Welcome to Business Lincolnshire Business Continuity e-awareness Follow the team as they find out more about what Business Continuity is and what they need to do. Click to find out more

‘Business Continuity’ is the commonly used term and the principles can be applied to any organisation. The principles apply for any organisation of any size including service providers, voluntary sector, manufacturing and retail.

Help! We need to learn about Business Continuity.

“My name is Sally, maybe I can help. I have the lead for Business Continuity for our organisation.” “Do any of you have a question for me?”

“I’ve got a question. We know we should have Business Continuity Management…… but what does that mean?”

“Business Continuity Management (BCM) is all about being able to continue to deliver our service, and make our products, in the event of an incident or disruption.”

“BCM is about identifying the threats to normal working and then thinking in advance about how we would manage if one of these disruptive events occurred.”

Now we’re thinking about it, there are lots of things that could impact on what we do.” “Threats to normal working…. I get it, that’s things like flooding, access denied to buildings, loss of large numbers of staff or IT failure.

“Exactly, there are many things that could cause us a disruption. That’s why we need to plan ahead so we can reduce the impact they will have.”

“But how do we know what impact there will be? Why not wait and see what happens and then deal with it?”

“We don’t know the exact consequences until something happens, but there are things we can do now to reduce any impact and make sure that we can bounce back as quickly as possible.”

“Let’s have a look at some of the things we can do to be prepared.”

“We need to understand what it is that we do and then to think about the impact of not being able to do it. This is called a Business Impact Analysis (BIA).”

You need to think about what the key functions of your team are. Then look at the activities and resources you require to deliver your key functions?”

“Once you have broken it down into key functions you can think about what the impact of not being able to deliver these would be. We can then start to prioritise.”

“Some of the activities my team carry out are time critical and would cause disruption to other teams if they were disrupted for even a short time.” “Yes, and some activities, although needed, could stop for a week without much impact.”

“Exactly. Some of our activities are more ‘time critical’ than others. If we think about this now it will help us to prioritise.”

“Now that we have identified our key functions we can think about what could disrupt them. Many hazards will have the same consequences. For example a power failure, fire or a flood may all result in our premises being unable to be used.”

“The Business Impact Analysis considers our key functions and then for each hazard looks at the likelihood of it happening and the impact it could have. We can now prioritise our Key functions A, B, C and D.”

“Help! We have some activities that we have identified as high priority that we really can’t stop for any length of time. What do we need to do now?”

“These are your critical activities. Now you can start to think about what you can do to reduce the impact of a disruption. This is known as Developing the BCM Strategies”

“Let’s start by thinking about People.” Ensure that you cross train staff and share knowledge so your business can carry on as normal if staff are unexpectedly unavailable. Document your key processes so everyone knows what to do. Would your team be able to function if several people were off sick at once?

“That makes sense. I am the only person in my team who has the password and can use the ordering system. I think I should share that knowledge with somebody else or the process could grind to a halt if I can’t get to work.”

“Good thinking! You can see how some simple things could make a big difference to our ability to carry on.”

“Now let’s look at strategies for Premises.” If you couldn’t get into your normal premises where else could you work from? An alternative work area for use during a disruption is some times known as the Work Area Recovery (WAR) site. What resources / equipment / information do you need to have available in an alternative work area? Can your team work from home?

“We’ve already thought of that. All my team have laptops and can easily work from home. Looks like we are already doing some Business Continuity without realising it!”

We need to make sure we capture all this in a BC Plan so that everybody knows.” “That’s great news! I am sure there are many good things you are all doing already as a lot of Business Continuity is just common sense and good business practice.

“The next strategy is Technology.” Think about alternative ‘workarounds’ you could use if the IT or telephones failed. Make sure your critical data is backed up regularly and that the backup is secure. Saving files on a personal PC rather than a server may mean data is not backed up. Consider holding on to older equipment as emergency replacements or spares?

“That’s made me think about all the important contact details I have on my mobile phone. I don’t have the numbers saved anywhere else so if I was not about nobody would be able to have the numbers. Worse still, if I lost my mobile or if it broke what would I do? That’s a job for me tomorrow morning, I’m going to make a copy of all my contacts and keep it somewhere safe!”

“Well done. You can see how everybody doing their own small things could make a big difference. Business Continuity is everyone's business!”

“Now let’s look at strategies for Information.” Ensure that essential documentation is stored securely (eg fire proof safe / locked cabinet). Consider what information you need to carry out your critical activities. How will you get information if your IT is not working? Keep copies of essential documentation elsewhere.

“The final strategy looks at Suppliers and Partners.” Have you considered if your suppliers are resilient? Do you source your critical resources from a single supplier? If so, you could consider multi-sourcing and checking their business continuity arrangements. Consider your internal and external supply chain. Consider having a contact list for alternative suppliers.

“So, let me get this right, we should consider strategies for: People Premises Technology Information Suppliers and Partners That makes sense.”

“Let’s have a quick recap at what we have learnt so far.” You now know that I am leading the BC programme for the organisation We need to identify key functions and prioritise these so we know what our critical activities are We can think about strategies to consider what we can be doing now that will make our teams more resilient

“Now we can document everything we have done in a plan and think about how we will respond if we do have a disruption.”

“Ok Team, are any of you aware of what our Response will look like?”

“I heard that the Board Room will be used for the Response Team and when I was last there I noticed that there is a cupboard marked up as containing Business Continuity Information.”

“That’s right. The Board Room is our preferred location to manage a response. All the BC plans will be in the cupboards along with stationery, floor plans and checklists for the Response Roles.. We also have a Grab-Bag off site.”

“What are the Response Roles? Will we all be involved?”

“Everybody in the organisation has a role to play during an incident. The role could be anything from knowing how to use a paper backup system within your team if the IT fails to being on the BC Response Team.”

“I was sent an invite to attend an Emergency Exercise in a few months time. My team looks after internal communications and PR, does that mean I am on the Response Team?”

“There are some set roles within the BC Response Team, for example: Incident Manager Communications Human Resources Others will be called in if their team or department is affected or if they have specialist knowledge that is required.”

“The BC Plans can be used during the response as in them you have documented your critical activities and the impact over time. This will help us to understand the full impact and prioritise which areas we need to recover first.”

“I will be running training and exercise sessions to make people aware of the key aspects of a response. There are checklists available to remind people of their key tasks.”

“An Emergency Exercise is when we consider a scenario that could disrupt our business and then think about what we need to do. It is a great way to familiarise people with the contents of the plan and to give them practice in carrying out their response role.”

“So, has that given you all a bit more information about what Business Continuity is all about? A whistle stop tour, but more help is available.”

The Business Lincolnshire website has the following information that could help you: Business Continuity Plan Template Simple exercise scenarios that you can talk through with your team Top Tips for BC Go to:

Thanks Sally, that’s been really useful

“Great, all you need to do now is think about what we have talked about and then document it in a plan. Don’t forget to get the rest of your teams involved. As I said earlier, Business Continuity is everyone's business. “

“If we all put a bit of time into this now we could stop a disruption turning into a disaster for our organisation!”

Resilient People make a Resilient Organisation

E-Awareness package produced by Media and Crisis Management Ltd for Business Lincolnshire The images used in this presentation are courtesy of stockimages / FreeDigitalPhotos.net