A Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is an archive that contains basic data of an association that needs to keep on working during a spontaneous occasion.
The BCP must define the essential functions of the company, identify the systems and processes to be managed, and specify how to maintain them.
With risks ranging from cyber attacks to natural disasters and human error, an organization must have a business continuity plan to maintain its health and reputation. Adequate BCP reduces the risk of costly interruptions.
While IT managers often create the plan, the involvement of management personnel can help the process, add knowledge to the company, provide oversight, and help ensure that the BCP is updated regularly.
What is the Importance of BCP
BCP is a proactive business process that enables a company to understand potential weaknesses and threats to its organization during a crisis. Creating a continuity plan allows executives to respond quickly and effectively to business disruptions.
BCP allows the company to serve its customers even during times of crisis and minimize the risk that their customers will become competitors. BCP reduces downtime and tracks the steps that need to be taken before, during, and after an emergency to maintain the financial viability of the business.
The level of a business continuity plan
• The business plan involves the attachment of several phases:
• Project Initiation
• Information collection phase, including the Business Impact Analysis (BIA) and risk assessment (RA)
• Development Planning
• Planning for testing, maintenance, and improvement
What should be included in the BCP so that you can make sure that all the relevant points have covered? This is the seventh area that must be considered in light of the business plan is good.
1. Identify important business functions
The first step to creating a good BCP is to conduct a business impact analysis (BIA) to identify the key areas of your business that need to be managed or quickly rebuilt in the event of a disaster. You want to protect these basic business functions like BCP.
2. Identify complex systems and their dependencies
Your BCP must identify the most important systems and data for the continuation of the business. Which equipment, consumables, and documents (both digital and paper) must be available and working to make your business work?
3. Identify your risks
What disruptive events affect the functioning of your company? Tornadoes, hurricanes, forest fires, earthquakes? Of course, it is impossible to predict what the next disaster will look like in your area, but you can accurately plan what you can afford. When you know your risks well, the chances of figuring out the solutions and alternate ways to avoid those risks or fight with those risks also arise.
4. Specify a backup and recovery plan
You must specify procedures for backing up and restoring BCP data. How often and by whom are backups made? Where is the data stored, and how is it geographically reflected without any permanent damage from a local disaster? How can this be restored? These questions should be answered for electronic and critical paper documents. Your recovery plan should always be there with you and it should be very strong as recovery is never so easy to execute.
5. Define the composition, functions, and procedures of your BC team
Who can register an emergency for the implementation of the BCP? Who are the key people (and how) and who is responsible? Where do BC team members and other employees meet when the company’s premises are useless? These and other issues were described in detail in the BCP.
6. Have a detailed communication plan
How will the emergency command be notified by the BC command if, for example, a telephone interruption occurs? Who is authorized to speak on behalf of the company with the media, customers, suppliers, and external partners such as government agencies? The plan should include a list of people and agencies who will be contacted when an emergency is declared. Communication is a very important aspect for any organization and hence a communication plan should be finely mad and well-executed inside the organization.
7. Indicate the testing, updating, and training procedures for BCP.
BCP, which looks good on paper, maybe completely inoperative in practice. It must be tested before commissioning and key staff trained in its use. So this should be updated regularly. As conditions, technologies, organizational structures, and personnel change, the plan can quickly become obsolete and unusable. Procedures for training, testing, and updating the plan should be included in the Business Continuity Plan (BCP) itself.