Continuity of Operations Planning

For simple continuity of operations planning, the following checklists can be helpful:

• The emergency planning process checklist from Ready New York.
• The OFB-EZ Stay Open for Business program checklist by the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety.

Four steps to develop a business continuity plan (more details from Ready.gov):

• Conduct a business impact analysis to identify time-sensitive, critical business functions and processes, and the resources that support them (more details)
  • Identify your critical business functions using worksheets from the SBA or Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety.
  • Complete a Business Impact Analysis worksheet
• Identify and document resource requirements, determine gaps between recovery requirements and existing capabilities, select appropriate recovery strategies, and implement these strategies. Strategies may involve contracting with third parties, entering into partnership or reciprocal agreements, or displacing other business activities (complete this worksheet to understand what and how much resources will need to be replaced during a disaster).
• Compile a business continuity plan to manage a business disruption. Consider using the business continuity plan template from Ready.gov.
• Share of the continuity plan with staff and educate them of their roles in recovery. Make sure employees are aware of the plan.

Include IT disaster recovery in your business continuity planning (for more resources, go to Ready.gov).

• Even small businesses rely extensively on information technology (IT) to quickly and effectively process information, communicate, and support business operations. For example, employees use e-mail and telephone systems to communicate. Desktop computers, laptops and wireless devices are used to create, process, manage and communicate information. Plan what you would do when the IT is interrupted or stops working.
• Identify critical data essential to the survival and continued operation of your business.
  • Determine the possible impact of data loss or corruption from events such as hardware failure, human error, hacking, or malware. Identify data on network servers, desktop computers, laptop computers and wireless devices that need to be backed up (on a regular schedule) along with other hard copy records and information.
  • Backing up hard copy vital records can be accomplished by scanning paper records into digital formats and include them when backing up digital data.
  • Data should be backed up as frequently as necessary to ensure that, if data is lost, it is not unacceptable to the business.
  • Large capacity USB drives or external hard drives with integrated data backup software can be used to backup data.
  • Include in the plan the frequency of backups, security of the backups, and secure off-site storage.
  • Many vendors offer online data backup services including storage in the “cloud.” This is a cost-effective solution for businesses with a reliable internet connection.
• Identify critical software applications and data and the hardware required to run them.
  • Ensure that copies of program software are available to enable re-installation on replacement equipment.