Preparing your organisation for an emergency

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Background information 

How would your business cope in a crisis? Do you have a Business Continuity Management (BCM) plan to guide your recovery, or are you just leaving it to luck?

A common misconception is that BCM merely encompasses backup and recovery plans and that external consultants are needed to do this. However, BCM is actually a lot more than that... and provided you know your business environment, it can actually be inexpensive and relatively easy to implement.

We, in partnership with other local authorities in London, have prepared a number of materials to assist you with developing your own business continuity plans. These include basic guides and information on major incident procedures and business continuity management.

In addition, by the following the links below you can download a 10 minute business continuity checklist to assess your existing plans and a template business continuity plan that you can use in your organisation if you currently have nothing in place.

• download: What is business continuity management procedure (PDF 73KB)
• download: Major incident procedure (PDF 211KB)
• download: Basic business continuity management plan template (MS Word 124KB)
• download: Business continuity management leaflet (PDF 142 KB)
• download: Expecting the unexpected – business continuity guide (PDF 525KB)
• download: Business continuity 10 minute plan assessment check list (PDF 332KB)
• Help with PDFs

What is business continuity management?

Business Continuity Management (BCM) is a process of planning to ensure that your organisation has a relatively quick and painless return to "business as usual" in the event of a major crisis or interruption, regardless of the cause of the incident (be it man-made or natural, accidental or deliberate).

In summary, BCM is about:

• reducing risk
• responding effectively
• restoring normality
  

Why is BCM important?

Research has shown that:

• 90% of businesses that lose their data in an emergency close within two years
• 80% of businesses suffering a major incident close within 18 months if they have no effective BCM plan
• 58% of UK businesses were disrupted in some way by the events of 11 September 2001, with one in eight companies being seriously affected

Effective BCM planning helps you to:

• protect your business and reputation
• solve potential disruptions in advance
• increase the knowledge and skills of your staff
• have a competitive advantage in a crisis

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Page last updated Feb 4, 2011 4:14 PM