Roles and Responsibilities in BCP

General

A business continuity plan (BCP) is a document containing the vital information an organization needs to keep running in the case of a disaster. The BCP should define the business's core functions, indicate which systems and procedures must be maintained, and explain how to do so.

The most crucial point in Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is to define the arrangements that are in place for the transfer of critical activities to the Business Continuity Centre (BCC) in case of a disruptive event.

Business impact analysis (BIA) is one component of the BCP. The BIA aims to correlate the system with the critical mission/business processes and services provided. Based on that information, characterize the consequences of a disruption.

A Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) aims to plan for the timely re-establishment of an IT infrastructure. It aims to enable the operational/functional recovery of services in the event of a disaster. DRP is just a subset of BCP.

BCP Process should include the following:

Phase 1 - Scope and Initiation: A business process is the main subject of a BCP's scope. Making sure that the scoping procedure incorporates all necessary resources is the central tenet of BCP scoping.
Phase 2 - Roles and Responsibilities: Establishing the roles and duties of the persons involved is the first step in the planning process.
Phase 3 - Business Impact Analysis: A business impact analysis (BIA) aims to evaluate a disruptive event's qualitative and quantitative effects on the firm. Financial losses are associated with quantitative impacts, whereas operational effects like failure to execute are associated with qualitative repercussions.
Phase 4 - Recovery Strategies and Continuity Development: Identify essential business processes and functions when developing the BCP and recovery strategy.
Phase 5 - Implementation and Testing: The senior management must approve the fully documented business continuity plan before implementing the BCP.
Phase 6 - Maintenance: BCP must be regularly updated and reviewed.

The enterprise recognizes that different employees and committees play a role in preparing the organization for the management of a crisis and the actual management of a crisis. This Article aims to define the Roles and Responsibilities of employees and senior managers involved in BCP.

Business Continuity Manager

The local Business Continuity Manager (BCM) is responsible for preparing and documenting the arrangements for the transfer of activities to the Business Continuity Centre (BCC) in case of a disruptive event.
The Business Continuity Manager must ensure that this Business Continuity Plan:

Is kept up-to-date and reflects any changes in the organization, processes, activities, etc.;
Is consistent with and adequately reflects the requirements specified in the BIAs;
Is regularly tested;
Is understood by all employees and senior managers involved.

The Business Continuity Manager (BCM) has the general role of coordinator, facilitator, and central point of contact in case of invocation of this BCP. The Business Continuity Manager will support the Crisis Management Committee (CMC) and the various Recovery Teams. He must follow up on the activities of the various Departments and the Recovery Teams.

The Business Continuity Manager (BCM) is responsible for assessing the country's geopolitical situation, particularly the area where the Head Office Building is located. The Business Continuity Manager (BCM) must regularly consider the situation and timely inform the Crisis Management Committee (CMC) in case there are signs of problems that might lead to an invocation of the BCP.

Disaster Recovery Manager

The Disaster Recovery Manager (DRM) is responsible for preparing and documenting the IT arrangements to properly support a transfer of activities to the Disaster Recovery Centre. The Disaster Recovery Centre may be the same as the Business Continuity Centre, though that is not necessarily always the case. The Business Continuity Manager must ensure that the Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) supports this BCP.

The Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) must:

Be kept up-to-date and reflect any changes in the organization, processes, activities, etc.;
Be consistent with and adequately reflects the requirements specified in the BIAs and BCPs;
Be regularly tested;
Be understood by all employees and senior managers involved.

The DRM has the role of coordinator and facilitator in case of invocation of this BCP and the DRP and must support the Crisis Management Committee (CMC), the BC Manager, and the various Recovery Teams.

After the BCP is activated, the Crisis Management Committee will direct Human Resources (HR) to inform all employees of the enterprise's actions, their justifications, and the implications of those actions for both employees and the enterprise via the most effective communication channels.

Business Continuity Committee

The Business Continuity Committee (BCC) oversees the development and implementation of the arrangements contained in this BCP to ensure that it can be activated.

The responsibilities of the BCC include the following:

Approving the BCP and all major changes thereto;
Reviewing the budgets required/made available for and maintenance of the BCP;
Ensuring that the BCP is kept up-to-date by the Business Continuity Manager;
Ensuring that the Business Continuity Manager ensures that the BCP is consistent with other BCP documents (in terms of capacity, priority, and timing);
Ensuring that BCP-related Service Level Agreements are in place and being kept up-to-date;
Accepting any BCP-related risks within the delegated authorities;
Ensuring that the BCP is tested and reviewed the test results;
Examining any BCP-related issues (incidents, etc.) for lessons to be learned;
Reporting on the status of the BCP – including reports on the testing of the BCP – to the Board Risk Committee, Management Committee, and other stakeholders, including the Group Business Continuity Manager, the Group Business Continuity Committee, etc.;
The review "ex-post" of the crisis handling.
Provide any support the Local Crisis Management Team may need after the activation of the DRP and BCP.

Crisis Management Team

The Crisis Management Team (CMT) is responsible for the actual management of the crisis that caused the activation of the BCP and the transfer of activities to the Business Continuity Centre.

The responsibilities of the CMT include the following:

Making the decision to invoke the BCP and DRP;
The actual management of the crisis;
Planning for the future after the invocation of the BCP and DRP;
Making the decision to return to normal;
Overseeing the transfer of activities and processes back to normal;
The review "ex-post" of the crisis handling.

Recovery Teams

Every critical Department has a dedicated Recovery Team (RT) headed by a Recovery Team Leader. Together the Recovery Team Members must be able to perform and monitor all the critical activities of the Department.

Each Recovery Team Leader is responsible for ensuring that all members of the Recovery Team and their replacements:

Have been made aware that they are part of the Recovery Team;
Understand their respective responsibilities, delegated authority, and reporting lines in case of activation of the BCP;
Have received appropriate training so that they can operate in an emergency situation. The training must pay special attention to those activities, procedures, IT systems, applications, etc., with which the members of the Recovery Team may not be entirely familiar;

Participate in the tests of systems and business processes that take place in the Disaster Recovery Centre (DRC) and in the Business Continuity Centre (BCC).

IT Recovery Teams

These teams will represent each platform and will facilitate the technical recovery. This will include IT platforms, applications services, data communications, and voice communications.

Damage Assesment and Salvage Teams

This team will mainly come from the Administrative departments. Experts from IT (probably HW providers and own local IT experts), the Insurance and salvage and restoration companies will supplement them.
The main role will be to understand the extent of the damage and the impact and then to restore the facilities required for long-term restoration. This team will report to the Chief Operating Officer (COO).

HR-Team-People and Welfare Consideration

The ongoing safety and welfare of all staff are of primary concern to the enterprise as they will positively contribute to a successful outcome in the event of BCP activation. Suppose a scenario arises in which this BCP becomes active. In that case, there will likely be significant levels of stress and anxiety for all staff and, under certain circumstances, staff families as well.

The implications of this cannot be fully provided for in detailed terms. People and welfare requirements of the BCP will be primarily managed by the Human Resources (HR) Department, represented in the BCP scenario by the HR Recovery Team.

Conclusion:

The BCP offers a structure, instructions, and a concept of operations to help organizations continue and/or quickly recover their crucial business functions in the event that regular operations are disrupted. This Article provides an overview of continuity operations and specifies the staff members' roles and responsibilities.