Business Continuity

Business continuity and contingency planning are of course vital to any commercial enterprise. However, the creation of a sound business continuity and contingency plan is a complex undertaking, involving a number of policies and procedures. As no two businesses are identical, there can be no "one glove fits all" approach to business continuity.

Prior to the creation of any business continuity plan it is critical to understand the underlying risks and the potential impacts of disaster. These are the foundations upon which sensible business continuity plan or disaster recovery plan should be built. Only when this stage is complete should the plan be created.

Having a business contingency plan in place is only the first step in an ongoing process. There should be maintenance and testing phases. Consideration should be given to ensuring that the plan remains current, employee awareness, facilities to add recovery, policy management and of course, for some, there is the not so small matter of ISO17799!

If you are involved in your organisation's Business Continuity or Disaster Recovery planning there are key points to contemplate:

What should my business continuity structure look like?
What are the threats to the business? And how do we counteract them?
What functionality would the business lose in the event of a disaster?
What applications and processes are important to the business?
What is the minimum requirement - machinery, manpower etc, to fulfil these?
How much would we stand to lose financially in the event of a disaster?
Is it cost effective to put protective measures in place?
What options are available to get us up and running?
How would we do it?
Shouldn’t we tell (and how do we tell) key personnel we have a risk solution in place?
How do we know it will work?
How can we make sure it stays relevant to our needs and changing business requirements?

Contingency Planning & Business Continuity Solutions

As previously stated there is no "one glove fits all" approach to business continuity. Our Business Continuity solutions are based on working in partnership with the client to establish a practical, innovative cost effective approach to Business Continuity from the first stages of assessment through to implementation, testing, review and training.