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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.
It’s purpose is to control the financial, legal, reputation and
other negative consequences arising from the disruption’
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 interruption²
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.
Adapted from Standards
Australia - HB221:2004 Business Continuity Managements
² Adapted from the Disaster Recovery Institute International
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