As a business community we continually face events that disrupt our ability to go about our business. Some events are widespread and public such as hailstorms, gas leaks, salmonella poisoning or destruction of offices by fire. Other events are contained within the organisation and shielded from the public. These include technology failure, work place accident, loss of skilled staff or problems with third party suppliers. In summary, operational disruption is part of everyday life. The loss of resources, due to an operational disruption, could have a disastrous impact on business operations, or even threaten the livelihood of the company. Such an event would significantly affect staff, customers, trading partners and stakeholders. Media scrutiny could damage or destroy a company's reputation, whilst Government inquiry could lead to fines, loss of license or imprisonment. Company directors have a fiduciary responsibility to implement appropriate practices and procedures to ensure that essential business operations are maintained at all times.

BCM is a structured approach to achieving operational resilience and ensures that an organisation:

• Can continue to provide its customers with required services or products, within an agreed time frame

• Has an appropriate level of competency to manage the organisation from disruption to 'business as usual'

• Embeds appropriate practices into the cultural fabric of the organisation to ensure that Business Continuity capabilities always reflect the needs, technology and structure of the business.

BCM is a long-term, pro-active and responsible approach to ensuring that the business is operationally resilient to disaster. Without it the consequences can be disastrous.

The LINUS Approach

The LINUS BCM Framework is a modular, true end-to-end approach, allowing the application of tailored solutions specific to each organisation's needs. The framework is broken into three phases as described below (refer illustration). This approach produces a comprehensive business case at each stage.

The LINUS BCM Framework

Analysis and Strategy

• Establish objectives, select the necessary framework stages and develop a project plan

• Determine the impact to the organisation and the dependency on resources

• Develop a set of recovery options for each resource.

Risk Management (optional)

• Identify critical vulnerabilities and their rectification in advance of completing BC capabilities

• Establish a Risk Mitigation Program.

Implementation

• Develop Fallback and Emergency Response procedures

• Procedure Testing

• Establish ongoing BCM Corporate Policy, Responsibilities and supporting Maintenance Program.

LINUS facilitates a process that enables business managers to objectively identify the relative importance of each business function and the resources required to support those which are more critical. The LINUS BCM process integrates seamlessly into both Risk Management and Information Security Planning efforts within the organisation to ensure a comprehensive approach, saving implementation time and effort.

The outcome of this approach is to ensure that when a disaster strikes, the organisation can identify which resources are needed, who needs them, when they need them and how those resources will be replaced or restored.

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