Organisations face many risks that can disrupt operations, impact stakeholders, and damage reputations. Business continuity is a critical discipline to harness for companies to continue functioning during and after such disruptions. This is more than just a reactive measure; it is about the ability for a business to build resilience and safeguard its future.
Business continuity management is a holistic management process that identifies potential threats to an organisation and evaluates their impact on business operations. BCM establishes a framework for building resilience and ensuring an effective response that safeguards everything that keeps a business going at its optimal level. It helps to protect reputations from cyber threats, delivers services to customers as promised (even during adverse circumstances), and minimises downtime and reduces recovery costs after an incident.
“Business continuity” and “disaster recovery” are often used interchangeably, but they represent distinct disciplines. Business continuity focuses on maintaining operations during a disruption; it is about working through the event so an organisation can continue to operate smoothly. Disaster recovery, on the other hand, is more technical, addressing how to restore specific operations, functions, sites, or services after a disruption. This is typically a subset of a broader business continuity plan (BCP). In short, disaster recovery is about resolving disruptions, whereas business continuity is about navigating through them with minimal impact.
While a BCP outlines specific steps for recovery and resumption after a disruption, business continuity management (BCM) is a comprehensive approach. BCM prepares for unexpected events, and also proactively mitigates risks so the organisation is better positioned to handle challenges.
A successful Business Continuity Management programme includes several core elements, such as the business impact analysis, which involves identifying and prioritising crucial business services. Organisations establish recovery objectives such as Recovery Time Objectives (RTO’s) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPO’s) to minimise downtime and data loss.
Detailed continuity planning is undertaken to protect personnel and restore essential assets promptly in the event of a disaster. Along with this, risk monitoring helps to oversee evolving risks and provide actionable insights into operational performance and helps organisations adapt proactively.
Regular plan testing exercises assess the accuracy and preparedness of recovery plans to help businesses ready themselves for the occurrence of real disruptions, and during crises, it is important to set up a crisis response plan wherein tasks are monitored to ensure effective recovery.
Finally, emergency communications are vital channels for coordinating responses. Effective systems send messages through multiple channels, including email, SMS, and via phone.
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The primary goal of managed business continuity is simply to protect the survival of an organisation so it can thrive despite its disruptions, which involves eliminating confusion during crises by providing a clear and actionable blueprint; facilitate communication between employees and customers; and enhance organisational resilience by addressing vulnerabilities before they become critical issues.
It is a necessity for businesses aiming to remain competitive and resilient in an unpredictable world. By adopting robust business continuity management practices, organisations can protect their operations, reputation, and stakeholders in the face of the unexpected, promoting adaptability and longevity.
