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Depending on which study you read 60% – 80% of UK businesses do not have a written Business Continuity Plan – does this matter?
These statistics are often used to try and shame the 60% – 80% that don’t into reaching for their cheque books to pay a Business Continuity consultant and other service providers.
On a daily basis I meet with companies who have a Business Continuity plan but rarely do I meet companies that have a Business Continuity ‘capability’. When push comes to shove and a Business Crisis occurs, those with a ‘capability’ will suffer less than those without.
Think of it another way, when a Paramedic arrives on scene to treat a patient, they draw on years of training and experience to foster the best possible outcome for the patient. They do not sit and read through pages of documentation while the patient deteriorates.
So when an in-house management team is confronted with a Crisis situation for the first time, what are they actually going to do with the 70 page Business Continuity Plan that was written by ‘experts’? – in a word ‘nothing’
Here’s a few tips on how to achieve that all-important ‘capability’
- Secure a commitment to Business Continuity from senior management
- Identify your critical processes (vital organs to protect)
- Understand the resources required for each process
- Map risks to each resource (likelihood & impact)
- Implement appropriate mitigations to achieve an acceptable managed risk level
- Write up immediate actions (Crisis Management & Business Recovery)
- Allocate team members to Crisis Management & Business Recovery teams
- Train team members
- Test, review and continuously improve recovery processes
- Continuously monitor for threats and incidents
- React quickly and expertly to incidents as they unfold
Achieving a ‘capability’ can be complicated, expensive and over engineered for most businesses if they try to do it all themselves. That is why Continuity Partner provides a fully managed Business Continuity service.
Our expert team take care of all aspects of creating and maintaining your ‘capability’ – and on the rare occasion that the paramedics are needed for your business, we are ready to take control 24/7.
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