Business continuity encompasses a loosely-defined set of planning, preparatory and related

activities which are intended to ensure that an organization's critical business functions will
either continue to operate despite serious incidents or disasters that might otherwise have
interrupted them, or will be recovered to an operational state within a reasonably short period. As
such, business continuity includes three key elements:
1. Resilience: critical business functions and the supporting infrastructure are designed and
engineered in such a way that they are materially unaffected by most disruptions, for example
through the use of redundancy and spare capacity;
2. Recovery: arrangements are made to recover or restore critical and less critical business
functions that fail for some reason.
3. Contingency: the organization establishes a generalized capability and readiness to cope
effectively with whatever major incidents and disasters occur, including those that were not, and
perhaps could not, have been foreseen. Contingency preparations constitute a last-resort response
if resilience and recovery arrangements should prove inadequate in practice.
If there is no Business Continuity plan implemented and the organization in question is facing a
rather severe threat or disruption that may lead to bankruptcy, the implementation and outcome,
if not too late, may strengthen the organization's survival and its continuity of business activities.
The management of business continuity falls largely within the sphere of risk management, with
some cross-over into related fields such as governance, information security and compliance.
Risk is a core consideration since business continuity is primarily concerned with those business
functions, operations, supplies, systems, relationships etc. that are critically important to achieve
the organization's operational objectives. Business Impact Analysis is the generally accepted risk
management term for the process of determining the relative importance or criticality of those
elements, and in turn drives the priorities, planning, preparations and other business continuity
management activities.
The foundation of business continuity are the standards, program development, and supporting
policies; guidelines, and procedures needed to ensure a firm to continue without stoppage,
irrespective of the adverse circumstances or events. All system design, implementation, support,
and maintenance must be based on this foundation in order to have any hope of achieving
business continuity, disaster recovery, or in some cases, system support.

Model Approach:

Business Continuity Management can be a complex process. This has been recognised by the
Business Continuity Institute who have established a 10 - point model for developing effective
business continuity management strategies:
Project Initiation and Management
To establish the need for a business continuity plan (BCP), including obtaining
management support and organizing and managing the project to completion, within
agreed time and budget limits.

 Risk Evaluation and Control

To determine the events and environmental surroundings that can adversely affect the
organization and its facilities with disruption as well as disaster, the damage such events
can cause, and the controls needed to prevent or minimize the effects of potential loss.
Provide cost-benefit analysis to justify investment in controls to mitigate risk.
Business Impact Analysis
To identify the impacts resulting from disruptions and disaster scenarios that can effect
the organization and techniques that can be used to quantify and qualify such impacts.
Establish critical functions, their recovery priorities, and inter-dependencies so that
recovery time objectives can be set.
Developing Business Continuity Strategies
To determine and guide the selection of alternative business recovery operating strategies
for recovery of business functions and IT within the recovery time objectives, while
maintaining the organizations critical functions.
Emergency Response and Operations
Develop and implement procedures for responding to and stabilizing the situation
following an incident or event, including establishing and managing an Emergency
Operations Centre, to be used as a command center during the emergency.
Developing and Implementing Business Continuity Plans
To design, develop and implement the BCP that provides recovery within the recovery
time objective.
Awareness and Training Programs
To prepare a program to create corporate awareness and enhance the skills required to
develop, implement, maintain and execute the BCP.
Maintaining and Exercising Business Continuity Plans
To pre-plan and co-ordinate plan exercises, and evaluate and document plan exercise
results. Develop processes to maintain the currency of continuity capabilities and the plan
document in accordance with the organizations strategic direction. Verify that the plan
will prove effective by comparison with a suitable standard, and report results in a clear
and concise manner.
Public Relations and Crisis Co-ordination
To develop, co-ordinate, evaluate and exercise plans to handle the media during crisis
situations. To develop, co-ordinate, evaluate and exercise plans to communicate with and,
as appropriate, provide trauma counseling for employees and their families, key
customers, critical suppliers, owners/stockholders and corporate management during
crisis. Ensure all stakeholders are kept informed on an as-needed basis.
Co-ordination with Public Authorities
To establish applicable procedures and policies, for coordinating continuity and

restoration activities with local authorities while ensuring compliance with applicable
statutes or regulations.
BCM is also a key topic when talking about the concept of organisational resilience,
where an organisation is able to effectively handle changes, challenges and stress. An
important element of BCM is developing effective Business Continuity Plans (BCPs) to
enable organisations to continue key operations during and after a disruption. BCM can
include the following elements:
prevention and mitigation
crisis/incident management
emergency planning and management
business continuity planning.
What are the benefits of a Business Continuity Management program?
Developing and maintaining business continuity plans are requirements for government
agencies. Beyond compliance, effective BCM can:

Minimize legal liability : Organizations are expected to act reasonably in the

event of disasters. Reviews, inquiries and inquests can shine the spotlight on
organizations which do not manage disasters effectively and can result in significant
damage to the organization and persons involved.

Protect or enhance reputation Poor responses to crises and emergencies can

destroy or impair reputations. On the other hand, an organization that responds
effectively can improve its reputation.

Help achieve the organizations objectives and goals.A quick return to operations
and services can ensure goals are reached and compliance is upheld.

Contributes to organizational resilience

The BCM process and framework can help embed a strong risk-aware and continuousimprovement culture. It can give the organization the flexibility to adapt to adverse
circumstances. Some characteristics of resilience might include: - preparing and training
staff for minor and major business disruptions - enhancing coordination and governance
during a disruption - reducing the cost of operating during a disruption, freeing up
resources to focus on opportunities - protecting public value through the continuation of
key services.

What is Business Continuity Planning (BCP)?

A proactive process that identifies and prioritizes the critical
functions and the likely threats to those functions. From this information, plans and
procedures are developed through a regular program of personnel training, plan testing,
and maintenance. These management disciplines, processes, and techniques provide
business continuity for critical business functions under the circumstances and limits set
by senior management.
These circumstances and limits include:
Defining worst-case scenarios used for business continuity planning.
Approving the funding and staffing of the company's BCP Program.
Why Should we do Business Continuity Planning (BCP)?

Its done: It is the right thing to do for our patients, staff, and communities
It ensures compliance with our ever increasing regulatory requirements
It enhances our ability to avoid:
o Interruptions to patient care delivery
o Financial losses
o Regulatory fines
o Damage to equipment

Phases of Continuity Planning: