Complete loss of premises - how would you cope?
On 30th May 2008 at 7.30am the fire service
was summoned to a major blaze at Melton Borough Council
premises. Fortunately there were no workers in the building
at the time but damage to the premises was catastrophic. The
decision was made to invoke their full Disaster Recovery Contract
and within a few hours key members of staff were working in their
recovery centre as per the plan that had been previously written
and tested in full.
They were prepared and able to continue
delivering services to the community in the face of a major
disaster because of good management principles – would you be able
to meet your commitments to customers in such a situation?
For help and advice on Business
Continuity Management, please contact Vicki Bales on 01733 207208
or businesscontinuity@peterborough.gov.uk.
What is Business Continuity?
Business Continuity Management (BCM) is a process which helps
organisations respond to, and recover from, any kind of disruptive
incident.
Who should do it?
Every business, no matter what size, should have some kind of
business continuity plan in place. This can be a very simple and
inexpensive process, especially for smaller businesses.
Is there any help available?
Yes! For a free consultation, call 01733 207208 or email
businesscontinuity@peterborough.gov.uk.
We can offer a professional plan-writing service at very
competitive rates. Lots of free advice and assistance is also
available; see our 5 step guide and handbook below.
Why bother?
If you have even a simple plan in place, it will cut down on
disruption and uncertainty, make life easier for your staff, give
your customers reassurance, enhance your reputation and may even
have insurance benefits (check with your insurer).
How to get started:
There are 5 basic steps in the business continuity “cycle”:
1. Write down what your business is basically
about: what products and services do you provide? Who are your main
customers? Are you governed by any
regulations?
2. List all the things that could affect your business.
Has anything happened before or have you had any
near-misses?
- Fire, flood, storm damage, snow, ice etc
- Illness, industrial action, lottery win etc
- Loss of IT or telecoms
- Power cut, failure of water or gas supply
- Transport incident, fuel shortage etc
- Criminal damage, burglary, fraud etc
- Loss of key supplier or contractor
- Product recall, ethical misconduct, loss of confidential or
sensitive data etc.
Against each risk, assess how likely it is to happen and what
sort of impact it might have. You can’t always change the
likelihood of something happening, but business continuity will
help to reduce the impact
3. What does your plan need to cover and how will
you write it?
- Get senior management to agree
- Do you need a plan for each key location or business area?
- What format will the plan be in?
4. Develop the plan:
- Plan by generic “what if” scenarios: What if you can’t get into
your building? What if you haven’t got key staff? What if your IT
systems go down? Write down a scenario for anything that could
disrupt business.
- Develop procedures or “how to” documents to cover the
disruptions. These will cover things like evacuations, grab-bags,
contact lists, relocation to other sites. Don’t forget to nominate
roles and responsibilities, and make sure people know what they
have to do (and where the plan is held!)
5. Exercise and update the plan
- You don’t have to do a full live exercise, but desktop
walkthroughs are often a useful way of identifying strengths and
weaknesses.
- Make people responsible for updates, especially contact
lists
- Keep the plan current and meaningful
Above all – it should be simple, accessible and flexible!
More information:
For more about the business continuity cycle, a checklist and a
template, download the following guide:
The document(s) below appear in Adobe® Acrobat® (PDF) format. In order to view a document you will need to have Acrobat Reader installed. (Those with visual impairments may wish to investigate Access Adobe, which provides tools and information to help make PDF files more accessible). |  |
Business continuity handbook
(916KB, 52 pages)
You can also try the following websites:
From time to time we hold seminars and events for local
businesses. If you are interested in attending, please email
businesscontinuity@peterborough.gov.uk
and we will let you know what’s coming up in the near future. Also
let us know if you would like us to attend one of your events or
just come and talk to you about business continuity.
Project ARGUS is an exciting and informative multi-media
exercise, facilitated by the Counter Terrorism Security Advice
Unit. The council is proud to support these events on a regular
basis. It's completely free to attend and ideal for managers,
staff, security staff and others.
For more details about Project ARGUS please contact clive.brown@cambs.pnn.police.uk
For any more information or help, please contact us at:
The Resilience Team
11 Commerce Road
Lynch Wood
Peterborough
PE2 6LR
Telephone: 01733 207208
Email: businesscontinuity@peterborough.gov.uk