Detailed notification procedures are one of the most important aspects of effective business continuity planning. The levels of personnel involvement will vary depending on the situation, magnitude of incident, and/or process vulnerabilities.
A business continuity event may be initiated from a single, contained incident that affects one facility, or a large scale incident that affects an entire region. With an effective response of a single incident, the hazardous ripple effect to associated processes can be minimized. With an isolated, contained incident, business restoration should be at an accelerated rate if communication processes and continuity of operations planning has been tested and properly implemented.
If an emergency has spread from its initial source and affects two or more business processes, the incident has a greater potential for impact. An escalated emergency situation is potentially dangerous to business sustainability and requires a more expansive business continuity response. A multi-tier business continuity event can extend beyond the facility borders to affect personnel, multiple critical business processes, vendors or suppliers, and customers.
The following is a sample notification system for a Business Continuity Plan. Specific notifications depend on company directed roles and responsibilities, number of personnel, and the amount of critical business processes that may be affected.
1. Business Continuity Plan is activated by the Crisis Management Team Coordinator(s), or equivalent.
2. Business Continuity Coordinator sends alert to assigned business continuity team leaders, establishes initial meeting details, and reports details of situation.
- Group leaders: act as a liaison for assigned Business Continuity Teams to Coordinator(s)
- Team Leaders: facilitate all recovery activities
3. Team Leaders: Meet to assess critical processes impacts and determine availability of resources, communications, people, and facilities.
4. Team Leaders reports impact analysis details to Group Leaders.
5. Crisis Management Team Coordinator directs Crisis Management team based on Group Leaders information.
6. Business Continuity Coordinator briefs Group leaders on Incident Action Plan (IAP), Group leaders brief Team Leaders on IAP.
7. Ongoing communications of status updates continue as necessary to implement IAP, potential relocation, and critical business process recoveries.