What is Business Continuity Management?
A business continuity management programme helps an organisation keep delivering its critical functions when a disruption occurs. Plan for the resources that support those functions before the disruption happens.
Business continuity is the ability of an organisation to maintain delivery of products or services at pre-defined levels following an unexpected event. Disruptions can occur at any time, for any reason, and their impact varies. Causes include natural events, resource loss, and security threats.
Why business continuity matters
Section titled “Why business continuity matters”A programme for managing business continuity helps you prepare for, and manage the impact of, disruptive incidents, regardless of cause. A successful programme includes:
- Continual planning and improvement
- Activities that ensure preparedness
- Embedding business continuity into organisational culture and practice
Business continuity management follows an ongoing cycle to:
- Confirm the scope and approach of the program
- Identify and prioritize critical functions
- Consider the resources and requirements needed to maintain those functions
- Identify and apply solutions to meet identified requirements
- Document plans for business continuity and processes for responding to incidents
- Confirm plans and processes work through regular exercises and reviews.
How business continuity planning strengthens security
Section titled “How business continuity planning strengthens security”The data you collect for your business continuity programme strengthens your physical and informational security programmes by identifying what needs protection.
Involving personnel from other protective disciplines in identifying potential threats and proactive solutions lets you work together to increase the organisation’s resilience.
- Establish the scope of your business continuity programme
- Identify your critical functions and their necessities
- Develop plans to sustain your critical functions
- Create teams to manage business continuity in a disruption
- Maintain your business continuity programme
- Legal requirements, standards, and best practices for business continuity management