The Acuity implementation phase concentrates on developing the next level of detail to build a workable Business Continuity Plan which is an inherent part of the company culture: ‘the way things are done’ rather than a policy or a document which employees are unaware of.

There are several plans and procedures that interact with one another to recover from a major operational disruption.  The BCP and supporting procedures, when executed, will implement the recovery strategies, and ensure the timely restoration of the key business support services.

Crisis Management

The organisations Crisis Management procedures form the “cap” of the plans. Depending on the nature of the crisis situation and what is needed to resolve it, members of the Crisis Management team will activate a crisis section of the procedures and include other Senior Management as necessary. The Crisis Management procedure also deals with all crises that may disrupt the operations of the company.

Interim Procedures for the department would address the continuity of the business functions and services in a disaster situation. A critical success factor of the Business Continuity Plan is to ensure that a clear decision path for declaring a potential disaster has been agreed upfront by the owners of the crisis plan and the business continuity plan.

This relationship is essential if the business continuity plan is to have credibility and genuinely restore business operations to the agreed recovery time objectives. Importantly this ensures that the two plans are entirely aligned, but have clearly defined independent ownership to protect the effectiveness of each plan.

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