Plan and Manage Continuity

The pace of business change is accelerating making planning for the unexpected a key business imperative. But chaos follows no roadmap – the unthinkable does happen!
With the reality of recent events around the world, including Sept 11th 2001 and corporate scandals such as ENRON, many organizations have learnt to appreciate the value of having an effective and robust Business Continuity Plan (BCP). Whilst the concepts and the requirements of a BCP are widely understood, many business managers find it difficult to implement and maintain their plans. BRG can help your organization plan for and manage its Business Continuity Risks. We simplify what is often viewed as a complex process when most of the time your organizations is already undertaking some form of continuity planning (or elements of it) albeit in silos, we can help you recognise what these are and help you pull them together in a coordinated framework.
There are a plethora of different business continuity standards and methodologies available but in the end, regardless of which one you follow, the outcomes are the same. Our approach to planning and managing business continuity is customized to the suit the needs of our clients, and generally aligned with the common principles espoused by Australian Standards Hand book HB22:2003, the UK’s PAS 56 and the US NFPA 1600.

In addition to risk evaluation, as part of our Plan and Manage Risk services, our Business Continuity offers:

Business Impact Analysis Business Contingency and Recovery Planning Plan Testing Plan Maintenance and Integration

Our facilitated Business Continuity Services could also include:

• Business continuity framework development
• Using BR3, business continuity capability assurance assessment and improvement program
• Crisis management and planning
• Media management and risk communication strategies

Business Impact Analysis

Our Business Impact Analysis will help your organization identify and quantify the impact that a disruption will have on an organization. Its purpose is to identify the critical processes and functions and, as a result, the recovery priorities.
The analysis looks at the following:

• The financial and operational impacts of disruption
• The maximum period that the effects of such disruption can be tolerated
• The critical dependencies, including Information Technology, infrastructure, critical records, key individuals etc.
• The minimum resource needed to ensure survival before full business resumption can begin

Business Contingency and Recovery Planning

BRG facilitates the development of the Recovery Strategy with the benefit of a great deal of valuable insights and perspectives gained from the business impact assessment. By focusing effort and resources on the processes with the most impact on business survival, the resulting strategy provides maximum results for the lowest cost. We facilitate the development of a choice of strategies that will ensure the organisation’s recovery, whether business or IT related,
within the agreed time frame, while keeping the organisation’s critical functions running.

We include the advantages and disadvantages of each option, plus a clear cost and, as an independent company,
are not bound to any particular vendors.

Once strategies are developed we can assist you with the more detailed contingency plans and procedures required to operational the strategies should the need arise. The Business Continuity Plans we help you develop are not academic reports but working documents. With your input and our BCP process expertise, they give detailed, step by step instructions, supported by a package of services, regular testing and maintenance, to ensure that the business’s critical functions are recovered as quickly and effectively as possible.

Plan Testing

Ensuring that a Business Continuity plan works in practice is essential. Untested plans can undermine the whole Recovery Strategy and, as a result, seriously jeopardise the recovery following a disruption.

We offer a complete facilitated testing programme, tailored to the needs of our clients and their own Recovery Strategies.

Facilitated testing options range from desk-based exercises through to full-scale disruption simulations. Each exercise is fully documented, for the benefit of the participants during the test itself and to record the results for future reference.

Our consultants can either play an active role in the facilitation of the exercise, or act as independent observers, providing impartial feedback.

Plan Maintenance & Integration Services

Without regular maintenance, Business Continuity plans can become out of date and, as a result, jeopardize recovery following a disruption. If they are not embedded into day to day organisation processes they can also be looked upon as a burden and any commitment to the plans will soon start to waiver. Again, putting the currency of the plans at risk.

We offer a choice of plan maintenance and process integration services, including the facilitated development of complete maintenance programmes, tailored to the needs of our clients and their own Recovery Strategies. In addition, we can facilitate the development of maintenance procedures for your own staff to follow or take responsibility for the regular review and amendment of your plans ourselves.

We offer a review of the current level of integration with other key corporate processes such as risk management, contract and outsourcing management and, insurance, to ensure that there is an alignment of management cycles, accountability and reviews.

We can also carry out independent audits of existing Business Continuity Plans and recommend updates and
revisions where necessary.