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BCP 101
Business continuity planning should be an integral part of every business: large and small, public and private, for-profit and non-profit. Every business should plan for how it would continue to operate in the face of interruption from a variety of natural or man-made hazards.
It may seem daunting, but business continuity planning doesn't have to be complex. At the basic level, the planning process follows a logical progression of steps:
- Identify what hazards apply to your business. These can be natural hazards (e.g. severe weather, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, etc.) or man-made hazards (e.g. computer viruses, vandalism, theft, etc.).
- Determine the risk that these hazards pose to your business. Probability, severity and length of impact involving these hazards will help determine how much and what kind of risk each poses.
- Develop plans and procedures to help your business prepare for, respond to and recover from interruptions. For example, you may determine that a power failure would cause you to lose access to your critical accounting records. You may implement a plan to provide backup power by purchasing a generator and ensure your records are backed up to tape or other media.
- Continue to refine your plans through exercises and evaluation of how they performed in real events.
In an effort to build awareness across the business community, the ACP Corporate Board of Directors and ACP Chapter Presidents have created a strategic initiative to assist small and medium-sized businesses. These areas traditionally receive the brunt of impact from natural hazards and business owners rarely have the resources to hire full time business continuity planners or experienced consultants.
