Unit-8 Business Continuity Plan

Program : MBA
Semester : IV
Subject Code : PM0013
Subject Name : Strategy Management and Business
Policy
Unit number :8
Unit Title : Business Continuity Plan
Lecture number: 8
Lecture Title : Business Continuity Plan

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 Unit-8 Business Continuity Plan

Business Continuity Plan (BCP)

Objectives

The objective of this lecture is to discuss:

• BCP and its importance
• Procedures to implement BCP
• BCP’s influence on strategic management and policy making
• Aspects of contingency planning

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 Unit-8 Business Continuity Plan

Lecture Outline

• Introduction
• Steps in Business Continuity Plan
• Business Impact Areas
• Business and its Influence on Strategic Management
• Business and its Influence on Policy Making
• Contingency Planning
• Summary
• Check Your Learning
• Activity

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 Unit-8 Business Continuity Plan

Introduction

Business continuity plan is a procedure and information to be used in the

event of emergency or disaster. BCP ensures that critical operations
continue to be available.

Importance of BCP

BCP is important for the following reasons:

•Advanced planning
•Threats

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 Unit-8 Business Continuity Plan

Steps in Business Continuity Plan

The BCP senior committee is responsible for initiation, planning,

implementing, testing and coordinating the activities of BCP.

The steps involved in implementing BCP are:

•Initiation
•Business impact analysis
•Disaster readiness strategies
•Develop and implement the plan
•Maintenance and testing

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 Unit-8 Business Continuity Plan

Business Impact Areas

Disasters affect the normal life and the business organisation. The major impact
areas in business are customer service, internal operations legal and financial.

The business impact areas are classified as:

• Technical impact factors
• Business impact factors

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 Unit-8 Business Continuity Plan

BCP and its Influence on Strategy

Management

BCP determines and selects alternative operating strategies to be used in

critical situations.

Positive effects of BCP on strategy management are:

•Structural problems within an organisation can be recognised and
resolved.
•Clear understanding of BCP within an organisation.
•BCP addresses the ‘Backlog Trap’ problem.
•BCP simplifies the process of recovery from an event.

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BCP and its Influence on Strategy

Management contd..

Positive effects of BCP on strategy management are:

• Overcomes the effects of the organisation’s hierarchy
• Identifies the mission critical activities
• Focuses on protection of physical and logistical securities
• Identifies the vital records to be protected

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BCP and its Influence on Strategy

Management contd..

Negative effects of BCP on strategy management are:

•The cost of implementing and testing a BCP program is high.
•The relocation and accommodation of recovery team leads to logistical
difficulties.
•BCP program is time consuming, even though it is within the recovery time
frame.
•Minor changes in the BCP program introduces various other risks which have
to be identified, assessed and controlled.

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 Unit-8 Business Continuity Plan

BCP and its Influence on Policy

Making

BCP policy is a set of policies and procedures for formalising business

continuity program. It provides guidelines for developing, maintaining and
exercising BCPs.

Steps to formulate BCP are:

•Ensure that BCP program supports objectives and culture of the organisation.
•Decide the scope of BCP program.

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BCP and its Influence on Policy

Making contd..

Contents of a BCP policy are :

• Introduction
• Precursor
• Purpose
• Concepts and assumptions
• Process
• Methods and techniques
• Outcomes and deliverables

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 Unit-8 Business Continuity Plan

Contingency Planning

Contingency planning deals with uncertainty by identifying responses

to future conditions.

Objectives of contingency planning are:

•Day to day operations of the organisation without disruption and
interference.
•Backup plan is functional as long as it takes to restore primary plan.
•Emergency plan minimises inconvenience to the customers.

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 Unit-8 Business Continuity Plan

Contingency Planning contd..

Implementation of contingency planning involves the following

steps:
• Identify the objectives and targets.
• Identify the strategies that helps to achieve objectives and targets.
• Evaluate the cost and benefits of each strategy.
• Implement the required strategy to achieve the targets.
• Assess the programs and strategies to ensure they are effective.
• Evaluate the overall results.
Benefits of contingency planning are:
• Maintains the customer support.
• Recovers the vital and critical business data.
• Protects revenue generating projects.
• Decreases operational expenses and employee’s strain

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Contingency Planning contd..

Limitations of contingency planning are:

• Too complicated
• Poor assumptions
• Narrow plans
• Not process driven
• Lack of tested contingency plans
• Outdated

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Contingency Planning contd..

Few of the best Practices for contingency planners are:

• Consider the possible range of solutions.
• Identify the solutions which solves particular types of problems.
• Identify the cost, benefits and ease of implementation of possible
solutions.
• Establish potential implementation plans for each strategy, so they are
ready for execution.

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 Unit-8 Business Continuity Plan

Summary

• BCP is a collection of procedures and information which is developed,

recorded and maintained in readiness to be used in the event of an
emergency or disaster.
• Steps to implement BCP include business impact analysis, disaster
readiness strategies, develop and implement plan and maintenance
and testing of the plan.
• Business impact areas are the technical and business impact factors.
• BCP policy is a set of policies and procedures for formalising a
business continuity program.
• Contingency planning is a planning strategy that deals with
uncertainty by identifying specific responses to possible future
conditions.

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 Unit-8 Business Continuity Plan

Check Your Learning

1. Define Business continuity plan (BCP)

Ans. Business continuity plan is a procedure and information to be used

in the event of emergency or disaster.

2. What is BCP policy

Ans. BCP policy is a set of policies and procedures for formalising

business continuity program.

3. A disruption even for few days causes severe financial loss and
threatens the survival of the organisation. (True/False)

Ans. True

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 Unit-8 Business Continuity Plan

Activity

A global company dealing with micro-chips and computer hardware

components wants to develop a Business Continuity Policy. Consider you
are a project manager the company, form a team and initiate the
activities required to implement a BCP in your organisation.

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