What is BCM (Business Continuity Management) and why is it so important for your company?
Pandemics, fires, cyberattacks – these are just some of the threats that can disrupt a business. Without proper resilience, the consequences of unforeseen and sudden events can negatively impact the company’s operations, and even lead to bankruptcy. To prevent this from happening, you need effective business continuity management, or BCM (Business Continuity Management).
Business continuity management (BCM) is defined as advanced planning and preparation of an organization to maintain business functions or quickly resume operations after a failure. BCM is closely related to identifying potential threats, including fire, flood, or cyberattacks, but not only those. With a well-developed business continuity strategy, we can continuously analyze potential threats and assess their impact on operations. Only with a good plan will we know how to manage risk and how to prevent it from materializing.
What is business continuity management?
Let’s start with what business continuity is. Simply put, it is the organization’s ability to maintain essential functions during and after a disaster. Business Continuity Management (BCM) can thus be understood as a management process that involves identifying potential threats to the organization and assessing their impact on business operations.
What’s important to emphasize is that BCM is a holistic process focused on building and ensuring the organization’s resilience and the ability to respond effectively in the event of a crisis. The goal of BCM is not only to protect business operations but also to protect the interests of stakeholders, reputation, and brand.
In short, Business Continuity Management establishes processes and risk management procedures aimed at preventing disruptions in critical services and restoring full functionality to the organization as quickly and smoothly as possible.
In the industry, we can find many definitions of BCM, but the one outlined in the ISO 22301 standard is considered the most accurate. It was prepared by a team of experts who analyzed the terms used and determined the best definitions. According to ISO 22301, business continuity management is a set of actions taken by an organization to ensure the availability of critical business functions during a crisis situation for all interested parties, including customers, suppliers, regulators, and employees. These actions are designed to protect the organization from the negative consequences of unforeseen situations and failures.
Tip: It is advisable to implement a Business Continuity Management system in your organization according to the ISO 22301 standard, which serves as an excellent guide for BCM.
Why is it worth implementing BCM?
There are many reasons why it’s worth implementing an effective Business Continuity Management (BCM) system. One of them is the fact that we live in times where downtime is unacceptable—consumers want to receive their services and products quickly, and partners need assurance of uninterrupted deliveries. A BCM system reduces the probability of disruptions and the impact of downtime on business continuity.
Here are a few arguments for implementing BCM:
- Compliance with regulations, including international standards such as ISO 22301
- Helps maintain resilience to unforeseen situations and respond quickly to disruptions, which reduces operational risk and protects resources
- Helps quickly return to operations after an incident occurs
- Helps optimize risk management costs
- Increases awareness among management and employees about risks and procedures for dealing with them
- Helps build a competitive advantage
- Reduces financial, legal, and reputational losses
Regardless of the size of the company, industry, or market specifics, there are areas without which business operations would not function properly. Sometimes, unforeseen situations can disrupt the operations of warehouses, offices, or even suppliers. Lack of a continuity plan may lead to situations where even something as simple as a lack of internet or a power outage can paralyze the company. Planning the organizational structure, processes, and technological solutions will help take swift and appropriate action in such cases.
What is business continuity management?
Business continuity management (BCM) is based on the development of plans that detail actions to take in the event of a crisis. The creation of such scenarios (action plans) relies on risk analysis, which should not only identify potential threats from a given category but also their possible consequences. These plans include clear guidelines and specifically answer the question of what the organization must do to maintain operations in the event of a specific threat.
BCM is closely linked to analysis, identifying key areas, planning, monitoring, and taking action in the event of a crisis. The plan should enable the organization to maintain operations at least at a minimal level during a crisis. For example, a basic requirement for business continuity in the case of a technical failure is to maintain critical functions and restore operations with minimal downtime.
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Important: The process involves the entire organization, from the executive leadership down. The key here is the continuous updating and improvement of policies, as well as designating individuals responsible for risk and assigning them specific tasks.
When it comes to the types of threats, it is difficult to list them all, as the list can be quite long. Most commonly, continuity plans include cyberattacks and IT infrastructure breaches, natural disasters (including floods and fires), political crises, disruptions to supply chains, property damage, and even the departure of key employees. A perfect example of an unforeseen threat that took the world and every industry by surprise is the coronavirus pandemic.
Analysis of BIA and Business Continuity
The foundation of business continuity management is the Business Impact Analysis (BIA), which determines the impact of potential disruptions on business operations. Conducting a BIA can reveal any weaknesses as well as the consequences of an event for various departments or areas of the organization. The result of the analysis is a BIA report, which describes the most important functions and systems that should be prioritized in the business continuity plan.
BIA is closely linked to risk assessment. Risk assessment identifies potential threats to the organization, such as natural disasters, cyberattacks, or technology failures. It also identifies the impact of the risk, which can affect employees, customers, business operations, and the company’s reputation. The assessment also specifies what or who may be harmed by the risk, as well as the likelihood of its occurrence.
Remember: BIA includes detailed information on the potential consequences of disruptions identified in the risk assessment.
In business continuity management, automation is extremely helpful – it eliminates the risk of human error, provides full control, and allows for constant monitoring of threats. Software also aids in conducting BIA, creating and updating plans, and identifying risk areas. An example of such a tool is erisk, a comprehensive risk management platform.
Don't create Business Continuity Management on your own – trust the experts.
Business continuity is important for organizations of any size, but maintaining all functions during a disaster may be impractical for companies other than the largest ones. It requires organizations to look at themselves, analyze potential weak points, and gather key information such as contact lists and system diagrams that could be useful outside of disaster situations.
Not every organization has the resources or knowledge to conduct such self-analysis – it’s worth seeking help from professionals. A company like PBSG helps Polish entrepreneurs every day in making the decision to implement BCM. Our consultants not only highlight the benefits of the system but also point out which functions are essential for maintaining operations and assist in developing and implementing appropriate continuity plans.
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The advantage of working with experts is a comprehensive BCM implementation offer, which can include support in testing and updating plans, as well as regular employee training. It’s important to remember that business continuity management is a process that evolves over time. Therefore, BCM plans should be continuously updated and tied to staff training. Employees should stay up-to-date with procedures and know what to do in the event of a disruption.
As we mentioned at the beginning of the article, it’s worthwhile to combine BCM management with ISO 22301. This international standard is designed to help organizations implement solutions that will secure company resources, quickly respond to external and internal threats, and ensure a quick return to normal operations. PBSG has achieved great success in this field – for example, our collaboration with PKO Bank Polski SA in 2008 resulted in Poland’s first ISO 22301 certification. Feel free to contact us.