What is Business Continuity and How Do You Achieve It?

In today's fast-paced business environment, it's more important than ever to have a solid plan in place for managing crises and unexpected events. That's where business continuity comes in.

A business continuity plan (BCP) is a crucial aspect of any successful business strategy. In this article we'll discuss what business continuity is, why it matters and how you can achieve it.

What is Business Continuity?

Also known as 'disaster recovery', a BCP is a well structured and detailed plan that outlines how your business would respond when faced with an unexpected and situation, such as a cyber attack, natural disaster or another emergency.

The purpose is to ensure the organisation would be able to continue performing the critical functions in the event of such a disruption.

In effect, business continuity quite literally future proofs your organisation and safeguards it from any threatening situation.

A BCP plan has three elements:

1. Business Impact Analysis (BIA)

What functions and processes are essential to your organisation's operations? What impact would be caused if these were disrupted?

The BIA will identify these critical components of your business's operations and assess the potential impact of disruption to these functions. Including financial losses, reputational damage and legal or regulatory consequences.

2. Risk Assessment

This involves identifying and analysing the potential risks that could disrupt the critical business functions and processes identified in the BIA. These risks can be internal (such as equipment failure or human error), or external (such as natural disaster or cyber attacks).

3. Continuity Strategies

Based on the BIA and risk assessment, the BCP outlines strategies to ensure that the critical business functions can continue or be quickly restored in the event of a disruption. These strategies may include backup and recovery procedures, alternative work locations, communication plan, plus training and testing protocols to ensure that the plan is effective.

Not A One-Time Effort

It's important to note that a BCP is not a one-time effort where you write it and leave it.

Once the plan is written, it requires regular reviews, testing and updates to make sure it stays up to date with your new ways of working and modern technologies.

A business continuity plan (or disaster recovery plan) is a critical component of your organisation's risk management strategy. By investing in a well-designed and regularly updated BCP, your company can be well prepared for unexpected disruptions and be able to continue operating with the same level of efficiency as normal.

Want to find out more about business continuity? Book an IT consultation by emailing [email protected].