Any company, no matter the size, should have business continuity plans, whether formal or informal, in place. These plans should take account of the consequences of disasters, security failures and loss of service.

Contingency plans should be developed and implemented to ensure that processes can be restored within required timescales.

The process of developing these plans should begin by identifying events that can cause disruption to business processes, e.g. equipment failure, flood, fire. This should then be followed by a risk assessment to determine the impact of those interruptions (both in terms of damage and recovery period).

Depending on the results of this assessment, a strategy plan should be developed to determine the overall approach to BCM. To fail to do so is to invite failure.