A disaster can hit your business at any time. With a good DR plan, you can ensure your business survives. But writing and maintaining a good DR plan is hard. In this slideshare hSo unveils the Do's and Don't's of writing your own solid Business Continuity Plan.

1. Secrets to Writing a
Great Business
Continuity Plan

2. Useful definitions
• What’s Business Continuity?
Business Continuity or BC “describes the
processes and procedures an
organization puts in place to ensure that
essential functions can continue during
and after a disaster”, either natural or
man-made according to
SearchStorage.com

3. • And a Disaster Recovery plan?
A DR plan “consists of the precautions taken
so that the effects of a disaster will be
minimized and the organization will be able to
either maintain or quickly resume mission-
critical functions” according to
SearchStorage.com

4. What threats?
• Fire
• Theft
• Fraud
• Flood
• Terrorist attack
• Pandemics
• Earthquake
• Cyber attack
• …and many more

5. • A disaster can hit your business at any time.
• You need a good DR plan.
• But writing and maintaining a good DR plan is hard.
• And most firms never get round to it
• Don’t wait until disaster strikes - start preparing today.
• To help you design a comprehensive DR plan, hSo have
prepared 15 DOs & DONTs.

6. Don’t Cover
Everything

7. Write an easy-to-follow guide, for use in an
emergency

8. Write an encyclopaedia

9. Prioritise
Recovery Actions

10. Focus on restoring critical business functions
Understand which tasks/files/servers… are more
important than others

11. Try to instantly return EVERYTHING to normal
after a disaster

12. Consult Others

13. Consult all departments to ensure some needs are
not overlooked
Consult your suppliers
Talk to your customers

14. Assume you know everything about your
business/suppliers/customers

15. Assemble
information
BEFORE it is needed

16. Prepare NOW for the worst

17. Wait for a crisis to look for information. You
won’t have time to waste
A disaster may make inaccessible the
information you need, just when you need it
most

18. Educate Your Staff
About the Plan

19. Make sure your staff know about your BC plan
Rehearse annually to train your staff

20. Assume your staff know what to do
Make your BC plan unavailable to your
employees – have paper copies of your plan
ready throughout your facilities & stored off-site

21. Document
Business-Critical
Processes

22. Document your business processes – they are
essential to your business and customers

23. Rely on just one or two people to know the
processes – they might not be here when the
disaster strikes

24. Plan for the Worst-
Case Scenario

25. Prepare for the worst case scenario aka total
loss of assets
… and you’ll cover many lesser scenarios

26. Leave anything out to chance

27. Remember Your
Main Site May Be
Completely Lost

28. Back up your electronic data off-site
Store a copy of irreplaceable documents off-site

29. Store your backup on the same site as your
servers
Think your main site is out of danger

30. Don’t Be a
Perfectionist

31. Aim to keep your business working
Remember that recovery is timely but need not
be instantaneous

32. Aim to get everything back to the way it was
before the disaster right away

33. Update Your Plan
Regularly

34. Keep in mind your business evolves and your DR
plan needs to evolve with it (staff changes, new
customers, growth, new contracts, new IT
apps…)
Update it at least every quarter

35. Write your plan and just forget about it

36. Use Clear
Visuals

37. Include photos, floor-plans, organisational
diagrams, numbered lists, bullet points…
For example, add photos of major assets to the
Asset Inventory, along with a floor-plan showing
where the assets are located.

38. Make it complicated for everyone to know what
you’re talking about when reading your BC plan

39. Remember
Indirect Effects

40. Remember that many risks can harm your
business indirectly
For example, fire could stop your main supplier
from providing the services you rely on

41. Forget to talk to your major suppliers about their
own DR plans
Forget to put together a list of alternative suppliers
that meet your needs if your main suppliers can’t
deliver

42. Consider
Differing Severities

43. Consider the when/where/what/to what extent
a disaster can strike

44. Think the response to any disaster should always
be the same

45. Consider
Opportunity Cost

46. Consider all costs, not just direct cash costs: lost
opportunities/lost productivity/lost revenue/lost
customers/legal costs/etc.

47. Underestimate these costs. Better to be safe
than sorry

48. Ensure Each Site
Has Its Own
BC Plan

49. Prepare a DR plan for each of your sites
Coordinate strategically to ensure consistency of
standards

50. Forget that risks vary from one site to another
Thus each location’s assets and data also vary

51. Do you need help with your
Business Continuity plan?
Contact us today for a chat:
+44 (0) 20 7847 4510
info@hso.co.uk
www.hso.co.uk