Business Continuity Management
Business continuity management (BCM) is a process that helps manage risks to the smooth running of an organisation or delivery of a service, ensuring continuity of critical functions in the event of a disruption, and effective recovery afterwards. The Government aims to ensure all organisations have a clear understanding of BCM and its importance, and foster discussion of how best to achieve business continuity.
BCM is a generic management framework that is valid across the public, private and voluntary sectors. It is an ongoing process that helps organisations anticipate, prepare for, prevent, respond to and recover from disruptions, whatever their source and whatever aspect of the business they affect. The primary 'business' of private sector organisations is the generation of profit, a process that BCM seeks to protect. Other organisations provide services to the public, and it is equally important that these are protected and resilient.
The Business Continuity Institute has stated that effective BCM is built on 'seven Ps':
- 1. Programme - proactively managing the process
- 2. People - roles and responsibilities, awareness and education
- 3. Processes - all organisational processes, including ICT
- 4. Premises - buildings and facilities
- 5. Providers - supply chain, including outsourcing
- 6. Profile - brand, image and reputation
- 7. Performance - benchmarking, evaluation and audit
The Business Continuity Institute has developed a five-stage BCM process which is widely accepted and has been incorporated into a British Standards Institute Publicly Available Specification (PAS 56):
Stage 1: Understanding your business: Using business impact and risk assessments to identify critical deliverables, evaluate recovery priorities and assess the risks that could lead to a disruption to service delivery.
Stage 2: BCM strategies: Identifying the alternative strategies available to mitigate loss, and assessing their potential effectiveness in maintaining the organisation's ability to deliver critical functions.
Stage 3: Developing and implementing a BCM response: Developing the response to challenges, and the plans underpinning the response.
Stage 4: Establishing a BCM culture: Ensuring a continuity culture is embedded in the organisation by raising awareness throughout the organisation and its key stakeholders, and offering training to key staff on BCM issues.
Stage 5: Maintaining and auditing BCM: Ensuring plans are fit for purpose, kept up to date and quality assured.
Also see:
Business Continuity Plans
Invoking BCPs
Reviewing Business Continuity Plans
Critical Factors in Delivering BCM
Business Continuity under the Civil Contingencies Act
Further Information