A plain-language guide to keeping what matters running when something goes wrong.
Business continuity is the discipline of making sure an organisation can keep its most important activities running during a disruption, and recover well afterwards. It is the foundation of a resilient organisation, because resilience depends on knowing in advance what must not stop and how it will be kept going.
If you prefer to watch before you read on, this short video from the BC Institute walks through why business continuity matters and how an organisation can build good practice into everyday work to become more resilient.
Few organisations are ever asked whether they will face an interruption. The real question is whether they will be ready when it arrives. Customers, regulators and staff all expect the work to carry on, and the cost of being unprepared tends to be felt in trust as much as in money.
Picture a regional office whose main system goes offline on the morning a large payment run is due. An organisation without a plan scrambles, and customers wait. One that has thought it through already knows which functions come first, who decides, which alternative way of working to switch to, and how to tell people what is happening. The same thinking applies if a key supplier fails to deliver or a building cannot be used. This is an illustration only and does not describe any real client.
Look honestly at what could interrupt the organisation, from a power outage or a cyber attack to a pandemic or a natural disaster.
Work out how each threat would affect day-to-day operations, and which functions the organisation cannot afford to lose.
Agree and build the ways to keep those critical functions running, and to bring everything else back in good order.
Exercise the arrangements, learn from what the exercises show, and keep the programme current as the organisation changes.
ISO 22301 is the international standard for business continuity management systems. The BCI’s Good Practice Guidelines (GPG 7.0) set out the practical methodology that sits behind it and adheres to it. ADOX develops its consulting and training solutions in adherence to ISO 22301, UAE NCEMA 7000 and the BCI Good Practice Guidelines (GPG 7.0).
Related guides: What is IT Disaster Recovery? and What is IT Service Continuity?
Source: The BC Institute. The BCI also offers thought leadership, certification and training, and membership. ADOX is an authorised BCI training partner.
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