Why do we need Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery?
- The University has to be ready for anything not considered within the confines of Business As Usual (BAU).
- Ensures that everybody has defined responsibilities ahead of an incident.
- The effectiveness of the response will depend on how well different faculties, directorates, departments and groups have harmonised their plans and procedures.
- Actions taken in the first few hours dictate the impact an incident has to our staff, students and continued functioning of the University.
What is Business Continuity Management?
- Process that identifies potential threats to an organisation
- Allows an organisation to understand the impacts to its operations from these threats
- Provides a framework for building resilience
- Provides an effective response that safeguards the interests of its key stakeholders, reputation, brand and value.
How do we achieve this?
- Identification of potential risks and impacts to the University and identifying ways to reduce or mitigate those risks
- Prioritise those identified risks by putting them into order of severity of impact
- Developing procedures and putting a recovery plan in place.
- By identifying these procedures and by having a plan it can help the University survive and manage disasters.
Benefits of BCM
- Business resilience – preplanning will reduce likelihood of service disruption
- Emergency management – minimise impact of disruption
- Continuous improvement – review of systems and processes
- Cost savings – reduce financial losses and reduced insurance premiums
- Enhanced reputation and brand protection – attract more students and research
- Build staff confidence and retention – a good place to work
- Competitive advantage
More information about the University’s Business Continuity Management system can be found on the Risk and Resilience Sharepoint site.