What is a Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery Plan?

'Business continuity management (BCM) is a whole of business approach to ensure critical business functions can be maintained, or restored in a timely fashion, in the event of material disruptions arising from internal or external events. Its purpose is to control the financial, legal, reputation and other negative consequences arising from the disruption.'¹

It is critical that a Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plan (BCP/DRP) be an integral part of every companies risk management and business continuity management process.

A BCP/DRP is a document, developed in advance, that contains arrangements and procedures that enable an organisation to respond to an event in such a manner that critical business functions continue with planned levels of interruption.²

A BCP/DRP should contain the following fundamental information as a minimum:

• Authority to activate the BCP/DRP

• Amendments and version control

• Distribution list and document locations

• Glossary of terms

• Referenced documents

• Overview of the BCP/DRP objectives (Scope of the plan)

• Roles and Responsibilities

• Crisis Management Team

• IT Recovery Team

• Facility salvage and recovery team

• Strategy Overview

• IT Recovery Strategy

• Business Resumption Strategy

• Detailed procedures and checklists for all areas of the business

• Emergency Contact List (Internal & External)

• IT Recovery Procedures

• Telephone and Fax recovery procedures

• Communication plan (including Media Response plan)

• Event logs

It is impossible to develop a BCP/DRP for every possible threat to your business, however if you ensure the fundamental aspects are catered for - Roles and Responsibilities, Contact Information, Critical Functions and Priorities Identified - you're providing an environment to appropriately manage the vast majority of crisis scenarios faced in business today.

¹ Adapted from Standards Australia - HB221:2004 Business Continuity Managements

² Adapted from the Disaster Recovery Institute International