Wednesday, February 22, 2012
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Business Continuity Planning

Business Continuity Planning versus

Business Resumption Planning and Disaster Recovery Planning

A Business Resumption Plan describes how to resume business after a disruption. A Disaster Recovery Plan deals with recovering Information Technology (IT) assets after a disastrous interruption. Both imply a stoppage in critical operations and are reactive.

Recognizing that some services or products must be continuously delivered without interruption, there has been a shift from Business Resumption Planning to Business Continuity Planning.

A business continuity plan enables vital services or products to be continually delivered to customers. Instead of focusing on resuming a business after critical operations have ceased, or recovering after a disaster, a business continuity plan endeavors to ensure that these operations continue to be available.

Events such as 9/11, Hurricane Katrina and the BP Oil Spill along with countless other smaller disasters make it clear that businesses can no longer hope for the best. Prudent business managers assume that a disaster will occur and plan for the occurrence to ensure that not only they recover from it but continue to operate during the disaster and its immediate aftermath.

What is Business Continuity Planning?

Business Continuity Planning is a proactive planning process that ensures critical services or products are delivered during a disruption. Critical services or products are those that must be delivered to ensure survival, avoid causing injury, and meet legal or other obligations of an organization. A Business Continuity Plan includes:

  • How employees will communicate, where they will go and how they will continue to operate.
  • Plans, measures and arrangements to ensure the continuous delivery of critical services and products, which permits the organization to recover its facility, data and assets.
  • Identification of necessary resources to support business continuity, including personnel, information, equipment, financial allocations, legal counsel, infrastructure protection and accommodations.

Having a BCP enhances an organization's image with employees, shareholders and customers by demonstrating a proactive attitude. Additional benefits include improvement in overall organizational efficiency and identifying the relationship of assets and human and financial resources to critical services and deliverables.

Why is Business Continuity Planning Important?

Every organization is at risk from potential disasters that include:

  • Natural disasters such as tornadoes, floods, blizzards, earthquakes and fire
  • Accidents
  • Sabotage
  • Power and energy disruptions
  • Communications, transportation, safety and service sector failure
  • Environmental disasters such as pollution and hazardous materials spills
  • Cyber-attacks and hacker activity.

Creating and maintaining a BCP helps ensure that an institution has the resources and information needed to deal with these emergencies. 

Clas Consulting provides a human perspective to Emergency Preparedness and Business Continuity Planning. Clas Consultants have real world experience in Disaster Response and Recovery: including Hurricane Katrina and the World Trade Center. Consultants have Expertise in Risk Management, Worker Safety, Industrial Hygiene, Hazardous Materials, Worker Training, Security and Continuity of Operations Planning. 

Clas Consulting can help you build an emergency preparedness & business continuity plan from the ground up, or audit your current program to recommend improvements. 

Clas Consulting will work with your Organization to make your plan a dynamic program. We provide assistance with training at all organizational levels and aid in the exercise and evaluation of your plan. If an emergency or disaster does occur Clas Consulting can rapidly deploy to be there when needed most. 

Emergency Management comprises organized analysis, planning, decision-making, and assignment of available resources in order to prevent, prepare for, respond to, and recover from the effects of all hazards. Here at Clas Consulting, we provide full planning services to develop your business continuity plans. These plans are intended to minimize the potential for business interruption and to protect the employees and property of your organization. 











Clas Consulting, LLC    26 Needham Street, Norfolk, MA 02056   508.613.2171    info@ClasConsulting.com
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