key elements of a business continuity plan

Need A New IT Company? Call:   844-431-7828

7 Elements and Components of a Business Continuity Plan

Data breaches, natural disasters, and other business disruptions can significantly impact your business, but they don’t have to. By understanding and applying the key elements of a business continuity plan (BCP), you can reduce the threat of disasters by guaranteeing a quick recovery.

A BCP serves as an emergency response plan that is put in place to ensure your business processes are maintained around the clock – even when an unexpected disaster occurs.

However, creating a complete business continuity plan requires specialized IT knowledge. With more than 90% of enterprises already completed their digital transformation, IT expertise has become increasingly integral to every possible business disaster.

At the same time, it’s also necessary to possess a thorough understanding of the essential elements of a business continuity plan. Without one, businesses are ill-equipped to face disasters – which is a startling fact given that an estimated 48% of small businesses don’t have a BCP in place.

In this article, we’ll explore what should be included in a business continuity plan, and discuss how you can create a business continuity plan of your own.

Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity – The Differences

While similar (and often used interchangeably), DRPs and BCPs differ greatly from each other.

The main difference between the two is that a DRP helps businesses resume IT access post-disaster, while a BCP helps businesses remain operational. 

What are the Elements of a Business Continuity Plan?

Now that you understand the difference between disaster recovery and business continuity, let’s take a closer look at some of the key elements of a business continuity plan.

1. A Dependable Business Continuity Team

When disaster strikes, your team can’t afford to waste any time determining who is responsible for getting things back on track.

Your business continuity team should consist of key personnel who are not only trained to respond to crises, but who also participate throughout the disaster recovery and business continuity planning and testing stages.

These key employees should include personnel at all levels of your company, including local branches.

2. Contact Information

Once your business continuity team is assembled, another key component is making sure you’re able to communicate essential information to all affected parties immediately with a list of contact information that includes:

• Stakeholders
• Backup operators
• Third-party vendors
• Anyone else crucial to your BCP
• BCP team members (and their roles)

3. An Effective Crisis Communications Plan

Don’t let the outside world hear about your disaster from someone else first. Get ahead of a potential fallout with an effective crisis communications plan that includes templated social media posts and press releases that you can tailor to deal with any situation.

4. An In-Depth Risk Assessment

In order to plan for potential risks, you must first determine what those risks are. A risk assessment, another key component of a business continuity plan, is the process through which you identify risks (e.g., natural disasters, cyber attacks, flooding, etc.) and vulnerabilities (e.g., people, property, reputation, etc.).

5. Business Impact Analysis (BIA)

Perhaps the most vital component of a business continuity plan, the BIA identifies the impact that disruption would have on all aspects of the business.

This should include potential legal, financial and reputational consequences of disasters, and should outline what you require (including an estimated time) to recover.

6. A Detailed Response Plan

Once you’ve completed the aforementioned key components of your business continuity plan, it’s time to create the plan itself.

As one of the most important elements of a business continuity plan, your response should be exhaustive and take into account every risk, vulnerability and impact you’ve identified.

You’ll also need to rank your risks based on likelihood and vulnerabilities based on importance, and determine which impacts would be most damaging.

Based on this, you can decide on the strategies you’ll use to both respond to disasters, and prevent them (e.g., regular data backup). This is a process that your team shouldn’t take lightly, and one that you likely can’t complete without help from your in-house IT team or experienced managed services provider.

7. Testing Your Business Continuity Plan

Even the most expertly designed business continuity plan components can become meaningless if they’re not kept up-to-date through regular testing.

Effective testing ensures that your plan fits your current needs, based on any changes to your IT infrastructure, business processes, etc.

This element should include regular reviews (and, as necessary, updates) and simulations. A solid MSP will spearhead the testing for you, and guarantee that you’re always prepared for the worst.

Improve Your Business Continuity Plan Components With TAG

Understanding the elements of a business continuity plan is important for every business leader, but familiarity alone is not enough to protect your company.

If your business is trying to create a business continuity plan, or needs assistance with updating your existing one, we can help.

At Technology Advisory Group, our experts have helped companies across Rhode Island and New England mitigate business disruptions by helping them understand the key elements of a business continuity plan to improve their resilience and emergency response.

For more information about how we can help you develop and implement a plan of your own, contact us today to schedule a consultation with our business continuity specialists.

Schedule Your Cloud Services Consultation

Ready to make a move to the cloud?  TAG is ready to help with any or all cloud services from a private cloud, public cloud, or Microsoft 365 services.

by Jason Harlam | 21st June 2022 | Blog

Sidebar Form

Technology Advisory Group offers rewarding, challenging and exciting IT careers… join our team today.

Fill in your information below to apply.

Online Form – Technology Advisor Group: Careers Form

Schedule Your Initial Consultation With The Tech Advisory Team.

Fill in your information below to get started today.

What does a business continuity plan include? 5 key elements

The COVID-19 crisis has forced businesses to tackle a multitude of challenges over the past few months, but one of the most important involves the business continuity (BC) plan. Many companies learned too late that their plans were inadequate, lacking interoperability with other critical plans for crisis management, disaster recovery, and pandemic readiness.

Many business contnuity plans are either too high-level to offer any real actionable detail or consist of content that is out of date. In other instances, plans place too much emphasis on short-term disturbances and forsake long-lasting disruptions. Many also gloss over pre-event preparations and work acceleration strategies.

The pandemic has reset expectations. While CIOs have a vested interest in the effectiveness of BC plans – after all, they ensure essential activities can withstand a variety of disruptions to keep the business running as IT reinstates services after an incident – resilience should be a company-wide priority.

[ Also read: Digital transformation: Why data leaders must play offense during COVID-19 . ]

1. Build your business continuity plan foundation

As you reimagine your entire business resilience program, here’s what your BC plans should include. Effective BC plans start with the following five essential framework elements:

• Objectives: What will the plan cover, and how does it fit into a larger organizational response to disruption?
• Activation procedure: What sets the BC plan in motion? Who is involved, and what resources — i.e., backups, workplace recovery facilities, etc. — are available?
• Priorities: How will you communicate with staff, vendors, customers, and others? What are the most business-critical applications and systems that you need to focus on reviving?
• Assumptions and limitations: You can’t foresee every disruption, but you can detail limitations in your plan to allow for effective decision-making. Identify limitations in the extent, duration, and impact of your plan.
• Standing down procedures: Determine your criteria for saying an incident is closed and how to extract lessons learned from the experience. This section can also include an appendix of relevant resources, from templates like action logs to meeting agendas.

Within this framework, there’s a lot of room to customize for your size, maturity, compliance requirements, and other factors. While every organization’s BC plan approach will be unique, it’s important to consider the following aspects when designing your plan.

2. Develop response strategies if key resources are unavailable

Effective BC plans must include well-defined strategies and actions for responding in the event that key resources become unavailable. These could include:

• Third-party services
• IT services

You need to have planned business responses for each of these disruption scenarios, and they must be at the individual resource level. Generic statements that convey the “what’s” without the “how’s” aren’t helpful. For example, if your inventory management system is unavailable, how will you continue your receiving activity? Be specific in your plans.

IT must be aware of the part it plays in enabling disruption response strategies. For example, remote working is one possible business response for workplace unavailability. In that event, IT might be tasked with upgrading your company’s virtual meeting service and expanding the IT help desk staff.

[ Read also: LogMeIn CIO: This is IT's time to shine on business continuity  and  Moving from COVID-19 crisis leadership to strategic leadership . ]

However, in a workforce unavailability scenario, your solution might be to transition work to personnel in another geography. In this case, IT’s response might be to adjust network configuration in anticipation of increased volumes from a network node.

BC planning is also essential within IT, which relies on people, workplaces, equipment, third-party services, supporting systems, and data. Put comprehensive BC plans in place for key IT activities where ongoing service levels are of paramount importance. This includes:

• Network operations centers
• Information security operations centers
• IT help desks
• Disaster recovery teams

3. Work out timing for each response strategy

Timing is critical.

Determine the anticipated time to implement each of your defined response strategies, as well as how long each strategy can remain effective.

For some strategy options, the goal should be quick implementation times. For others, focus on ensuring the response strategies will be effective for sustained timeframes – ideally three to six months or longer.

Let's look at two more important elements:

Related content

• Business & IT Resilience
• Cloud & Data Management
• Company & Events
• Continuous Data Protection
• Customers | Experts | Industries
• Disaster Recovery
• Migration & Data Mobility
• Ransomware Recovery
• Technology & Trends
• Zerto Solution
• Application Protection

The Key Components of a Business Continuity Plan

You have a great disaster recovery (DR) plan , and Zerto has helped simplify that even more by allowing your IT organization to consolidate multiple point products with a single, simple, and scalable solution. You have freed up valuable time for your IT operations teams to deliver more innovation as your business transforms. You have adopted the cloud for multiple applications – maybe you’ve moved away from the data center management business and are fully capable of DR to the public cloud – but has your business continuity plan (BCP) evolved alongside your DR plan to ensure holistic success in the event of an unplanned disruption? Even if you can have all those workloads recovered in the cloud or on-premises within minutes, the business operations side needs to be ready to shift in order to mitigate the downtime.

Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Planning

According to ISO 22301, a business continuity plan is defined as “documented procedures that guide organizations to R espond, R ecover, R esume, and R estore to a pre-defined level of operations following disruption.” Disaster recovery is a subset of the overall BCP because, without your data, you are at the mercy of whatever disruption found its way into your datacenter. At Zerto, we create software that, at its core, delivers industry-leading recovery point objectives (RPOs) and recovery time objectives (RTOs) , minimizing data loss and disruption time. We also go the extra mile and provide your business with orchestration, automation, and visibility – to help you meet the “ four R’s ” above and bridge the gap between disaster recovery and business continuity .

Having a business continuity plan in place is important because once IT has recovered the downed systems, the team responsible for executing the BCP must initiate their plan to bring operations back up as quickly as possible. Every minute counts. For every minute the business is down, there is revenue loss, brand impact, dissatisfied customers, lost productivity, and much more. So, what exactly is involved in a business continuity plan?

6 Key Components of a Business Continuity Plan

In the previous section, I mentioned that communication during a disruption is one vital aspect of a sound business continuity plan. Before a disaster was declared, there would have been key criteria and triggers before initiating the plan, so we’re off to a good start! Let’s take a closer look at several other critical components of a business continuity plan necessary for successful recovery in the event of an unplanned disruption.

Contact Information and Service Level Agreements (SLAs)

The first component of a business continuity plan is contact information along with SLAs. You will need to identify the following:

• Stakeholders
• Key personnel
• Backup site operators
• Providers (equipment, services)
• Emergency responders
• Third-party vendors
• Facilities managers
• Incident response team(s)
• Successors in case key personnel are unavailable or become overwhelmed
• Additional critical third-party personnel

Business Impact Analysis (BIA)

A business impact analysis (BIA) will help you identify and predict business disruption consequences and enable you to gather information to develop recovery strategies. Here are some examples of what may be covered in a business impact analysis:

• An understanding of the changes introduced during unplanned disruption
• Legal or regulatory repercussions of unplanned disruption
• Inventory of all business units required for continuity of operations
• Key personnel as well as staff required to support that personnel
• Pre/post-disruption dependencies
• Validation of test plan
• Ranking of priorities & order of operations
• Revenue loss
• Customer service
• Brand/reputation damage
• Identify acceptable RTO
• Identify an acceptable amount of data loss RPO to minimize the overall impact on the business
• Recovery strategy

Risk Assessment

Risk assessment is the process of identifying, understanding and evaluating the potential risks to all aspects of an organization’s operations. Here are some examples:

Hazard Identification – Probability and Magnitude

• Natural Disasters
• Utility Outage
• Cyber Attack

Assets at Risk – Vulnerability Assessment

• Property (buildings, critical I=infrastructure)
• Supply chain
• Systems/equipment
• Business operations
• Regulatory and contractual obligations
• Environment

Impact Analysis

• Property damage
• Business interruption
• Loss of customers
• Financial loss
• Environmental contamination
• Fines and penalties

Identify Critical Functions

Identification of critical functions will reveal what processes are critical to maintaining and running a business in the event of an unplanned disruption. You want to identify your business critical priorities and focus recovery efforts there first. These include but are not limited to:

• Payroll and time tracking
• Revenue operations
• Physical security
• Information security
• Core business functions
• Data protection after recovery
• Identity & access management

Communications

When an unplanned disruption occurs, communication with employees, shareholders, users, customers, and key personnel is critical. Human resource professionals can play a crucial role in ensuring consistent and timely communication between the organizational recovery efforts and staff. When customers are involved, social media has become a vital tool to provide timely updates, as many users turn to social media when incidents arise.

• What is your crisis communication strategy?
• Communication during an event is key to orchestrate personnel, providers, and third-party vendors if required.

Having a plan is one thing, but testing and practicing it is imperative. Having an inadequate plan is about as good as not having a plan at all. It is vital to develop a strategy to routinely test , and test often, to identify gaps in your plan and anticipate any changes along the way.

Having a working test plan will help you:

• Identify gaps or weaknesses in your BCP
• Evaluate the organization’s response to different types of disruptive events
• Improve systems and processes based on your test results
• Confirm that your continuity objectives can be successfully executed against and met
• Update your plan along the way
• Document lessons learned

In conclusion

We understand that unplanned disruptions do not just affect IT operations. They have a domino effect on your entire business! As digital transformation is in full gear, your reliance on technology to remain visible to the world steadily increases. Currently, we find ourselves in the midst of a global pandemic; the Atlantic hurricane season is just kicking off, wildfire season is on the horizon, and cyber-attacks are steadily increasing. Is your business prepared? We need to be more proactive than ever when it comes to DR and BCP; in fact, the two strategies should overlap, and both teams on the field should be playing together toward a common goal – resilience .

Learn more key considerations and where modern IT enterprises are heading in the IDC report, “The State of Data Protection and Disaster Recovery Readiness: 2022” .

Gene Torres is a Technology Evangelist at Zerto with 21 years of experience as an IT Professional focusing on data center virtualization and resilience. Prior to Zerto, Gene was a Solutions Engineer before advancing to Enterprise Architect. He lives in Tacoma, WA with his wife, Rhea, and 3 daughters. He maintains his own technology-focused blog as an active vExpert and enjoys gaming, barbecue, and spending time outdoors.

Related Posts

Why Zerto for Azure Architecture Is Unique

How to Choose the Right DRaaS Provider: Key Considerations

What’s New in Data Protection at HPE and Zerto: Updates and Releases for Q1 2024

Do not sell or share my personal information.

Your privacy preferences for Zerto's websites has been saved. We will serve only essential cookies moving forward on this browser

Business Continuity Simplified

By Andy Marker | December 17, 2018 (updated October 24, 2021)

• Share on Facebook
• Share on LinkedIn

Link copied

Unexpected work interruptions can cripple a business and cause millions of dollars in expenses and lost business. Learn about the importance of business continuity planning and management from experts. 

In this article, you’ll learn the definition of a business continuity plan and the primary goal of business continuity planning . Additionally, you’ll learn the steps involved in business continuity planning and about the business continuity lifecycle .

What Is Business Continuity Management?

In business continuity management (BCM) , a company identifies potential threats to its activities and the threat impact. The company then develops plans to respond to those threats and continue activities through any crisis.

What Is a Business Continuity Plan?

A business continuity plan (BCP) describes how a business will continue to run during and after a crisis event. The BCP details guidelines, procedures, and work instructions to aid continuity.

To learn more about writing a plan, see our how-to guide to writing a business continuity plan .

What Is Business Continuity Planning?

Business continuity planning (BCP) refers to the work a company does to create a plan and system to deal with risks. Thorough planning seeks to prevent problems and ensure business processes continue during and after a crisis.

Business continuity planning ensures that the company deals with disruptions quickly, and minimizes the impact on operations. Business continuity planning is also called business resumption planning and continuous service delivery assurance (CSDA) .

What Is the Primary Goal of Business Continuity Planning?

The main goal of business continuity planning is to support key company activities during a crisis. Planning ensures a company can run with limited resources or restricted access to buildings. Continuity planning also aims to minimize revenue or reputation losses.   

A business continuity plan should outline several key things that an organization needs to do to prepare for potential disruptions to its activities, including the following:

• Recognize potential threats to a company.
• Assess potential impacts on the company’s daily activities.
• Provide a way to reduce these potential problems, and establish a structure that allows key company functions to continue throughout and after the event.
• Identify the resources the organization needs to continue operating, such as staffing, equipment, and alternative locations.

Business Continuity Planning Steps

A business continuity plan includes guidelines and procedures to guide a business through disruption. The efforts to create a plan are the same for large or small organizations. A simple plan is better than no plan. 

The basic steps for writing a business continuity plan are as follows:

• Create a governance team.
• Complete your business impact analysis (BIA) and risk assessment documents.
• Document your plan. Remember to include detailed guidelines and procedures that cover key processes and facilities.
• Test and update the plan regularly.

The Business Continuity Management Lifecycle

Business continuity management includes preparing for and handling unexpected events. BCM has a six-step lifecycle. This cycle repeats during both in regular business times and crises, as you take the right steps to keep activities always running.

The BCM lifecycle includes the following points:

• Mitigate Risk: Proactively identify business continuity risks to your company, and plan how your company will respond.
• Prepare: Train staff on your business continuity plan and ensure they understand what they need to do to help the business respond.
• Respond: Ensure that your company and all employees respond appropriately to a crisis. Be prepared to adapt in the moment.
• Resolve: Ensure that the company plans how to communicate effectively with staff and that it does so appropriately during the crisis.
• Recover: Inform employees, customers, and other important people about the status of the crisis and your company’s response.
• Resume: Communicate with employees and others after the crisis ends.

What Are Business Continuity Risks or Events?

Also called business continuity events, business continuity risks are the most common events that can disrupt a company’s regular operations — these can be natural and human-made crises. Defining these risks is a vital part of business continuity planning.

Such events might include the following:

• Severe weather
• Natural disasters (tornadoes, floods, blizzards, earthquakes, fire, etc.)
• A physical security threat
• A recall of a company’s product
• Supply chain problems
• Threats to staffing and employee safety
• Accidents at an organization’s facilities
• Destruction to a company’s facilities or property
• Power disruptions
• Server crashes
• Failures in public and private services (communications, transportation, safety, etc.)
• Environmental disasters, including hazardous materials spills
• Network disruptions
• Human error/human-made hazards
• Stock market crashes
• Cyber attacks and hacker activity

Any of these triggers can result in broader problems for a company, such as danger or injury to staff and others, equipment damages, brand injury, and loss of income and net worth. Business continuity management and planning address and mitigate these contingencies.

What Is a Business Continuity Strategy?

A business continuity strategy is more often called a business continuity plan. The strategy includes the processes and structure a company uses to manage an unexpected event.

Some people consider business continuity strategy to be a step in the planning process. In the strategy phase, business continuity planners describe the overall approach a company should take to prevent, manage, and recover from a crisis.

An Overview of Business Continuity Management and Planning

There are several goals, key elements, and benefits to business continuity management and planning. The primary goals of management and planning are as follows:

• Build Company Resiliency: Doing so means that your company’s tools, buildings, and operations are resistant to — and not greatly affected by — most disruptions.
• Create a Plan for Recovery (with Contingencies that Aid in That Recovery): If a major event does cause problems, you should have a plan for how to recover quickly. That plan will include contingencies. For example, you should plan for how key operations will resume if there is a widespread power outage.

Business continuity management and planning generally cover the following areas, with differences depending on the organization and industry:

• Disaster Recovery: Disaster recovery involves recovering technology after a disruptive event. You can learn more about disaster recovery and download free templates in our comprehensive article .
• Emergency Management: Emergency management focuses on avoiding and mitigating catastrophic risks to staff and communities.
• Business Recovery: Considered part of business continuity, business recovery centers on short-term activities after a disruptive incident. The short-term is sometimes defined as less than 60 days.
• Business Resumption: This describes the longterm phase of recovery (60 or more days after an even), wherein the company returns to near-normal conditions.
• Crisis Management: Crisis management focuses on communicating with stakeholders during and after a crisis, and controlling damage during the event. To learn more, read our comprehensive guide to crisis management .
• Incident Management: Incident management is an ITIL (previously known as Information Technology Infrastructure Library) framework for reducing or eliminating downtime after an incident.
• Contingency Planning: This covers outlier risks that are unlikely to occur but which could have disastrous results.

“A well managed business continuity management program will help protect people, assets, and business processes,” says Scott Owens, founder and managing director of BluTinuity , a business continuity firm based in New Berlin, Wisconsin. “It may not be able to prevent all incidents. But it can reduce the likelihood of incidents, decrease response time, and lower the cost and impact of an incident.”

Key Elements of Business Continuity Management

All business continuity management programs should include a number of key elements, which serve to ensure that your plan is positioned for success and that you regularly update and improve it.   

These important elements include the following:

• Governance: This is the structure and team your business sets up to create and monitor the program.
• Business Alignment: This section details how your company’s current business continuity management and planning processes compare to expert approaches and industry standards.
• Continuity Strategy and Recovery Strategies: Include a detailed plan that assesses risks to your organization and how you can recover, should those risks become reality.
• Plan Documentation: Provide details on the plan that everyone in your company can access. To get started, see our roundup of free business continuity plan templates .
• Tactical Implementation: This section includes details on the specific ways your company plans to recover from certain types of incidents.
• Training: In this section, detail how you will train your staff to understand the business continuity plan and their role in it.
• Testing: Include real-world simulations of a crisis event, and test how your company and its employees respond and the effectiveness of your business continuity plans.
• Maintenance: Make changes to the plan where necessary to increase its effectiveness.
• Monitoring: This section details how you will continue to compare industry standards and expert advice to how your plan is working.

To learn about formal requirements for business continuity planning and management, see our comprehensive article on the ISO 22301 standard . 

The Costs of Business Continuity Management

The costs to do an appropriate job of business continuity management can be significant. However, some reports say that the cost of unforeseen downtime may be as much as $2.5 billion a year for Fortune 1000 companies.

Kurt Engemann, Ph.D., is Director of the Center for Business Continuity and Risk Management at Iona College in New York, Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Business Continuity and Risk Management and author of Business Continuity and Risk Management: Essentials of Organizational Resilience . In the book, he says that costs for business continuity preparation do not only include the groundwork to assess a company’s risks and plans to manage those risks. Rather, they also cover the needed backup facilities and equipment and company assets for emergency response. In addition, costs must cover resources for training employees and testing the plan.

Some experts have estimated that business continuity management and planning within only the crucial information technology aspects of companies can cost two to four percent of the information technology budget. But the costs are necessary, and worth it in the long run, according to business continuity experts.

“There is an initial outlay of a modest amount of money that will lessen the financial impact of a possible future crisis,” Engemann writes in his book. “Similar to an insurance policy, the financial benefit of BCM must be viewed from a long-term prospective.”

When an organization’s top executives complain about the costs, Owens says, “Ask them what it would cost their organization for an hour of downtime. Or eight hours. Or 24 hours. Chances are the cost — financial, operational, and to brand and reputation — of having key business functions unavailable for an extended period are significant. They will most likely find business continuity management to be worth the investment.” 

Benefits of Business Continuity Management

Like Engemann, Owens points out that there are significant benefits to the investment organizations make in business continuity management, including the following:

• Mission Critical Processes: If you understand your key processes, you can plan to protect them and prioritize their recovery.
• Legal and Regulatory Compliance: Laws or regulations require companies in some industries to implement a formal business continuity management system.
• Satisfying Demands from Other Organizations: Some groups and companies may require that your company sets up BCM before they do business with you.
• Insurance Payments: To get the maximum payments from an insurance policy after an event, a company must have suitable business continuity management policies in place.
• Reputation Management: Your business’s brand will be greatly helped or hurt, depending on how an unforeseen event affects its operations.
• Competitive Advantage: A strong business continuity plan can offer your company the advantage over peers who are not as well prepared.
• Seamless Recovery: Cloud-based technologies make data backup, remote work, and business recovery affordable and accessible. Groups and businesses of all sizes can benefit from such tools. See our article on cloud computing for business continuity to learn more.
• Time Savings: Planning prevents teams from scrambling at the last minute to cobble together a recovery effort. Strong planning helps you get back online — and back on track — faster.

Michael Herrera, CEO of MHA Consulting , a business continuity and disaster recovery firm, cites two other significant benefits: 

• Keeping Customers and Avoiding Major Financial Losses: Getting operations back to normal quickly after an event means your company loses less money.

“Your customers aren’t as patient as you think they are,” Herrera explains. “They expect you to have a business continuity system and they expect you to be up and running. Their patience does run out.”

• Improving Day-to-Day Operations: Herrera says his firm’s clients often discover how business continuity planning gives them insights into the day-to-day operations of their company. “It really can help you with process improvement and getting a good understanding of what your business does every day.”

Additionally, strong business continuity planning will enable you to do the following:

• Officially declare a disaster and alert senior management.
• Assist in the development of an official public statement regarding a disaster and its effects on a business.
• Monitor your business’s progress and present the recovery status.
• Provide ongoing support and guidance to teams with pre-planned operations.
• Review critical processing, schedules, and backlogs to keep everyone up to date on status.
• Ensure businesses have both the resources and the information to deal with an unforeseen emergency.
• Reduce the risk that an emergency might pose to employees, clients, and vendors, etc.
• Provide a response for both man-made and environmental disasters.
• Improve overall business communication and response plans.
• Summarize both the operational and the financial impacts resulting from the loss of critical business functions.
• Allow businesses to plan for a loss of function that has potentially larger, more severe consequences.

See our article on the importance and benefits of business continuity planning to read more expert examples of how business continuity can bolster your company. 

Key Business Continuity Management and Planning Considerations

Companies don’t have to face business continuity planning alone. There are a variety of tools and services that can help, including the following:

Consultant Services

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of consultants and companies that can provide help with developing your business continuity plan. Below are a few things to think about in choosing one:

• How experienced are they? How long have they been around?
• What’s their reputation as a company? What do their clients say about them?
• Are they focused on a specific industry or area of business continuity, or do they have experience with a range of industries and a broad spectrum of business continuity?
• How do they think about business continuity (as a somewhat separate practice or something that needs to be ingrained within your organization)?
• How aligned is their advice with standards in your industry?

Business Continuity Software

There are also hundreds of pieces of business continuity software on the market. Here are some things to consider:

• Are you looking for software that will automate the development of plan components, or software that offers more in-depth help during the planning phase?
• What is the history of the software and the company behind it? How long has this particular software been on the market and what is the history and the reputation of the company behind it?
• Is the software being continually updated and improved?

Below are some specifics to consider as you test drive the software:

• Does it have an easy-to-use interface?
• Does it cover all aspects and components of business continuity, including business impact analysis and risk assessment ?
• Does it include sufficient storage for your company’s supporting documents?
• Does it provide secure portable access via mobile or other technologies, if a crisis interrupts your information technology systems?
• Does it provide strong data analytics?
• Is it secure and private?

Primary Things Your Organization’s Business Continuity Management System Should Accomplish

While your business continuity management system will have various elements and details, there are some primary things it should do for your organization. They correspond to the key elements listed earlier in this article. 

For example, a BCM system should help do the following: 

• Understand your company’s needs for business continuity and disaster preparedness. A BCM system should be able to assist company leaders in understanding the need for a business continuity management policy.
• Understand which processes should be recovered and in what order.
• Establish business continuity metrics to gauge success.
• Plan for communicating with customers, staff, and other stakeholders.
• Determine what tools, technology, and staffing are required to restore activities and support customers.
• Establish remote-work support or relocation plans for staff and activities.
• Implement ways to continually assess and manage continuity risks.
• Monitor and review how its business continuity management system is working.
• Continually improve the system.
• Respond effectively in a real-world crisis, and allow the business’s critical operations to continue and all operations to resume quickly.

Although nobody wants to think about disasters or the effort needed to prepare to meet and mitigate crises, the alternative is the potential loss of reputation, income, or the entire business. In sum, planning translates to determining your key processes, equipment, and tools, and applying basic recovery strategies. 

The Importance of Senior Organizational Leaders Strongly Supporting Your Business Continuity Management and Planning

Your senior leaders must strongly support your company’s business continuity management plan for it to succeed. Such leadership is key as storms, floods, pandemics, and data breaches increase in force and frequency.

“Make sure senior management is committed to the planning, development, execution, and implementation of a business continuity/disaster recovery program,” says Paul Kirvan , a business continuity consultant and a fellow of the Business Continuity Institute with 25 years of experience in business continuity work. “Otherwise, it simply won’t happen. Such programs work best if they have top-down support and funding, as opposed to being developed from the ground up.”

Business Continuity Plan Test Types

Testing verifies the effectiveness of your plan and provides training for participants. To ensure better communication, include suppliers, vendors, and other stakeholders in exercises. If appropriate, also consider including local emergency preparedness officials.  

There are four types of testing, and each requires increasing levels of planning, resources, and focus. You should try to run each type of drill regularly.

• Plan Review: Plan reviews are often the first test applied to a new plan. In this test, top management and some key BCP personnel review the relevance and completeness of a plan. Such a review can verify risk and BIA results, and help you check for gaps and inconsistencies among continuity documents.
• Tabletop or Structured Walkthrough: A tabletop test requires more preparation and time. It provides a role-playing exercise for recovery teams.
• Simulation or Walkthrough Drill: In a walkthrough drill, your continuity team physically completes the type of tasks they'd find in a crisis. They may practice evacuating a building during a fire, restoring a backup, or switching to another communication frequency.
• Functional or Live Scenario: Functional tests include a complete physical drill of continuity plans. Live tests may focus on one aspect of the plan or include the complete plan. They may include one part of the company or all team members.

Be sure to document what happened in the test so everyone involved in the exercise — and especially those who created the plan — can understand what did and didn’t go well, and can revise as necessary.

Business Continuity Management Policy Statement

A business continuity policy statement is a written document that outlines an organization’s business continuity management program. The policy statement should be communicated to all employees and should be signed and endorsed by the organization’s senior management.

See real-world examples of a business continuity policy statement .

Cultivating Awareness of Business Continuity Plans

The best business continuity system is useless if no one knows about it. Find ways to promote your plans in daily company activities, and discuss business continuity regularly in company and team meetings. Also, be sure to include the business continuity manager in cross-functional planning meetings so they can represent the business continuity perspective. Above all, exercise your plan, test your plan, and then test again.

What Is the Importance of a Business Continuity Plan?

A business continuity plan is vital to ensure that your company mitigates downtime during a crisis. Resuming activities quickly after an event also helps ensure your company’s financial health.

How to Write a Business Continuity Plan

It is crucial that your company set up a group of people to help create your business continuity plan. The group should include senior leadership, experts, and staff. A simple, practical plan is the best plan. At a minimum, include continuity team roles and duties, and team member contact information. You should also add guidelines and checklists for dealing with unforeseen events. 

Daily business functions rely on many resources — human, utilities, machines, and even paper, pens, and pencils. Business recovery after a disruptive event is no different. See our in-depth article on writing a business continuity plan for a complete list of resource types you may want to include in a plan.

You can ask certain questions as you form your strategy, and a business continuity plan usually includes common resources and elements. See our article on how to write a business continuity plan to learn more.

Business Continuity Plan Template

This template can help you document and track business operations in the event of a disruption/disaster to maintain critical processes. The plan includes space to record business function recovery priorities, recovery plans, and alternate site locations. Plan efficiently for disruption and minimize downtime, so your business maintains optimal efficiency.

Download Business Continuity Plan Template

Word | PowerPoint | PDF

You’ll find other most useful free, downloadable business continuity plan (BCP) templates, in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and PDF formats in this article . 

What Is a Business Impact Analysis and Why Is It an Important Part of a Business Continuity Plan?

A business impact analysis (BIA) is one of the most important parts of business continuity planning. The analysis considers how an unforeseen disruption could affect a company. BIA results also suggest how a business can recover from a crisis.

The business impact analysis will include details on the following:

• Recovery time objectives that outline the organization’s goals relating to how quickly various services and processes will resume after an event
• Financial impact of an incident
• Impact on customers
• Other possible impacts of an incident
• How the organization will prioritize recovery steps
• How the organization will prioritize critical services or products
• Identification of potential revenue loss
• Identification of additional expenses the organization will incur because of the event
• Identification of insurance an organization has or needs to have
• Identification of an organization’s dependencies on other agencies, companies, and providers

See our business impact analysis toolkit to find guidelines and templates to get started.

Risk Mitigation for Business Continuity

Risk assessment is one of the first steps in preparing your business continuity plan. 

Risk management includes identifying and ranking risks, and risk control includes identifying policies and procedures to avoid and contain risks. 

To learn more about risk management , read our comprehensive guide.

The Importance of Periodically Testing an Organization’s Business Continuity Plan

Even the best business continuity plans are useless if you do not continually test them in real-world mockups. Testing helps you continuously improve procedures, and also keeps plans synched with current business context.

Robert Sollars, a security trainer and consultant from Mesa, Arizona, says, “You must exercise your plan and train your employees in it. This can be costly and unwieldy at times, but it is an absolute must. I liken this to buying a Lamborghini and letting it sit in the garage, never starting it up, never driving it, never doing anything but admiring it. Your plan must be taken out and test driven at least two to three times per year. If you don’t test it, then when the real thing pops you will realize what the books, consultants, and experts have told you is useless for your organization. Testing it allows you to figure out the bugs and tweak the necessary items to make it more efficient and effective.”

Owens adds, “If you haven’t tested your plans, you aren’t ready for a disaster.”

You can do some testing through simpler table top exercises — for example, by talking through hypothetical incidents with your team. But Owens and other business continuity experts say organizations should also periodically do exercises that more closely mimic a real-world event.

“Organizations need to move … to progressively more complex scenarios, involving cross-functional teams and interdependent systems and processes,” he writes in a blog post about business continuity. “This is the only way that a company can get outside its comfort zone to truly understand if what they have designed will really work. My preference is to involve role-playing, actors, and include participation from vendors, business partners, and local law enforcement when appropriate. This will almost always result in lessons learned and opportunities to improve the plan, which is another great outcome.”

The most important result from testing your plan is an understanding of where theoretical solutions won’t work in real events. This understanding will then allow your organization to amend the plan to be more effective.

What Is a Business Continuity Plan Governance Committee?

Many companies set up a business continuity plan governance committee, which consists of staff members and senior leaders (their continuity efforts is vital). Governance tasks include writing the business continuity plan and supervising ongoing plan maintenance.  

The committee is often responsible for the following duties:

• Approving the governance structure of the committee
• Clarifying the roles of committee members and others working on the plan
• Overseeing the creation of working groups to develop and implement the plan
• Providing overall direction and communicate important information to employees
• Approving the continuity plan and essential specifics within it
• Setting priorities within the plan

The committee often includes the following members:

• A senior leader from the business, often the sponsor
• A business continuity manager and assistant manager
• The company employee, or outside consultant, who will serve as overall coordinator of the business continuity plan
• The company’s security officer
• The company’s chief information officer, or information technology leader
• Representatives from the company’s business department, to help with the business impact analysis
• An administrative representative

How to Cultivate Resilience in Your Organization

A resilient organization has the tools and abilities to survive a disruptive event, and also regularly looks for new threats and adapts to changes in the organizational and industry landscape. Resilience experts recognize two types of resilience: reactive resilience uses a company’s existing processes to meet and overcome a crisis; proactive resilience anticipates disruptions and considers methods to prevent problems.  

Real World Example: Lessons Learned About Business Continuity from the Terrorist Attacks of Sept. 11, 2001

Organizational leaders and business continuity experts learned a lot from the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Worst of all, the attacks killed thousands of people. But they also severely disrupted communications, financial transactions, and some commerce in New York City and throughout the world.

The following are among the lessons learned:

• Business continuity plans must be tested frequently, and updated where needed.
• The plans must assume a wide range of threats.
• The plans must take into account how much companies, agencies, and other entities depend on each other.
• Key people from any organization must be available and reachable when an incident happens.
• The ability to communicate, especially through landline phones, cell phones, and the internet, is vital.
• Sites that organizations use for backup of their digital information should be located at a distance from their primary information technology site.
• Employee support and counseling may be important during and after a crisis.
• An organization should store copies of its business continuity plan at a location apart from its primary location.
• Security perimeters around the scene of an incident may be large, which may affect employees’ access to organization facilities for long periods.

Legislation Governing Some Business Continuity Management and Planning

The United Kingdom did approved the Civil Contingencies Act in 2004, which requires businesses to have business continuity plans in place.

Some industries do have regulatory bodies that may impose business continuity requirements within those industries. For instance, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) is a private self-regulatory organization overseeing the U.S. financial securities industry. FINRA established FINRA Rule 4370. This rule requires securities firms to create and maintain written business continuity plans. Utility bodies, such as North American Electric Reliability Corporation ( NERC ) and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ( FERC ), also require continuity plans.

Guidelines, Standards, and Resources Providing Guidance on Business Continuity Management and Planning

Organizational leaders can use a number of standards set by industry and other groups to guide their business continuity planning and management programs. Below are some commonly used standards:

• ISO 22301 : Developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), a standard-setting body, this group of standards sets out appropriate business continuity management practices. Learn more about how this standard can help businesses of all sizes in our guide to ISO 22301 . 
• NFPA 1600 : Developed by the National Fire Protection Association, the standard is one of the most widely recognized in the U.S. on emergency preparedness and business continuity.
• National Institute of Standards and Technology SP 800-34 : Sets contingency planning standards for federal information systems in the U.S.
• SPC-2009 — Organizational Resilience : Security, Preparedness and Continuity Management Systems provides critical business and infrastructure security standards developed by the American Society for Industrial Security.
• ISO 27000 : Standards for security in information technology systems, which include standards for business continuity in information technology. Learn more about ISO 27000 and find free checklists and templates . 
• DRI International : Professional Practices for Business Continuity Management
• Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA): Continuity Guidance Circular: Continuity Guidance for Non-Federal Entities: An 86-page formal document, the circular presents FEMA’s perspective on how businesses can prepare for disasters.
• Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety: Open for Business Continuity Toolkit: This site offers a video, FAQ, and downloadable continuity planning tools.

What Is the Business Continuity Institute?

The Business Continuity Institute (BCI), based in the United Kingdom, is a non-profit professional organization providing education, certification, and leadership on business continuity management. The Institute has more than 8,000 members in more than 100 countries.

Improve Business Continuity Planning with Real-Time Work Management in Smartsheet

Empower your people to go above and beyond with a flexible platform designed to match the needs of your team — and adapt as those needs change. 

The Smartsheet platform makes it easy to plan, capture, manage, and report on work from anywhere, helping your team be more effective and get more done. Report on key metrics and get real-time visibility into work as it happens with roll-up reports, dashboards, and automated workflows built to keep your team connected and informed. 

When teams have clarity into the work getting done, there’s no telling how much more they can accomplish in the same amount of time.  Try Smartsheet for free, today.

Discover why over 90% of Fortune 100 companies trust Smartsheet to get work done.

What Is A Business Continuity Plan? [+ Template & Examples]

Published: December 30, 2022

When a business crisis occurs, the last thing you want to do is panic.

The second-to-last thing you want to do is be unprepared. Crises typically arise without warning. While you shouldn't start every day expecting the worst, you should be relatively prepared for anything to happen.

A business crisis can cost your company a lot of money and ruin your reputation if you don't have a business continuity plan in place. Customers aren't very forgiving, especially when a crisis is influenced by accidents within the company or other preventable mistakes. If you want your company to be able to maintain its business continuity in the face of a crisis, then you'll need to come up with this type of plan to uphold its essential functions.

In this post, we'll explain what a business continuity plan is, give examples of scenarios that would require a business continuity plan, and provide a template that you can use to create a well-rounded program for your business.

Table of Contents:

What is a business continuity plan?

• Business Continuity Types
• Business Continuity vs Disaster Recovery

Business Continuity Plan Template

How to write a business continuity plan.

• Business Continuity Examples

A business continuity plan outlines directions and procedures that your company will follow when faced with a crisis. These plans include business procedures, names of assets and partners, human resource functions, and other helpful information that can help maintain your brand's relationships with relevant stakeholders. The goal of a business continuity plan is to handle anything from minor disruptions to full-blown threats.

For example, one crisis that your business may have to respond to is a severe snowstorm. Your team may be wondering, "If a snowstorm disrupted our supply chain, how would we resume business?" Planning contingencies ahead of time for situations like these can help your business stay afloat when you're faced with an unavoidable crisis.

When you think about business continuity in terms of the essential functions your business requires to operate, you can begin to mitigate and plan for specific risks within those functions.

Crisis Communication and Management Kit

Manage, plan for, and communicate during your corporate crises with these crisis management plan templates.

• Free Crisis Management Plan Template
• 12 Crisis Communication Templates
• Post-Crisis Performance Grading Template
• Additional Crisis Best Management Practices

You're all set!

Click this link to access this resource at any time.

Business Continuity Planning

Business continuity planning is the process of creating a plan to address a crisis. When writing out a business continuity plan, it's important to consider the variety of crises that could potentially affect the company and prepare a resolution for each.

4. Identify critical functions and types of threats.

The above questions are a guide to help give you insight into the areas of your business that require the greatest degree of business continuity. Prioritize the business functions and threats that are the most critical according to:

• The likelihood of it happening,
• The extent of the loss based on impact.

5. Conduct risk assessments across each area identified.

The idea here is to quantify the information you received during the interviews:

• How long would it take to recover from a critical situation in this area?
• How much revenue would be lost during that time?
• How much productivity would be lost during that time within that department?
• How much productivity would be lost for other departments as a result?
• How many customers and/or stakeholder confidence will be lost?
• Will there be additional costs to get it resolved?
• Will there be additional liability costs?
• How much does it cost to implement prevention measures?

6. Conduct a Business Impact Analysis.

Once you've gathered information across disparate processes, it's time to compile that information into a format that reflects the broader business.

A Business Impact Analysis (BIA) analyzes the main operations of an organization, the major resources it uses, how its operations relate to one another — a.k.a. when one function goes down, how does it affect other operations — and how long each function generally takes to complete.

A BIA is a key part of the final business continuity plan. This is where you summarize your findings regarding costs against benefits to further underscore what gets prioritized.

7. Draft out the plan.

Now that you have a good idea of what to include in your plan, start by composing a first draft that can serve as a baseline. The draft should include the following aspects to ensure a well-rounded, actionable plan:

• The purpose, objectives, budget, and timeline of the plan.
• The members of the business continuity team and their roles.
• All of the important stakeholders that are involved in the business continuity plan.
• The Business Impact Analysis.
• Proactive strategies that will be put into place to prevent crises.
• Reactive strategies that will immediately respond to crises.
• Long-term recovery efforts.
• Training and testing schedules for proactive preparation.

8. Test the plan for gaps.

Of course, you should immediately test your plan.

Start with communicating with those that play a critical role in your continuity plan. After they know what their involvement is in the plan, conduct a mock recovery test and put the plan into action. Make note of any gaps that arise during this process.

9. Revise based on your findings.

After testing is complete, correct any flaws you've uncovered throughout the process.

Continue testing and implementing changes until you're satisfied with the outcomes. However, it is important to be aware that business changes will likely require updating the plans you have. Given this, it's important to keep testing your plan to ensure it's up to date with your business needs, and you're properly prepared for any type of crisis.

Now that you've learned everything there is to know about business continuity plans, use the following template to start creating one for your organization.

How often should a business continuity plan be tested?

Your business continuity plan should be reviewed at least twice per year. You should review the plan and test it to make sure it's up-to-date with your current business processes. The larger your organization is, the more complex your systems are going to be, meaning you'll want to review your business continuity plan more frequently to ensure there aren't any gaps.

As you add new systems, departments, leaders, and technology to your business, make it a part of your standard operating procedure to update the business continuity plan as well so that all the bases are covered.

The following schedule is recommended to maximize the reliability and validity of your plan, while also minimizing the amount of time you're putting into plan review.

1. Review your checklist twice a year.

Your teams should review the elements of your business continuity plan bi-annually to make sure all the responses still apply to your current status. In addition, you'll use this opportunity to ensure that each response aligns with your desired business goals.

2. Conduct emergency drills once a year.

Just like schools have fire drills, your organization should have emergency drills to prepare your staff for the steps that are laid out in your business continuity plan. This will also help when a real crisis occurs because they will have practiced the steps before.

3. Hold tabletop reviews every other year.

All stakeholders that are involved in your business continuity plan should meet every other year to discuss it. The review doesn't need to take too much time and doesn't require physically running through the steps, but it can help you uncover red flags that may otherwise go unnoticed without testing.

4. Conduct a comprehensive review every other year.

Unlike the tabletop review, the comprehensive review takes a deep dive into the plan. It should look closely at cost-benefit analyses as well as recovery procedures to ensure everything is up-to-date with current business operations.

5. Mock recovery test, every two to three years.

This is an in-depth test in which your continuity plan is put into motion to test for any weaknesses or mishaps. Since this test is time-consuming, it shouldn't occur frequently, but it will ensure all internal stakeholders are confident in the plan.

No matter what type of business you are operating, you need to be constantly considering the possible threat of a crisis. If you want to be able to effectively manage them, then it's essential that you have a business continuity plan in place to tackle difficult or unexpected situations.

Let's go over some examples of scenarios that would require a business continuity plan that will help you understand why your business needs one.

Business Continuity Plan Examples

1. business continuity plan example for external product outage.

Don't forget to share this post!

Related articles.

How to Navigate Customer Service During a Business Closure

10 Crisis Communication Plan Examples (and How to Write Your Own)

I Tried 7 Crisis Management Software to See if They’re Worth It (Results & Recommendations)

20 Crisis Management Quotes Every PR Team Should Live By

Social Media Crisis Management: Your Complete Guide [Free Template]

De-Escalation Techniques: 19 Best Ways to De-Escalate [Top Tips + Data]

Situational Crisis Communication Theory and How It Helps a Business

What Southwest’s Travel Disruption Taught Us About Customer Service

Showcasing Your Crisis Management Skills on Your Resume

What Is Contingency Planning? [+ Examples]

Manage, plan for, and communicate during a corporate crisis.

Service Hub provides everything you need to delight and retain customers while supporting the success of your whole front office

• Search Search Please fill out this field.
• Business Continuity Plan Basics
• Understanding BCPs
• Benefits of BCPs
• How to Create a BCP
• BCP & Impact Analysis
• BCP vs. Disaster Recovery Plan

Frequently Asked Questions

• Business Continuity Plan FAQs

The Bottom Line

What is a business continuity plan (bcp), and how does it work.

Investopedia / Ryan Oakley

What Is a Business Continuity Plan (BCP)? 

A business continuity plan (BCP) is a system of prevention and recovery from potential threats to a company. The plan ensures that personnel and assets are protected and are able to function quickly in the event of a disaster.

Key Takeaways

• Business continuity plans (BCPs) are prevention and recovery systems for potential threats, such as natural disasters or cyber-attacks.
• BCP is designed to protect personnel and assets and make sure they can function quickly when disaster strikes.
• BCPs should be tested to ensure there are no weaknesses, which can be identified and corrected.

Understanding Business Continuity Plans (BCPs)

BCP involves defining any and all risks that can affect the company's operations, making it an important part of the organization's risk management strategy. Risks may include natural disasters—fire, flood, or weather-related events—and cyber-attacks . Once the risks are identified, the plan should also include:

• Determining how those risks will affect operations
• Implementing safeguards and procedures to mitigate the risks
• Testing procedures to ensure they work
• Reviewing the process to make sure that it is up to date

BCPs are an important part of any business. Threats and disruptions mean a loss of revenue and higher costs, which leads to a drop in profitability. And businesses can't rely on insurance alone because it doesn't cover all the costs and the customers who move to the competition. It is generally conceived in advance and involves input from key stakeholders and personnel.

Business impact analysis, recovery, organization, and training are all steps corporations need to follow when creating a Business Continuity Plan.

Benefits of a Business Continuity Plan

Businesses are prone to a host of disasters that vary in degree from minor to catastrophic. Business continuity planning is typically meant to help a company continue operating in the event of major disasters such as fires. BCPs are different from a disaster recovery plan, which focuses on the recovery of a company's information technology system after a crisis.

Consider a finance company based in a major city. It may put a BCP in place by taking steps including backing up its computer and client files offsite. If something were to happen to the company's corporate office, its satellite offices would still have access to important information.

An important point to note is that BCP may not be as effective if a large portion of the population is affected, as in the case of a disease outbreak. Nonetheless, BCPs can improve risk management—preventing disruptions from spreading. They can also help mitigate downtime of networks or technology, saving the company money.

How To Create a Business Continuity Plan

There are several steps many companies must follow to develop a solid BCP. They include:

• Business Impact Analysis : Here, the business will identify functions and related resources that are time-sensitive. (More on this below.)
• Recovery : In this portion, the business must identify and implement steps to recover critical business functions.
• Organization : A continuity team must be created. This team will devise a plan to manage the disruption.
• Training : The continuity team must be trained and tested. Members of the team should also complete exercises that go over the plan and strategies.

Companies may also find it useful to come up with a checklist that includes key details such as emergency contact information, a list of resources the continuity team may need, where backup data and other required information are housed or stored, and other important personnel.

Along with testing the continuity team, the company should also test the BCP itself. It should be tested several times to ensure it can be applied to many different risk scenarios . This will help identify any weaknesses in the plan which can then be corrected.

In order for a business continuity plan to be successful, all employees—even those who aren't on the continuity team—must be aware of the plan.

Business Continuity Impact Analysis

An important part of developing a BCP is a business continuity impact analysis. It identifies the effects of disruption of business functions and processes. It also uses the information to make decisions about recovery priorities and strategies.

FEMA provides an operational and financial impact worksheet to help run a business continuity analysis. The worksheet should be completed by business function and process managers who are well acquainted with the business. These worksheets will summarize the following:

• The impacts—both financial and operational—that stem from the loss of individual business functions and process
• Identifying when the loss of a function or process would result in the identified business impacts

Completing the analysis can help companies identify and prioritize the processes that have the most impact on the business's financial and operational functions. The point at which they must be recovered is generally known as the “recovery time objective.”

Business Continuity Plan vs. Disaster Recovery Plan

BCPs and disaster recovery plans are similar in nature, the latter focuses on technology and information technology (IT) infrastructure. BCPs are more encompassing—focusing on the entire organization, such as customer service and supply chain. 

BCPs focus on reducing overall costs or losses, while disaster recovery plans look only at technology downtimes and related costs. Disaster recovery plans tend to involve only IT personnel—which create and manage the policy. However, BCPs tend to have more personnel trained on the potential processes. 

Why Is Business Continuity Plan (BCP) Important?

Businesses are prone to a host of disasters that vary in degree from minor to catastrophic and business continuity plans (BCPs) are an important part of any business. BCP is typically meant to help a company continue operating in the event of threats and disruptions. This could result in a loss of revenue and higher costs, which leads to a drop in profitability. And businesses can't rely on insurance alone because it doesn't cover all the costs and the customers who move to the competition.

What Should a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) Include?

Business continuity plans involve identifying any and all risks that can affect the company's operations. The plan should also determine how those risks will affect operations and implement safeguards and procedures to mitigate the risks. There should also be testing procedures to ensure these safeguards and procedures work. Finally, there should be a review process to make sure that the plan is up to date.

What Is Business Continuity Impact Analysis?

An important part of developing a BCP is a business continuity impact analysis which identifies the effects of disruption of business functions and processes. It also uses the information to make decisions about recovery priorities and strategies.

FEMA provides an operational and financial impact worksheet to help run a business continuity analysis.

These worksheets summarize the impacts—both financial and operational—that stem from the loss of individual business functions and processes. They also identify when the loss of a function or process would result in the identified business impacts.

Business continuity plans (BCPs) are created to help speed up the recovery of an organization filling a threat or disaster. The plan puts in place mechanisms and functions to allow personnel and assets to minimize company downtime. BCPs cover all organizational risks should a disaster happen, such as flood or fire.  

Federal Emergency Management Agency. " Business Process Analysis and Business Impact Analysis User Guide ." Pages 15 - 17.

Ready. “ IT Disaster Recovery Plan .”

Federal Emergency Management Agency. " Business Process Analysis and Business Impact Analysis User Guide ." Pages 15-17.

• Terms of Service
• Editorial Policy
• Privacy Policy
• Your Privacy Choices

• Developing Your MVP
• Incident Management
• Needs Assessment Process
• Product Development From Ideation to Launch
• Value-Proposition-Canvas
• Visualizing Competitive Landscape
• Communication Plan
• Graphic Organizer Creator
• Fault Tree Software
• Bowman's Strategy Clock Template
• Decision Matrix Template
• Communities of Practice
• Goal Setting for 2024
• Meeting Templates
• Meetings Participation
• Microsoft Teams Brainstorming
• Retrospective Guide
• Skip Level Meetings
• Visual Documentation Guide
• Weekly Meetings
• Affinity Diagrams
• Business Plan Presentation
• Post-Mortem Meetings
• Team Building Activities
• WBS Templates
• Online Whiteboard Tool
• Communications Plan Template
• Idea Board Online
• Meeting Minutes Template
• Genograms in Social Work Practice
• Conceptual Framework
• How to Conduct a Genogram Interview
• How to Make a Genogram
• Genogram Questions
• Genograms in Client Counseling
• Understanding Ecomaps
• Visual Research Data Analysis Methods
• House of Quality Template
• Customer Problem Statement Template
• Competitive Analysis Template
• Creating Operations Manual
• Knowledge Base
• Folder Structure Diagram
• Online Checklist Maker
• Lean Canvas Template
• Instructional Design Examples
• Genogram Maker
• Work From Home Guide
• Strategic Planning
• Employee Engagement Action Plan
• Huddle Board
• One-on-One Meeting Template
• Story Map Graphic Organizers
• Introduction to Your Workspace
• Managing Workspaces and Folders
• Adding Text
• Collaborative Content Management
• Creating and Editing Tables
• Adding Notes
• Introduction to Diagramming
• Using Shapes
• Using Freehand Tool
• Adding Images to the Canvas
• Accessing the Contextual Toolbar
• Using Connectors
• Working with Tables
• Working with Templates
• Working with Frames
• Using Notes
• Access Controls
• Exporting a Workspace
• Real-Time Collaboration
• Notifications
• Meet Creately VIZ
• Unleashing the Power of Collaborative Brainstorming
• Uncovering the potential of Retros for all teams
• Collaborative Apps in Microsoft Teams
• Hiring a Great Fit for Your Team
• Project Management Made Easy
• Cross-Corporate Information Radiators
• Creately 4.0 - Product Walkthrough
• What's New

Understanding the Essentials of a Business Continuity Plan

In the face of unforeseen disruptions, a robust business continuity plan (BCP) is essential to preserve the trust of stakeholders. If you are able to seamlessly continue operations even in the face of sudden challenges, stakeholders are reassured of the company’s resilience and commitment to their interests.

In this blog post, we offer a comprehensive guide to business continuity planning, how it can benefit organizations and share key insights into Developing and Maintaining an Effective business continuity plan.

What is a Business Continuity Plan?

A business continuity plan (BCP) is an essential blueprint that outlines how a company will continue operating during an unplanned disruption in service. It’s more than just a reactive strategy; it’s a proactive measure to ensure that critical business functions can continue during and after a crisis. The purpose of a BCP is to provide a systematic approach to mitigate the potential impact of disruptions and maintain business operations at an acceptable predefined level.

The role of a BCP is crucial in maintaining operations during unforeseen events such as natural disasters, cyber-attacks, or any other incident that could interrupt business processes. By having a well-structured business continuity plan, organizations can:

• Minimize downtime and ensure that essential functions remain operational
• Protect the integrity of data and IT infrastructure
• Maintain customer service and preserve stakeholder trust

Why is a Business Continuity Plan Important

Immediate Response : A BCP ensures that there is a predefined action plan, minimizing downtime and demonstrating control over the situation.

Transparent Communication : Keeping stakeholders informed during a crisis promotes transparency and maintains confidence in the company’s management.

Inclusive Planning : Involve stakeholders in the business continuity plan development process. Their insights can enhance the plan’s effectiveness and ensure their needs are addressed.

Consistency in Service : By prioritizing critical operations, a BCP helps maintain the quality and consistency of services or products, which is important for customer retention.

The absence of a business continuity plan can lead to a domino effect of negative outcomes, including a tarnished reputation and the potential loss of future business. Stakeholders remember how a company responds in a crisis, and a well-executed BCP can be the difference between a temporary setback and a long-term impact on the company’s image and relationships.

Elements of a Business Continuity Plan

When exploring various business continuity plan examples, certain common elements emerge as critical for their effectiveness. These elements serve as the backbone for a robust BCP plan, ensuring that businesses can maintain operations and protect their reputation during unforeseen events. Here are some of the key components found in successful BCP examples:

Risk Assessment and Business Impact Analysis : Identifying potential threats and assessing their impact on business operations is a foundational step in any BCP plan.

Crisis Communication Plan : A clear communication strategy is essential to manage stakeholder expectations and maintain trust.

Recovery Strategies : Detailed procedures for restoring business functions and services post-disruption are indispensable.

Employee Training and Awareness : Ensuring staff are well-prepared and knowledgeable about the BCP plan is crucial for its successful implementation.

Case studies of successful BCP implementations often highlight how these elements are tailored to fit specific business models and industries. For instance, a financial institution may focus heavily on data security and regulatory compliance within their BCP, while a manufacturing business might prioritize supply chain alternatives and on-site safety protocols. Regular testing and adjustment of these plans are also a common thread, underscoring the importance of adaptability and continuous improvement in business continuity planning.

Business Continuity Plan Toolkit

• Ready to use
• Fully customizable template
• Get Started in seconds

Business Continuity vs. Disaster Recovery

It’s important to distinguish between a business continuity plan and a disaster recovery plan. While both are vital, a BCP is broader and focuses on the continuity of the entire business, whereas a disaster recovery plan is more technical and concentrates on the recovery of specific operations, such as IT services. Understanding these differences helps organizations allocate resources effectively and ensures comprehensive preparedness for any type of disruption. Understanding when to activate a business continuity plan (BCP) versus a disaster recovery plan is crucial for maintaining operational resilience.

To ensure a comprehensive crisis management strategy, consider the following integration points:

Pre-emptive Planning : Establish clear triggers for when each plan is activated. For instance, a BCP might be initiated in the face of a supply chain disruption, while disaster recovery would come into play during a data breach or server failure.

Unified Communication : Both plans should have a coordinated communication strategy to inform stakeholders and employees about the status and steps being taken.

Regular Testing : Conduct joint drills that test both the BCP and disaster recovery plans to identify any gaps or overlaps in procedures.

Continuous Improvement : Use insights from drills and actual incidents to refine both plans, ensuring they evolve with the changing business landscape and technological advancements.

By integrating both plans, organizations can navigate crises with agility and confidence, minimizing downtime and protecting their reputation. Tools like Creately, with features such as real-time collaboration and visual project management, can help create and maintain these critical plans, ensuring that all stakeholders are on the same page and ready to act when necessary.

Crisis Communication Strategies within Business Continuity Planning

A business continuity plan (BCP) is not just about responding to the crisis at hand, but also about how you communicate during the disruptions and the decisions you make. Here are some best practices to ensure your crisis communication and decision-making processes effective:

Clear Communication Channels : Establish predefined channels for internal and external communication. This ensures that messages are consistent and reach all stakeholders promptly.

Designated Spokespersons : Identify individuals who are authorized to speak on behalf of the company during a crisis. This helps maintain a unified voice and message.

Factual Updates : Provide regular, factual updates to keep stakeholders informed. Avoid speculation and commit to transparency.

Decision-Making Protocols : Implement decision-making protocols that are clear and allow for swift action. This includes having a chain of command and predefined criteria for making critical decisions.

Training and Simulations : Regularly train your crisis management team and conduct simulations to prepare for potential scenarios. This ensures that when a crisis does occur, your team is ready to act effectively.

By integrating these best practices into your BCP plan, you can maintain control during a crisis, make informed decisions, and communicate effectively with all parties involved. Remember, the goal is to protect your company’s operations, reputation, and stakeholder relationships during unexpected events.

Utilizing Business Continuity Plan Templates and Tools

When it comes to developing a robust business continuity plan (BCP), leveraging templates can offer a significant head start. These templates serve as a foundational framework that can be customized to align with the specific requirements of your business. Here’s why using BCP templates is advantageous:

Efficiency in Development : BCP templates provide a structured approach, ensuring that all critical elements are considered without starting from scratch. This saves valuable time and resources.

Consistency Across the Organization : Templates help maintain a uniform response strategy, which is crucial for coherent and coordinated action during a crisis.

Ease of Customization : While templates offer a general outline, they are designed to be adaptable. This means you can tailor them to reflect your business’s unique operational processes, risk profile, and recovery objectives.

Incorporating features like crisis response directions into your BCP template is essential. With Creately you can,

• Visualize these procedures on an infinite canvas, ensuring clarity and accessibility for all team members.
• Easily modify the plan as your business evolves, with the drag-and-drop functionality, making regular testing and adjustment a seamless process.
• Create a central repository of information by having docs, links and attachments in the notes panel of any shape in your diagram.

Key Insights for Developing and Maintaining an Effective Business Continuity Plan

A robust business continuity plan (BCP) is not a ‘set it and forget it’ document; it requires ongoing attention and refinement. Here’s why regular testing, updates, and staff training are non-negotiables in business continuity:

Financial Protection : By regularly testing your BCP, you can identify and rectify gaps that could otherwise lead to significant financial losses during a crisis. It’s not just about having a plan, but ensuring it works effectively when you need it most.

Reputational Safeguarding : Your company’s reputation is on the line when disaster strikes. A well-rehearsed BCP means your team can respond swiftly and competently, preserving stakeholder trust and customer loyalty.

Customization for Evolving Threats : The threat landscape is constantly changing. Regular BCP reviews allow you to tailor your plan to new types of risks, ensuring your business remains resilient against the unforeseen.

Empowered Employees : Training staff on the BCP turns theory into practice. When every team member knows their role in a crisis, response times improve, and confusion is minimized.

Remember, a BCP is a living document. It thrives on the feedback loop created by regular drills and updates, ensuring that when a crisis does occur, your business is prepared not just to survive, but to continue operations with minimal disruption.

Join over thousands of organizations that use Creately to brainstorm, plan, analyze, and execute their projects successfully.

More Related Articles

Hansani has a background in journalism and marketing communications. She loves reading and writing about tech innovations. She enjoys writing poetry, travelling and photography.

Advisory boards aren’t only for executives. Join the LogRocket Content Advisory Board today →

• Product Management
• Solve User-Reported Issues
• Find Issues Faster
• Optimize Conversion and Adoption

How to craft an effective business continuity plan

Let me take you back in time to the United Kingdom in the 1970s. Punk music was gaining popularity, and the Sex Pistols entered the punk rock scene with the force of a shooting star, capturing fans’ attention.

But as quickly as they arrived, they quickly left the scene. When they broke up in 1978 after a period of internal conflicts, legal troubles, and their frontman’s imprisonment, fans were left both shocked and surprised.

Just like the Sex Pistols, plenty of companies experience rapid growth and success, only to face unexpected challenges and internal conflicts that result in their downfall.

In this article, we’ll draw inspiration from the Sex Pistols’ turbulent journey to explore the concept of business continuity planning (BCP). We’ll look at what a BCP is, why you need one and delve into the strategies and contingency measures that can help you maintain your rhythm and continuity, even when faced with the inevitable storms that can disrupt your operations.

What is a business continuity plan?

A business continuity plan describes how you’ll continue your business when disaster hits. It is a structured strategy outlining how your organization will maintain essential functions when disaster strikes, to ensure minimal downtime and guarantee that operations continue.

Why do you need a BCP in place?

The BCP is crucial and revolves around ensuring your resilience and ability to continue operating in the face of unexpected disruptions, such as natural disasters, cyberattacks, or other emergencies.

Let’s look at it a bit closer, and understand some of the key reasons to have a BCP better:

Minimize downtime

Protect revenue and reputation, compliance and legal requirements, resource allocation, maintain customer service, employee safety.

A BCP helps you minimize downtime. It does this by providing a structured approach to quickly recover and resume your critical business functions.

Example: You’re a retail company with an extensive online presence. If your website experiences a cyberattack that takes it offline, a well-prepared BCP outlines the steps to take to mitigate the attack, get your website back up in no time, and allow you to continue serving your customers.

No one likes disruptions as they result in revenue loss and can damage your reputation. A BCP helps you protect against financial losses and keep customer trust.

Example: You’re the owner of a restaurant chain with multiple locations and one of your branches has a food safety crisis. A BCP can guide you in managing the crisis, ensuring food safety compliance, and communicating effectively with customers to maintain trust in the brand and other locations.

Some industries, like the financial, and pharma industries, have regulatory requirements that mandate businesses to have BCPs in place. Failure to do so has legal and financial consequences.

Example: You’re the owner of a FinTech company. You are required by regulators to have robust BCPs to ensure customer data security and financial system stability.

When a crisis hits you need the right resources to get you back up and running. A BCP helps allocate resources effectively during a crisis, ensuring that personnel, equipment, and materials are used efficiently to address the most critical needs.

Over 200k developers and product managers use LogRocket to create better digital experiences

Example: You’re a manufacturing company hit by a sudden supply chain disruption because the Suez Canal is blocked again. You use your BCP to allocate available resources to meet customer demands and minimize production delays.

When all hell breaks loose you want to make sure customer experience takes a minimum blow. A BCP outlines measures to maintain customer service and communication, so customers receive timely updates and support.

Example: You run an airline and there is a labor strike. Your BCP tells you how to manage customer inquiries, rebook affected passengers, and maintain a level of service.

Let’s not forget about the well-being of your employees. During a crisis, this is a top priority. A BCP includes procedures for evacuations, remote work arrangements, and employee support.

Example: There is a fire at your workplace. The BCP outlines evacuation routes, assembly points, and contact information for employees to report their safety status.

Business continuity planning: Steps for success

That’s a lot of reasons, right? Now that we addressed the necessity and urgency of having BCP, let’s look at 5 steps to creating a successful one:

• Analyze your company
• Assess the risk
• Create the procedures
• Get the word out
• Iterate and improve

1. Analyze your company

In this phase you conduct an analysis to identify critical activities, determine which activities must continue, which can be temporarily paused, and which can operate at a reduced capacity.

You then assess the financial impact of disruptions. This involves asking yourself the question, “How long can I operate without generating revenue and incurring recovery costs?”

As this step covers your whole company, it’s important to get key stakeholders involved from the beginning.

2. Assess the risk

Now you have a good overview of your critical processes and the impact of disruption. At this point, pivot your attention to the risks they face, how well you can handle when things don’t work as usual, and how long you can manage if things go wrong.

The goal here is to understand what could go wrong and find ways to avoid, reduce, or transfer them. This assessment will help you strengthen your preparedness and resilience.

More great articles from LogRocket:

• How to implement issue management to improve your product
• 8 ways to reduce cycle time and build a better product
• What is a PERT chart and how to make one
• Discover how to use behavioral analytics to create a great product experience
• Explore six tried and true product management frameworks you should know
• Advisory boards aren’t just for executives. Join LogRocket’s Content Advisory Board. You’ll help inform the type of content we create and get access to exclusive meetups, social accreditation, and swag.

Think about risks specific to your industry and location

It’s important to consider both internal (e.g. an IT system failure or employee shortage) and external threats (e.g. a natural disaster or supply chain disruption) to your critical business activities.

3. Create the procedures

Once you analyze and assess, you need to create procedures.

Develop detailed, step-by-step procedures to minimize risks to your organization’s people, operations, and assets. This can include changes to your operating model, such as using alternative suppliers or implementing remote work options.

4. Get the word out

A plan is just a plan and no one will know how to act if you don’t communicate.

This step is all about communication. Integrate the BCP into your operations, policies, and company culture, and train, test, and communicate with your employees.

And don’t forget that communication is not limited to your company only. Communicate with external stakeholders, customers, suppliers, and so forth.

5. Iterate and improve

Before implementing your BCP ensure its effectiveness.

Don’t worry there are plenty more options to test your BCP. Consider involving external stakeholders or vendors as it makes exercises more realistic. Frequently train those who are accountable for executing the BCP.

After experiencing a real incident or conducting a training exercise, update your plan to improve its ability to protect your business. Keep in mind that both your organization’s development and the circumstances you operate in change, so a regular review isn’t a luxury but a necessity.

How to structure your continuity plan

Now you have a high-level understanding, let’s look at how to structure your business continuity plan.

You can find a copy of the template I use here .

Make sure to include the following sections in your BCP:

Version history

Executive summary, functions and process prioritization, plan activation, governance and responsibilities, recovery plans, crisis communication plan, emergency location and contents, review and testing.

This section shows the revision history. It includes the version numbers of the changes made, by whom, when, and who approved the changes. The revision history allows anyone reading the BCP to understand how it has evolved over time.

The executive summary provides a brief summary of the key objectives, goals, scope, and applicability of the BCP.

This chapter outlines the critical functions and processes in scope of continuation in case of a disastrous event.

This section refers to the risk and business impact assessment outcome. Its aim is to set out what triggers the activation of the plan.

Governance and responsibilities talks about who has to act when the BCP is activated. It includes the members, a description of their responsibilities, contact details of the BCP team, and the chain of command during a crisis.

This section builds upon the business continuity strategies, specifically the one chosen when a disaster occurs. It describes the detailed recovery plans for each critical function, the procedures for restarting operations, resource allocation, and recovery time objectives (RTOs).

Here you cover the internal and external communication strategies. You also address employee awareness and training activities.

Now there is a good chance the disaster will require your crucial activities to temporarily continue at a different location. This section covers all details about the location and what needs to be available at the location.

The BCP is to be tested to reduce the risk of missing things or even worse failing. Here jot down the testing procedures and document results and lessons learned.

This section includes all appendices. Think about the following

• Supporting documents, such as contact lists, maps, and technical specifications
• References to external standards, guidelines, or regulations
• Training programs for BCP team members
• Review of insurance policies
• Financial reserves and funding for recovery efforts
• Procedures for keeping the BCP documentation up to date

Business continuity plan example

Earlier this year, the Koninklijke Nederlands Voetbal Bond (KNVB), which is the Royal Dutch Football Association, was hit by ransomware. The cyberattackers threatened to share personally identifiable information captured and the KNVB paid over one million euros to avoid this from happening.

What could have been done to mitigate the ransomware attack risk?

The Risk of the attack to succeed could have been mitigated with:

• Regular data backups
• Segmentation of networks
• Intrusion detection systems

How to ensure business continuity in case of ransomware?

In response to the ransomware incident, and to allow for continued business as usual as soon as possible, steps could include:

• Isolating affected systems
• Activating backups
• Notifying law enforcement
• Engaging with a cybersecurity incident response team

Key takeaways

A business continuity plan (BCP) is like a safety net for your business when things go haywire. It helps you keep going, avoiding downtime, revenue loss, and reputation hits. On top of that, it’s a legal must in certain industries.

To make a solid BCP, just follow five steps: figure out what’s crucial for your business, spot the risks, plan how to bounce back, make sure everyone knows the plan, and keep fine-tuning it.

Structurally, your BCP should have sections like history, a quick guide, what’s most important, when to activate it, who’s in charge, the nitty-gritty recovery plans, how communication is done, where to go in a crisis, how to test the BCP works, and some extra info.

Featured image source: IconScout

LogRocket generates product insights that lead to meaningful action

Get your teams on the same page — try LogRocket today.

Share this:

• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• #collaboration and communication
• #project management

Stop guessing about your digital experience with LogRocket

Recent posts:.

Drive growth with these 7 customer feedback tools

A customer feedback tool is a software solution or platform designed to collect, analyze, and manage feedback from customers.

Leader Spotlight: Motivating teams to hit customer-centric outcomes, with Kristina Bailey

Kristina Bailey discusses the careful balance of knowing the business outcomes you want to achieve while balancing customer outcomes.

Exploring augmented products: Beyond the core offering

Augmented products leverage technology and additional services to provide enhanced functionality, convenience, and value to users.

A guide to acceptance test-driven development (ATDD)

ATDD is an agile methodology involving collaboration to define acceptance criteria before starting any development.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply