Business Continuity Planning
“To expect the unexpected shows a thoroughly modern intellect” (Oscar Wilde)
Be Prepared – T.O.P.S.
Team – What do you do if your team are impacted by an unexpected event?
Operations – How prepared are your procedures and processes to allow you to keep operating?
Premises – What happens if you can’t access your normal place of business?
Suppliers – What happens if your supplier cannot supply your needs?
What your BCP should do for your business / organisation?
1. Protect Critical Assets
2. Minimise Financial Losses
3. Ensure Compliance
4. Reputation Management
5. Employee Safety
Types of Disruptions and Their Impact
• Natural Disasters
• Cybersecurity Threats
• Supply Chain Interruptions
• Human-Related Disasters
Business Continuity Planning involves multiple Australian Standards covering.
- Business Impact Assessment
- strategy
- Supply chain planning
- People
The different standards can be a challenge for businesses to get their head around. At Wilcons we can assist you to develop your own BVP or we can develop the BCP for you – your choice. At Wilcons we are about making emergency management easy.
Tolerable business impacts analysis
How long can your business function when a specific function is lost?
For example, how long will your business function without team members in general, and do you have any critical role team members? If so, how long will your business operate without that individual?
If a major supplier was to stop being able to supply your business, how long could you function?
If you lost power, water, gas or electricity, how long could your business operate?
Risk Management
Understanding your risks, as with Emergency Management Planning, risk management is a critical component of Business Continuity Planning.
Knowing and understanding your risk gives you the ability to identify how to reduce or totally prevent the risk. Once you know and understand your risk, you can move to developing your strategies.
Strategy planning
Within this stage of the process, you can identify if the risk can be prevented or whether you need to put in steps to mitigate the impacts of the risk.
Strategies can incorporate engineered, human resource, procurement or other options to treat the hazard or prevent or mitigate the risk.
Planning
Once you have your risks and strategies, it is time to write the plan. Taking this approach means that your plan will be succinct and concise.
Implementation and testing
Not dissimilar to emergency management planning, your business continuity plan should be implemented through involvement of the team.
Your business continuity plan should be tested regularly with a minimum of one exercise, based on your risk profile, conducted each year.
Monitoring and review
Your plan should be monitored constantly throughout the business cycles. For example, if a critical function is impacted by the change of a team member, then the monitoring process should identify the need for inducting the new staff member into the Business Continuity Plan.
The Business Continuity Plan should be reviewed at least once every year. This function should sit either with senior manager or it can sit with the Emergency Planning Committee as required under Australian Standard AS3745.
Communication and awareness
Business Continuity Planning needs to be supported by a strong awareness and communication strategy.
A plan that sits in an office and collects dust, is not going to be useful in the stress of a business continuity incident.
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We Operate Australia Wide
Business Continuity Planning is a big commitment for businesses and organisation. Whilst the commitment is big, the rewards can be massive.
Having a BCP can not only ensure that you continue to operate, it can give you a sizable advantage if you can continue to operate when your competitors cannot. On the flipside, the business impact to your business could be considerable if you cannot continue to service your customers or clients, but your competitors can!
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EXERCISES
Emergency exercises are structured activities designed to test and evaluate the effectiveness of emergency plans, procedures, and response capabilities. Note an emergency management exercise can be written to test your business continuity plan as well.
COMPLIANCE
Compliance refers to adhering to laws, regulations, standards, and guidelines that govern how your business or organisation prepares for, responds to, recovers from, and mitigate emergencies and disasters.
FAQs
Good Business Continuity Planning can turn a crisis into an opportunity. Being able to continue to operate during a crisis, may provide your business with a competitive edge over your competitors.
Who needs a business continuity plan
Business Continuity Plans should be utilised by every business that relies on suppliers, people, or services to do their business.
What are the advantages of having a BCP?
Whilst on the face of it, a BCP, seems like another administrative task. In reality, the ability to continue to operate during a crisis, can mean your business stands out. You may even have the ability to turn a crisis into an opportunity.
Is succession planning a part of BCP?
Yes and No – As part of the BCP process, you should be identifying critical functions. If a critical function is controlled by one person, then yes, this function and therefore the person should be included in the plan.
Normal retirement and business-as-usual should be managed through your normal HR processes.
Do we need to do separate emergency management and BCP exercises?
No, an emergency management exercise can also test part or all of the BCP.
It is important to note that a BCP exercise may not necessarily cover the requirements of your emergency management plan.
How much does a BCP cost?
BCP’s for small businesses start at $500.00 +gst. The cost will be dependent upon your risk profile and the strategies needed to be developed for your plan.
Contact us for an obligation free quote.