Business Continuity Planning

All organizations are dependent on People, Information, and Communications to conduct business. Interruptions that affect any of these resources will have a detrimental impact on business. Disasters that affect these resources will likely have a far reaching impact on business and may result in the failure of the business or organization. Business must plan for continuing business after a disaster via a Business Continuity Plan. The BCP is a critical function of the business and will impact every function of the business. Planners must have resources and commitment from senior executives to be successful. Planners must develop plans that recover time sensitive functions first, while bringing less time sensitive functions on line in an economically balanced manner. Planners must consider the toll of a disaster, not only on their facilities and equipment, but on the human resources which are their most precious asset Planners must ensure plans are maintained and exercised on a regular basis and critique the exercise participants to improve their chances for successful resumption of business. Organizations that are led by strong leaders with genuine concern for their customers and employees will develop strong continuity plans. Overall the private sector is more advanced than government when it comes to BCP, however some large corporations still lack integrated continuity plans.