A Business Continuity
Plan (BCP - private) or Continuity of Operations Plan (COOP - public)
is a proactive senior management commanded enterprise-wide interruption event management
program driven by business requirements. A more formal definition
of business continuity is:
"Business Continuity is the ability to sustain mission critical
business processes during an unplanned interruption event."
A BCP and/or COOP is a "live document" that is aligned and/or infused
into the operational capabilities and strategy of the enterprise.
As a proactive management controlled program, a BCP/COOP mitigates the
consequences of an enterprise interruption event to a level acceptable
to management. Also, the BCP/COOP provides a proven and tested methodology
to effectively permit resumption of critical enterprise-wide functions.
Without an effective and working BCP/COOP, both public and private
enterprises can experience significant
financial losses and with private firms - even bankruptcy. A
list of financially and/or business limiting events for private
companies are:
- Negative or misaligned public perception
- Inability to maintain customer support
- Inability to effectively communicate internally or externally
- Excessive time for reconstitution to normal operations
- Loss of key vendors and/or partners
- Decreased credibility to investors
- Existing customers will jump to competition
- Increase in employee stress and decrease in moral
- Key projects are delayed or cancelled
The COOP is quite similar to the BCP except it's aligned to specific
government mandates with differing workgroup recovery requirements.
Government jurisdictions must plan for a minimum of 30 days downtime
while operating their infrastructure at a remote location. Also,
it's imperative that government jurisdictions are capable of
maintaining and effectively managing public security across
multi-hazard events.
For private companies, think of your BCP as the action plan that helps to ensure full operational
integrity and information availability. It's not just about the ones
and zeros of your business data, it's about validating and ensuring
ongoing business processes and key functions prior, during and post
a business interruption event. A well developed, integrated and and validated BCP/COOP provides
the following value to your business enterprise:
- Ensures the safety of your most valued asset the employee
- Minimizes and/or mitigates financial losses to the enterprise
- revenue for private and cost basis for public
- Ensures the on-going availability of key business services and operations
- Compliance to government sponsored regulations such as the HIPAA Security Rule 164.308(a)(7)(i),
GLBA, Sarbanes-Oxley, and Presidential Decision Directive (PDD) FPC-65
- Ensures the timely and effective resumption of
critical enterprise-wide functions
- Marketed correctly -- can increase revenues,
differentiate to the competition (private) and ensure ongoing
public safety for public operations
- Mitigates corporate and personal liabilities
- Positively enhances public opinion
With the onset of the information age and an increase in new business
methodologies leveraged by emerging technologies, your business enterprise
cannot afford to operate without a well executed BCP. Business continuity
and COOP planning is here to stay and Contingency Now is here to help you solve information
availability and continuity of operation's problems. |
