Business Continuity Plan: Key Elements of a BCP

A business continuity plan (BCP) is a contingency plan for a company to prevent or recover from potential threats that have a negative impact on normal business operations. These threats include natural disasters, pandemics, and cyberattacks. A company’s business continuity plan assures that staff members and resources alike remain safe and able to function normally in the event of a disaster.

A BCP is an important element of a company’s risk management strategy. When disaster strikes, business disruption takes a costly toll on an organization’s finances, interrupting normal operations that could ultimately lead to financial losses if customers turn to competitors. Insurance rarely covers these losses, which makes the development of an effective business continuity plan a must for large organizations and small businesses alike.

Typically, a company’s information technology (IT) department is responsible for assembling a business continuity team to formulate its BCP. The team members collaborate with business partners and stakeholders to conduct a risk assessment for any and all possible business vulnerabilities; they may also consult BCP templates or BCP standards established by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

Once identified, the planning process explores how these potential threats might harm critical business functions; the team then develops strategies to reduce their impact. They also review and test the BCP’s recovery strategies regularly through walkthroughs and tabletop exercises to ensure that they remain effective.

Though both business continuity plans and disaster recovery (DR) plans address emergency situations, the BCP is an action plan for all business processes at a company. A DR plan primarily addresses recovery procedures for a company’s IT systems.

A business continuity plan has several key elements. These include:

• Business impact analysis: A fundamental section of the plan for any business continuity program, the BIA assesses how business disruption hurts a company from a financial perspective. Disruptions covered by the BIA include physical damage to buildings and office space, data centers, and equipment, supply chain interruption, regulatory fines, and the absence of key personnel. Stakeholders then compare these costs to the cost of recovery efforts in the BCP.
• Checklist: In the event of a disaster, the business continuity plan team leader must have access to a hard copy checklist of contact information for personnel and providers. These vital records include an emergency contact list for key personnel, cell phone numbers for responders, emergency services, data backup sites, and a list of supplies and equipment.
• Emergency management: In addition to the disaster recovery plan, a company's BCP should also include an emergency management plan. Also known as an emergency response or disaster management plan, an emergency management plan is a document that outlines the company’s procedures for reducing the human impact of an emergency situation. This includes preparedness measures, such as evacuation procedures, to protect property and personnel from physical harm.
• Recovery strategies: A step-by-step breakdown of the company’s recovery plan is also needed in any BCP. The breakdown includes the first stage of the emergency response, in which team members initiate the plan, and the establishment of alternate sites for staff and human resources. Once established, the team monitors recovery efforts through a pair of objectives: the recovery time objective (RTO), which is the amount of downtime allowed for IT systems, and the recovery point objective (RPO), which is the time frame for which a company can withstand data loss.

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