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CONTINUITY COVER |
| Need a Business Continuity Plan for your SME?
But don't have the time
... or don't know where to start?
CONTINUITY COVER is the answer! |
Some of our clients do not have sufficient “buy in” within their organisation to devote significant resource, money and time to developing business continuity plans and strategies. In recognition of this, Teed Business Continuity have designed fast track methods that result in the development of effective business continuity plans, through the use of innovative methods and by taking full advantage of the lessons learnt by similar organisations during their projects.
The fast track method is particularly suited to SMEs who can find implementing a BCM programme a challenging and costly project. Teed has recognised these issues and has created a business continuity package which addresses these challenges and aims to make business continuity simple and cost effective for small and medium enterprises.
Continuity Cover has been developed specifically for SMEs to assist them in achieving business continuity competency through providing them with an expert, cost effective business continuity planning service.
Continuity Cover uses a mix of our proven methods to create three standard packages with fixed prices ensuring that effective business continuity planning is achievable by all sizes of organisation.
Package 1 = £2,500
Package 2 = £4,500
Package 3 = £6,500
Key Features Explained:
1/ Fast Track BC Planning Workshop (Package 1 only)
The fast track method is designed around getting the key people in a room for one day, during which they are taken through the business continuity project stages and thought process. Often best for smaller organisations, the participants must have sufficient knowledge and authority to make decisions on the order of priority of each business or service area and the level of acceptable risk exposure to the organisation.
2/ High Level Business Continuity Plan (Package 1 only)
A Business Continuity Plan is created stating the incident management actions required to contain the adverse situation and keep negative impacts within acceptable levels, including dealing with employees and communication with stakeholders. The Plan also notes the resource recovery requirements, priorities and timescales of the organisation and the critical activities which need to continue in order to minimise negative business impacts.
3/ BCM Policy (All Packages)
A brief, clear and concise business continuity management policy is defined which states the business continuity objectives, roles and responsibilities and the approach taken to manage business continuity within the organisation. This policy is a useful aid in describing the business continuity management process for clients and other stakeholders.
4/ Incident Management Structure Defined (All Packages)
A clear structure, together with roles and responsibilities, is defined for escalating and responding to adverse situations thus ensuring that an efficient, timely and effective response can be invoked to deal with potentially disruptive events.
5/ Business Continuity Recommendations Report (All Packages)
A recommendations report is produced detailing the actions required to take the organisation’s business continuity preparedness to the next level of competence. In effect the report provides a road map for the organisation to use when driving forward any necessary improvements to its BCM capability.
6/ Continuity Cover Certificate (All Packages)
A Continuity Cover Certificate, valid for 1 year, is issued stating clearly the independently verified current state of business continuity preparedness within the organisation. This certificate can be used to verify the state of preparedness for stakeholders.
7/ One to One Interviews (Packages 2 & 3 only)
In more complex or larger businesses, one to one interviews with business area leaders are often the most appropriate approach. These interviews identify the impacts of disruption on the ability to continue with critical activities, referred to as a Business Impact Analysis (BIA). The focus on defined business continuity aims, set in the context of a worst case scenario, and supported by experienced facilitators, ensures that requirements remain commercially focussed on key business objectives.
8/ Detailed Business Continuity Plan (Packages 2 & 3 only)
As per Package 1 but the Plan also details the specific actions required to recover resources, continue critical activities following an incident and manage the recovery of each area of the business in an effective and prioritised manner.
9/ Gap Analysis (Packages 2 & 3 only)
The Gap Analysis identifies where the post incident activity levels or recovery timescales following a serious incident cannot be met by the current recovery capability. For each gap identified, at least one option is recommended to address the gap. Alternatively senior management may choose to accept the current risk exposure.
10/ Desktop Scenario Exercise (Package 3 only)
A half day focussed scenario exercise is a useful addition to any business continuity programme of activity. Key members of a defined response team are provided with a scenario depicting a disruptive event, tailored for their business. They are asked to talk through their actions, utilising their response plans to provide guidance on actions and communications.
Facilitators with experience in incident response and management provide challenging interjects, ensuring that participants are continuously challenged. A post exercise ‘hot debrief’ ensures that everyone has the opportunity to convey their views on the response and, inevitably, many lessons are learned. This is an excellent opportunity to gain buy-in from people throughout the business – in our experience there is always enthusiasm for business continuity once people have been involved in an exercise.
An exercise outcome report is produced to provide a record of the exercise together with a note of the lessons learned and actions arising.
11/ Business Continuity Preparedness Rating (Package 3 only)
Teed has developed an effective business continuity scoring methodology that allows organisations to benchmark their current exposure and motivates them to improve their preparedness on an ongoing basis.
A rating out of 10 is provided for the effectiveness of the planning in 5 key areas: People, Documentation, Solutions, Communication and Exposure The rating out of a maximum potential score of 50 provides a clear indication of the areas that require focus in the future.
Full details of each of the Continuity Cover packages and costs are available as a PDF document that can be downloaded by clicking on the link below:
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| Continuity_Cover_PDF |
Fast-track Business Continuity Planning |
Fast-track BC planning can also prove effective for larger organisations and Teed will tailor this to fulfil the specific requirements of the business. Often auditors, customers, insurers or other stakeholders are requesting that business continuity management is implemented within the organisation relatively quickly.
The fast track method is designed around getting the key people in a room for one or two days, during which they are taken through the business continuity project stages and thought process (i.e. project initiation, business impact analysis, risk assessment, recovery strategy development and plan development). The individuals should have sufficient knowledge and authority to make decisions on the order of priority of each business or service area and the level of acceptable risk exposure to the organisation.
A consultant will facilitate the event, ensuring that any assumptions, actions and issues are noted accordingly. The consultant will be able to provide relevant recovery strategy cost and option information during the event to allow quick decisions to be made and for the process to progress efficiently.
At the end of the event a schedule of actions will be produced that will be required to finalise the development and implementation of plans and strategies. The consultant will take responsibility for this and several additional discussions with key people are likely to be required.
Once business continuity plans have been completed, the nominated Crisis Management Team would take part in a tabletop exercise to raise awareness of their potential role in a crisis, ensure that the plans and strategies are appropriate and identify any required changes.
The final business continuity and disaster recovery plans will be delivered together with a list of the required actions to fully implement strategies and plans.
The fast track approach continues to follow business continuity good practice and will therefore be appropriate for satisfying stakeholders of the effectiveness of plans. However, there are some limitations that should be considered when deciding upon whether this approach is suitable, such as the requirement to make a number of assumptions in relation to priorities, the fact that less people will be involved in the process than is perhaps ideal and also the likely need in future to drill down to a lower level of detail to ensure that nothing has been missed.
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