Business Continuity Plan
Business Continuity Planning involves formulating a plan that safeguards a business against business interruptions in case of unanticipated events. Pat Moore in the Facility Management Journal describes business continuity planning as ?the process that defines the procedures employed to ensure timely and orderly resumption of an organization?s business cycle through its ability to execute plans with minimal or no interruption to time-sensitive business or service operations.?
Viruses, worms and hacker attacks are becoming more complicated and are increasing exponentially. Environmental and natural disasters like typhoons and earthquakes add to the disarray. Have you ever thought that what will happen if your business is hit by fire, floods or earthquake, the death of the business owner or other key personnel, or a technological adversity? A well planned business continuity plan can mean the difference between your business\'s endurance and crash in the event of a catastrophe. In this situation, an effectual business continuity plan (BCP) is what businesses need to get out of the calamity in the minimum amount of time possible.
The objectives of business continuity planning comprises of curtailing the intrusions to the business\'s capacity to bestow its products and/or services, diminishing the financial loss, and being able to continue the significant functions within a specified time after a calamity.
John Mulligan, director, planning and engineering, AT&T Asia/Pacific Group Ltd. said that ?businesses must have a Business Continuity Planning that covers all the facets of infrastructure, processes and people.? His presentation incorporated the conclusions from a survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit-AT&T, on business continuity planning. According to the survey, 71 percent of companies accounted of attacks coming from outsiders as compared to 29 percent from insiders.
Viruses and worms, and hackers were voted as the major safety terrorization today. Companies organizing significant business online were said to be the most defenseless. In this survey around 240 senior executives from 19 industry sectors participated out of which 33 percent were from Asia Pacific, 31 percent from st1:place>Europe and 26 percent from North America. In the Asia Pacific region, Business Continuity Planning is a familiar concept in most organizations and 71 percent of the participants verified that they were having BCP in place. In spite of this, around 70 percent of the respondents said they had never suspended the key business operations due to a tragedy.
All organizations should have a BCP policy in place. To put an effectual BCP in place, they should identify all of the mission-critical activities and their enslavements. Businesses should make a senior responsible for BCP, document and communicate role, procedures and responsibilities, as well as test the plan against multiple risk situations.
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