Business continuity

Business continuity management is about making sure your organisation can survive an unexpected interruption to normal activities.

Interruptions could be caused  by anything from fire or flooding, to loss of data or premises, or even staff sickness. They affect both large and small organisations, but smaller organisations often suffer greater impacts. Some events are beyond our control, but we have the ability and opportunity to less the impact.

Business continuity management is a process that should be owned and driven by your business. It can make you think differently about how your business operates and make it more resilient to disruption, interruption and loss.

• your main premises were unavailable for a day, week or longer?
• you were without computers of telephones for an hour, day, week or longer?
• your paper and computer records were lost in a fire or flood?
• a quarter of your staff were absent through sickness?

Identify and evaluate the risks

Organisations know their own process better than outsiders. Identify the threats facing your organisation and the risk posed by each. Understanding who and what your business relies on and your key supply chains.

Prepare and test a business continuity plan

Produce a business continuity plan. It should be as concise as possible and built in to your day-to-day activities. When you have produced a plan, test it to check that it actually works. As the expert of your organisation, you can tailor business continuity process to meet the needs of your business.

Review and promote your plan

Review the plan in light of changing circumstances and experience. Make sure your employees know about it and are aware of anything they may need to do. You may need to consider training. Implementing business continuity can be harder for larger and complex organisation that for small businesses.

According to London Prepared:

• 58% of UK organisations were affected by 9/11 with one in eight seriously affected
• 90% of business that lose data from a disaster are forced to shut within two years
• 80% of businesses affected by a major incident close within 18 months

Don’t let your business be affected in this way.