Essential Components of a Business Continuity Plan for SME Organisations
Business continuity is more than just a document
Because our approach is structured into a step by process, you get a programme that is easier to maintain. A business continuity plan based on a single word document ignores the fact that several people may be responsible for different parts of it - making business continuity plan maintenance a cumbersome process. We overcome this challenge by recognising that some parts of a business continuity plan serve different purposes. Some parts need to contain aggregated information while others are discrete information resources to be managed in their own right. For instance, the Priorities and Dependencies tool (often referred to as the Business Impact Assessment) enables the capture of risks, priority activities and operational dependencies (such as IT systems and other equipment). Being based on a spreadsheet, it's easier for several people to update the rows or columns that apply to their part of the organisation whilst using the capability of an Excel spreadsheet to aggregate and analyse the "big picture". In contrast, the incident management and recovery plan aspects are in a tabular format that's easy use in a high pressure situation and facilitates effective maintenance.
Your BCP will be easier to maintain and easier to identify who is responsible for maintaining different aspects of your organisations business continuity plan
This approach has also helped organisations with external audit reviews: it provides a clear path through your plan clearly showing that a sound process has been followed to develop the plan and that your organisation has a robust oversight and assurance process in place/
A Business Continuity Plan Process That Works for SMBs
So why this template when there are so many "free" templates? Because, based on our experience, free templates tend to be to "corporate" and being a single document aren't sufficiently flexible or intuitive. Here's where our process is made relevant to the needs of SMB organisations:
-
A flexible spreadsheet tool supports all aspects of the Business Impact Assessment activity, helping you to identify your most sensitive activities and their operational sensitivities.
-
An intuitive, straightforward tabular template provides the basis for creating a concise, structured incident response framework, establishing roles, actions and checklists.
-
A communications framework to support external communications is an essential component of any business continuity plan. The format of our communications framework enables identification external parties that you will need to "keep in the loop" during a crisis, who will be responsible for managing those channels and any particular communication platforms that will be used.
-
It's a also a fact of life that your business continuity plan will be of interest to others such auditors, regulators and customers - all of whom will want to know that your business continuity plan is actively managed to ensure it's ongoing effectiveness. The final document in our business continuity plan template - the Business Continuity Management Framework covers all of that for you. We provide you with draft policies, suggested management organisational and schedule of oversight and assurance activities for your adoption. This document also contains a cross reference to the ISO 22301 standard for business continuity management - so you know that the plans you are developing will be compliant from day 1
-
Finally, each stage of business continuity plan development is facilitated by a pre-stage workshop, introducing key concepts, "tripwires" to be avoided" and key actions to be taken to complete the stage. Every participant has unlimited, online support and check-in sessions for feedback and help. As well as keeping costs down, this facilitative approach builds business continuity expertise within your organisation
Using a business continuity plan template - what you need to know
It's tempting to think that downloading a free business continuity plan template will deliver the plan you need. Unfortunately, that's never the case. Free templates Might (just might) convince a third party that you have a business continuity plan document. But what you won't have is capability. That's where our approach is different - we leave you with the expertise and capability to recover from operational disruptions effectively.
Looking for a "free" business continuity template?
You may be asking yourself why our business continuity plan template is NOT free. On this blog post we have evaluated the free business continuity plan templates that you will most likely see when you search Google for "business continuity plan template" and you will see why!!
Why a free templates may not deliver the plan you need
Will you get the guidance you need from a business continuity plan template based on one document format - here are a few things to consider before you make your choice
RiskCentric | Business Continuity Specialists | Cambridge, United Kingdom | Contact us