Organizations may also find it helpful to create a checklist that includes important details such as contact information in an emergency, a list of resources the continuity team may need, where backup data and other required information is hosted or stored, and other key staff members. The Operational and Financial Impact Worksheet can be used to capture this information as described in the Business Impact Analysis. The worksheet should be completed by managers of business functions and processes with sufficient business knowledge. Once all worksheets are completed, worksheets can be compiled: Many vendors support strategies to restore business continuity and information technology. Third-party vendors can provide a complete business environment with offices and live data centers ready to move into. Other options include the provision of office trailers equipped with technology, replacement machinery and other equipment. The availability and cost of these options may be affected if a regional disaster leads to competition for these resources. 1. Have we addressed the fourth building block of business continuity: our suppliers? For a business continuity plan to be successful, all employees, even those who are not part of the continuity team, must know the plan. Another approach is to look at the organization`s overall mission and objectives. From there, each department or business unit is evaluated to determine which functions are critical to its operations.
Once critical functions are identified, organizations can develop continuity plans that determine how these functions will be maintained in the event of an outage. Create data collection forms to capture information and define processes for manually processing the collected information. Create control logs to document transactions and track their progress in the manual system. So this is the first golden rule. The business continuity plan must include what is critical and important to our business, otherwise it will not fulfill its sole and most important function: to protect us from unacceptable losses resulting from an incident. Statistics show that about 23% of companies that fall victim to cyberattacks lose business opportunities as a direct result of data loss. Therefore, you need to have an appropriate backup strategy in place as part of your BCP. There are two types of backups that you should consider when designing your backup strategy: on-site backup and offsite backup. On-premises drives can use tape drives and external hard drives and are more easily accessible than external backups.
Off-site backup and its necessity have been discussed in Part 3 above. In addition, you should include the following business documents in your backup plan: financial documents (e.g. bank statements, tax records, etc.), a list of fixed assets, and legal documents such as copies of agreements, policies, letters of intent, insurance records, etc. If your business continuity plans have been enhanced to manage vendor risk, scenario-specific responses, and decision support capabilities, you can distribute praise and remove the „BC plan“ from your to-do list. At least for a while. After all, you could soon be called to action by the next disruptive incident or business change. But that`s another topic for another article – stay tuned. The plan should allow the organization to operate at least at a minimal level during a crisis. Business continuity helps the organization maintain resilience and respond quickly in the event of an interruption.
Strong business continuity saves money, time and company reputation. A prolonged outage can cause financial, personal and reputational losses. It is important to determine who is managing business continuity. It can be a single person if it`s a small business, or an entire team for a larger organization. Business continuity management software is also an option. Software, whether on-premises or cloud-based, helps run BIAs, create and update plans, and identify risk areas. At a time when downtime is unacceptable, business continuity is critical. Downtime comes from a variety of sources. Some threats, such as cyberattacks and extreme weather, appear to be getting worse.
It is important to have a business continuity plan that takes into account potential business interruptions.