Keep Your Business Running Through Any Disruption With Business Continuity Planning

An incident response plan covers one kind of event, a cybersecurity incident, and focuses on stopping the attack and finding out what happened. A business continuity plan covers any disruption, from a power outage to a key person leaving, and focuses on keeping the business operating. The two work together: during a cyberattack, the incident response plan deals with the attack while the continuity plan keeps the business running.

Small businesses often need one more, because they have fewer people and less room to absorb a few lost days. The plan doesn't need to be long. For a smaller business it might be a few pages covering the critical activities, who to call, how to work without the office and how to reach customers.

It's the first step in building a continuity plan. BCA works through your business's activities with leadership and department leads to find which ones are critical, how long each can stop before it causes real harm and what each depends on: people, systems, suppliers and locations. Those answers set the priorities for the rest of the plan, including the order in which IT is recovered.

Mostly with tabletop exercises. Your leadership and key staff walk through a realistic scenario, such as the office being unavailable or a ransomware attack, and talk through what they would do at each step. Gaps show up quickly, and the plan is updated afterward. Some parts, such as restoring a system or forwarding phones, can also be tested for real.

It's one of the most common gaps we find. If only one person knows how to run payroll, approve payments or manage a key system, an illness or resignation can stall the business. The plan names a backup for each critical role and makes sure the steps and access they need are documented and available to the right people.

At least once a year, and whenever something significant changes: a new location, new systems, a move to the cloud or people changing roles. Contact lists go out of date fastest. BCA reviews the plan with you on a regular schedule so it reflects how your business works today.