Business Continuity Planning

[pmeswani]

Has anyone set up a BCP for their Ltd company? There is a motive for asking this (and it is related to a post-graduate course I am doing, whereby I have to write a Forensic Readiness Plan, which is dependant on having a BCP in place).

If you have one, what Business Risks have you specified?

[DaveB]

Has anyone set up a BCP for their Ltd company? There is a motive for asking this (and it is related to a post-graduate course I am doing, whereby I have to write a Forensic Readiness Plan, which is dependant on having a BCP in place).

If you have one, what Business Risks have you specified?

It all depends on the company involved.

The basic routine for developing a BCP is :

Identify your business processes and the assets that support them. Assets include people, buildings, services etc, not just IT systems.

Carry out a BIA on each of those assets to determine their relative importance to the business.

Asses the likely risks that could cause loss or interruption to those assets.

Develop and implement processes to mitigate the risks identified and to recover from them if they should occour.

Risks that one company identifies may not apply to another and identifying risk is something that every company needs to do individually.

[pmeswani]

It all depends on the company involved.

The basic routine for developing a BCP is :

Identify your business processes and the assets that support them. Assets include people, buildings, services etc, not just IT systems.

Carry out a BIA on each of those assets to determine their relative importance to the business.

Asses the likely risks that could cause loss or interruption to those assets.

Develop and implement processes to mitigate the risks identified and to recover from them if they should occour.

Risks that one company identifies may not apply to another and identifying risk is something that every company needs to do individually.

I've got a good idea of what BCP's are about. . However, I've hit a stumbling block in writing my BCP and am [f|ph]ishing for ideas.

[Svalbaard]

I've got a good idea of what BCP's are about. . However, I've hit a stumbling block in writing my BCP and am [f|ph]ishing for ideas.

What is your stumbling block if you don't mind me asking?

[pmeswani]

What is your stumbling block if you don't mind me asking?

I need some ideas of what people see as risks to their business. I have Loss of IT Resource, Business Income, Loss of electricity, Loss Internet Connection and Tax investigations. I need some more ideas.

[original PM]

inability for you/your staff to get to the company offices either becuase offices are unusable or other event causes offices to be evacuated and are not habitable

[Svalbaard]

Loss of income/business is generally regarded as the effect of any business risk (cause) becoming realised i.e. what you are trying to mitigate against happening, rather than a risk in itself. You could have risks:

To business premises due to fire, flood etc.
In key person dependencies.
To your supply chain (financial supply, utilities, ISP, telcos etc).
To key asset failure.
Legislative risks that prevent you from doing business.

I'm sure others will add to the list...

[lightng]

Govt. policy, economic conditions, potential litigation, licencing bodies and competition. Also look at non-tangible assets as well as tangible ones such as goodwill.

What business are you you doing this for? It might help people come up with more relevant risks.

[pmeswani]

Loss of income/business is generally regarded as the effect of any business risk (cause) becoming realised i.e. what you are trying to mitigate against happening, rather than a risk in itself. You could have risks:

To business premises due to fire, flood etc.
In key person dependencies.
To your supply chain (financial supply, utilities, ISP, telcos etc).
To key asset failure.
Legislative risks that prevent you from doing business.

I'm sure others will add to the list...

Thanks for the list. I think I'm quite fortunate that I currently live in a low flood risk area. I'm sure that will change as climate change continues to happen.

[TykeMerc]

There's also fire, burglary and vandalism risk to consider.
Depending on the number of staff some risk can be assigned to epidemic.