Why is it important to have a Business Continuity Plan?
Threats to the way organisations carry out their business have been continually changing and will continue to do so in the future. It's the responsibility of the organisation to consider these threats and put in place a strategy to help mitigate the threats.
A Business Continuity Plan provides guidance, checklists and contact details which would be a benefit for the organisations recovery following a disruption. It is about thinking ahead, planning for any disruption and ensuring alternative arrangements are in place to enable an organisation to recover more quickly. A carefully thought-out business continuity plan will make coping in a crisis easier and enable you to minimise disruption to your business and customers. Think about some of the possible risks and how you could mitigate the potential disruption of these:
- loss of key staff or skills (through sickness or severe weather);
- loss of premises/utilities (loss of a building due to a power cut);
- loss of technology/data (ICT failure);
- loss of suppliers/key resources (specialist supplies needed to deliver your business);
- loss of customers.