Business Continuity Planning (BCP also known as disaster recovery, or crisis management) is the process of planning, preparing, implementing, and testing an organisation's capability to sustain critical business functions when normal operations have been unexpectedly disrupted. Business continuity planning involves the development and implementation of emergency response procedures designed to maintain the continuity of critical business functions along with the organised and efficient recovery of disrupted services.

There are daily increases in the reasons why your business functions may be interrupted, and your business interruption insurance might not cover them all. These include both business and natural risks...from the failure of critical equipment, computer viruses, exchange rate fluctuations, loss through fire, water damage, terrorism, pandemics, chemical spills, through to Australia’s increasing incidence of fires, floods and other natural disasters combined with increased oversight from ATO, ASIC, APRA and fiduciary responsibility to shareholders and creditors.

Business continuity and disaster recovery preparedness is a critical priority at large and small companies alike. But getting started is difficult, and building the business case within your own organisation to obtain adequate funding is even more difficult — especially when companies are at various phases of BC and DR maturity. On the other hand, some companies will spend millions of dollars purchasing, developing, and testing a DR infrastructure that they fervently hope that they will never have to use. 

Wikipedia defines Disaster Recovery as "the process, policies and procedures of restoring operations critical to the resumption of business, including regaining access to data (records, hardware, software, etc.), communications (incoming, outgoing, toll-free, fax, etc.), workspace, and other business processes after a natural or human-induced disaster." Disaster recovery solutions enable a business to continue working in the event of fire, theft, malfunction or terrorism. By preparing for disaster recovery, your business will not lose any valuable data, configurations or time, saving you money in the long run.

All too many organisations risk the loss of crucial business information and capital by not having any sort of DR plans in place at all. By backing up data, applications, and settings continuously, to a secure location, your business will be ready for any disaster situation.

Whether its the collapse of a vital section of the electricity grid, Australi’s increasing risk of bushfires and floods, or the emergence of a pandemic-scenario, … don’t laugh, the first primary school to be closed because of Australia’s swine flu outbreak is within 200 metres of my own home in Clifton Hill, one of Melbourne’s inner suburbs... ensuring ahead of time that a business can cope with the unexpected and operate from a different business site or campus can be all the difference between a business ‘disaster’ with long-term, lasting consequences and a short-term glitch that affects a company’s bottom-line but doesn’t necessarily erase that bottom-line altogether.

The first element of any risk assessment involves considering the likely impact of a disaster upon the organisation's customer services.. The best approach was found in examining the results of disasters i.e.:
• Loss of information
• Loss of access, and
• Loss of people
By considering the various possibilities and gauging a wide range of consequences, organisations can take appropriate measures to protect themselves. The construction of a matrix under each of the above categories can be used to document potential threats to business operations. By using the matrix, managers can ascertain the period of time that given areas might be permitted to remain non-operational...some segments may not need to be brought back on line immediately, whilst others might be considered as essential services.

We’ll help you design a plan which covers the following:
• Preparation for potential disasters;
• Prevention or mitigation of perceived threats;
• Response when crises occur; and
• Recovery from disasters.