Business Recovery Plans

If a business function or process is inoperable, how long would it take before additional expenses would start to add up?How long could the function be unavailable before extra personnel would have to be hired?This publication provides a summary and general guidelines for business continuity planning (BCP).

The BCP senior management committee is responsible for the oversight, initiation, planning, approval, testing and audit of the BCP.

It also implements the BCP, coordinates activities, approves the BIA survey, oversees the creation of continuity plans and reviews the results of quality assurance activities.

If so, how much revenue, and for what length of time?

If clients cannot access certain services or products would they then to go to another provider, resulting in further loss of revenue?

Recognizing that some services or products must be continuously delivered without interruption, there has been a shift from Business Resumption Planning to Business Continuity Planning.

A business continuity plan enables critical services or products to be continually delivered to clients.

Would fines or penalties from breaches of legal responsibilities, agreements, or governmental regulations be an issue, and if so, what are the penalties?

Estimates are required to determine the approximate cost of the loss of consumer and investor confidence, damage to reputation, loss of competitiveness, reduced market share, and violation of laws and regulations.

Once the critical services or products are identified, they must be prioritized based on minimum acceptable delivery levels and the maximum period of time the service can be down before severe damage to the organization results.

To determine the ranking of critical services, information is required to determine impact of a disruption to service delivery, loss of revenue, additional expenses and intangible losses.