Business Continuity Planning

Avoiding business disruption is one of the most important aspects of risk control.

Anything that can interrupt trading is to be avoided and any measures that can help business recovery after an interruption are desirable.

This calls for risk control measures and the development of a Business Continuity Plan so that management are equipped and prepared to deal with events that they do not experience in the normal course of business.

Imagine the challenge of trying to manage a business that has suffered a catastrophic fire or weather damage. Fortunately such events are rare but every year hundreds of businesses find themselves denied access to their premises, telephony or IT systems with consequent business disruption. The Buncefield Oil Depot fire in 2005 and floods in 2007 are examples of incidents which prevented hundreds of businesses from gaining access to their premises, some for several weeks. Knowing how to maintain business functions and customer contact is what business continuity planning is all about. Developing and recording that capability is the reason for a Business Continuity Plan.

The decision to develop a Business Continuity Plan is a matter of choice for some organisations and a regulatory or contractual requirement for others.

In either case, it is a decision to develop and document a set of strategies and resources designed to prevent, minimise or manage business disruption. The disruption might be anything from a temporary breakdown of telephony to a major weather event with attendant damage and complete cessation of operations. The strategies might range from diversion of incoming telephone calls to complete relocation of an organisation to another site. In extreme circumstances the strategies may determine whether and how quickly an organisation can recover from a catastrophic event.

The size, scope and sophistication of the plan will reflect the particular requirements and the complexity of each organisation. It does not have to be a weighty tome if the objective is only to plan against a few key events, perhaps recovery from IT failures or denial of access situations. At best, it will equip members of a management team to respond to a crisis with confidence, fully aware of the issues they need to address and properly resourced to protect the organisation’s capabilities and reputation.

Lenders and insurers have a strong vested interest in protecting their exposure and key customers wish to ensure continuity of supply. Directors have a statutory obligation to consider the interests of stakeholders and regulated firms increasingly find that contingency planning against emergencies is in the rule book.

The thought of having to devise a plan can be a daunting one. Russell Scanlan can assist with the task of building and maintaining a plan and can take you through a structured process which drives thought about the key issues and offers solutions to the problems identified. Alternatively if you would prefer to prepare and develop your continuity plans without our consultancy involvement, we can provide access to a web-enabled version of the software we use. If you are unsure whether or when to start developing your own plan, keep these few points in mind:

• Demonstrating resilience gives confidence to staff, customers and suppliers.
• It is better to commission a plan in your own time than to wait for someone else to set the deadline.
• Business Continuity Plans are not just for big organisations. They just need bigger plans.
• The survival rate of organisations that do not plan for catastrophic events is estimated to be no better than 20%
• Few firms which suffer a catastrophic IT failure survive beyond 1 year.
• When you are faced with a crisis, it is too late to make advance plans.

If you would like to discuss how Russell Scanlan can assist you with your Business Continuity Plan, please contact Andy Jenkins on 0115 9838816