Business Continuity Program - Basic Guide

Do you have to develop a Business Continuity Program but don’t know where to begin?

Can you explain what is involved in developing a Business Continuity Program to senior executives?

Do you want to gain a better understanding of the complete Business Continuity Program project cycle?

Business Continuity Program Development – A Basic Guide

You know that you need a Business Continuity Program to ensure the continued operation of your business in the event of an emergency or disaster event. You have read stories of business failures that were related to not being able to respond to a particular event. You are concerned that your business may be one of the 43% of businesses that fail to survive after a fire.

You need to start the program development but you are just not sure what is involved in developing a comprehensive Business Continuity Program.

Where do you start? What are some of the areas that need to be completed during the various development phases? What are some of the things that you need to be aware of that could make your plan not as effective as it needs to be?

“Business Continuity Program Development – A Basic Guide” was written to give the Small and Medium Enterprise owners and executives the background information they will need to understand what is involved in developing a thorough Business Continuity Program.

This guide is not a technical ‘How to” manual. It is written to give you a good understanding of the process and procedures that you or your staff should follow or consider when developing the Business Continuity Program for your company.

Guide Only

$49.95 + GST

This guide provides a high level methodology that you can follow to ensure that your program is complete. It also offers information gathered from years of experience in developing and implementing Business Continuity Programs by Business Continuity & Recovery Consulting. The guide also discusses standards and their use in program development as well as talking about the value of Business Continuity Program templates available from the Internet.

The guide is available in Adobe PDF format for download and is priced at $49.95 plus GST.

Guide & 3 Hours Consulting

$350.00 + GST

You can also combine the guide with three hours of consulting time that can be applied to any future projects from Business Continuity & Recovery Consulting within one-year of purchase. The cost of this package is $350.00 plus GST. This is a $500.00 value. By purchasing the consulting time and guide, you will save $150.00.

If you need assistance developing a complete Business Continuity Program, contact Business Continuity & Recovery Consulting to arrange a meeting with one of our consultants to develop a plan and a quote.

You can purchase a copy of “Business Continuity Program Development – A Basic Guide” with or without the consulting services by using the appropriate Buy Now buttons.

Your information will not be sold or distributed to any other company. You may receive a newsletter and updates from Business Continuity & Recovery Consulting in the future.

Business Continuity Program Development – A Basic Guide

Table of Contents:

Disclaimer

ii

Are you ready?

1

How do I start?

5

Z1600-08 summary

6

Analysis Phase of a Business Continuity Program

8

Business Impact Analysis and Critical Activities Requirements

9

Technology Recovery Capabilities Assessment

10

Strategy Phase of a Business Continuity Program

12

Plan Development Phase of a Business Continuity Program

13

Business Unit Recovery Plan

13

Technology Recovery Plan

14

Crisis Management Plans

14

Common plan elements

15

Testing and maintenance

17

Active testing

17

Passive testing

18

Maintenance of the plans

19

General observations and questions

20

Templates from the Internet

20

Business Continuity Planning Software

20

Ownership of the plan

21

Change Management and BCP

21

Congratulations! You have a Business Continuity Program

22

A review of the plans

22

Final thoughts

22

Are you ready now?

23

Appendix A – Some known disaster causes

25

Appendix B - Building Evacuation Plan (suggested)

26

Appendix C – Suggested resources

27

Appendix D – Emergency checklist

28

Appendix E – Sample Table of Contents – Analysis Phase

31

Appendix F – Recovery Strategy Overviews

33

Appendix G – Plan document suggested table format

40

Appendix H – Client Name Crisis Management Flow (suggested)

41

Appendix J – Respond to a Problem (suggested wording)

42

Appendix K – Plan Assumptions (general and suggested)

43

Appendix L – Plan Maintenance Schedule (suggested wording)

44

Attachment A – DRJ Glossary

45

Attachment B – Sample Business Continuity Program Methodology

70

Attachment C – What really happens after an emergency or disaster event?

71

Business Continuity Plan Review

72