your operation. 1. Identify Potential Threats. Your business continuity plan may apply to any number of scenarios in which business is disrupted, from power outages, to employee strikes, to cyber-attacks on computer networks. However, identifying and understanding potential threats ...

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  21. 4 Tips For Developing a Business Continuity Plan

    What makes up that stack will help determine what the business continuity plan needs to take into account. 2. What's the maximum acceptable data loss and total outage time? A second consideration is the relative impact on their business if information is lost or inaccessible for a period of time. The more time, money, and effort put into a ...

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  23. Tips for Building a Strong Business Continuity Plan

    Test and improve your plan. Testing your completed business continuity plan is essential. Present the plan to your stakeholders for formal review so that it can be modified or expanded as needed. Encourage those reviewing the plan to point out weaknesses or gaps in the plan. Once updates have been made, perform walkthroughs and training exercises.

  24. Tips for creating an effective business continuity plan

    Step 4: Do your training and test the plan. Your plan is in writing, and your CEO has signed off on it. The BCP makes sense and is focused on your business, as well as suited for your local conditions and reasonable contingencies. In Step 4, your goal is to train everyone involved so that the plan stays fresh and current and does not become ...

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    3 Monitor and optimize. The third step to ensure business continuity is to monitor and optimize your offshore operations. This involves collecting and analyzing data, using digital technologies ...