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Business Continuity Services
Overview
Business Continuity is fundamentally concerned with managing risks to ensure that at all times an organisation can continue operating to at least a pre-determined minimum level. The Acuity approach to Business Continuity Management considers this as a core principle together with ensuring the continued existence of an organisation and its ability to continue to carry out the business or services offered.
Business Continuity needs to be considered by small companies as well as larger corporations. Unplanned events can impact any business and can have catastrophic effects. It is better to understand the potential risks up front and to make appropriate contingency plans.
Unlike traditional Disaster Recovery planning or Contingency planning, the Acuity methodology places an increased focus upon incident prevention by means of risk reduction, as well as upon recovery.
The method is split into two distinct parts:
- Project – the establishment of a business continuity programme - this consists of 8 components
- Initiation
- Research and Analysis
- Risk Assessment
- Strategic Analysis
- Risk Reduction
- Operational Augmentation
- Plans and Procedures
- Testing
- Business as usual – the maintenance of the programme
Benefits of the Acuity Methodology
The Acuity methodology focuses on simplicity and fast track delivery of real benefits:
- The eight components in the Project phase can be addressed as an overall programme or as distinct pieces of work in support of an existing capability.
- Acuity consultants have a track record that is second to none in the delivery of robust business continuity solutions and have refined the methodology from more traditional approaches based on practical experience in many different types of organisations.
- All work is done in consideration of UK and Global Business Continuity standards including BS 25999.
- Acuity consultants have detailed knowledge of BS 25999 from support of the development of the standards as well as the provision of BS 25999 solutions.
- The key differentiator from more conventional approaches is the fast track Business Impact Assessment that is included in the Research and Analysis component. Acuity will review the business processes in an organisation at a senior management level and identify the critical business processes, i.e. those that are ‘material’ to the business. Consideration will then be given to the most appropriate business continuity solution to support this process should it be impacted and will combine both resilience and recovery solutions. Ideally this analysis will be undertaken by the Acuity consultants leading a business workshop to enable a pragmatic business continuity solution to be identified quickly and efficiently.
Our Services
Acuity provides advice and support on all aspects of business continuity management including:
- BS 25999 compliance reviews and support for certification.
- Scope definition, project initiation and programme management.
- Research and analysis of critical business processes with material impact to the business should they be impacted
- Risk and proactive threat assessment to identify particular risks and threats to the organisation and support the development of mitigation plans
- Strategic analysis of recovery and resilience solutions and presentation of findings and recommendations to enable considered decisions to be made
- Identification of risk reduction programmes and solutions
- Augmentation of existing operational capabilities to embed business continuity into the organisation, e.g. change control mechanisms and sourcing of recovery solutions
- Development of plans and procedures in support of agreed solutions based in simple, short, easy to use documents
- Testing solutions including plan walkthrough and technical testing of recovery components
- Third party/Outsourced supplier reviews to ensure business continuity capability
- Operational Management tasks including education and awareness, training, assurance monitoring, capability review.
- Current state assessment of existing programmes and solutions.
To find out how Acuity can help your organisation to create a Business Continuity strategy and plan from scratch or to review your existing capability, please Contact Us.
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