by Abby DeLotto, Senior Consulting Project Manager

Successfully orchestrating business continuity planning throughout the enterprise can be complicated for experienced business continuity practitioners as well as those new to the job. BCP managers and coordinators in every industry are challenged constantly to be effective and efficient.

So how do you know if you’re charting the right course for your organization? Often, it’s as simple as reviewing, understanding, and applying the “basics” of business continuity planning. Although these “basics” may seem obvious to some, overlooking or misunderstanding them can prove detrimental to your overall BCP. These fundamental “basics” include:

• Clearly understanding the risks your business faces
• Knowing what’s essential to the survival of your business
• Equipping your organization with the proper tools to facilitate the recovery
• Organizing and training your people to perform business differently when necessary
• Documenting how your business will perform under crisis conditions
• Coordinating communications within and outside the organization
• Identifying and remaining cognizant of the business changes that affect your plan
• Finding the best ways to gauge the effectiveness of your firm’s continuity plan
• Properly managing and staying on top of the evolution of BCP in your organization

A planner’s approach, time frames, and available resources may differ dramatically from company to company. But the goal is the same—to produce solid continuity plans that protect an organization’s essential services.

Selecting the right questions to ask and the right people to ask them of is crucial. Information gathered from the wrong sources may have a terminal effect on your BCP. Strohl Systems tools, like BIA Professional, do offer valuable questions that will aid in the BCP effort, but planners still must target their questions with telescopic accuracy. Similarly, plans must be built on sound strategies and tested often. Anything less might lead to inaccurate and potentially unusable information.

To support a better understanding of BCP methodology, Strohl Consulting Services offers BCP 101, an introductory course aimed primarily at folks newly responsible for their company’s BCP. To complement Strohl's software classes, which stress technical use of the products, BCP 101 is designed to focus both on the philosophy behind planning and its relationship to Strohl Systems’ family of BCP tools.

The one-day course helps participants create their course of BCP action, emphasizing the need to gauge the effectiveness of BCP efforts. Strohl Systems VP of Consulting, Brain Turley, says the aim of BCP 101 is “to provide education to our customers that will give them the specific tools needed to address and meet their organization's business continuity issues and concerns.”

The BCP 101 class reviews the practices that make up a successful BCP program, such as understanding the business impact analysis (BIA), definition of recovery strategy, development of action plans, testing, and creation of an initial awareness of the breadth of BCP. Experienced Strohl consultants provide real-world examples and insight into the practical implementation of BCP methods, underscoring the why and how.

If you would like to learn more about BCP 101, visit here or call 800-634-2016.