Business Continuity Planning and Emergency Management
Business continuity planning provides focus driven preparedness for businesses. At its
simplest, business continuity planning (BCP) is the act of setting up a plan to ensure the
very survival of an organization. Since the early concern with the restoration of computer
data, the concept of continuity has evolved in response to a changing environment. Major
events have demanded that BCP encompass a growing number of concerns. The severe
consequences of September 11th have raised many implications as to how BCP will evolve
in response to the disaster. How BCP evolves will directly influence business as a whole.
A major implication is that terrorism must be considered as a real threat to the survival of
business. Second, BCP will expand to include a concern for the physical safety of
employees. The third implication may involve the decentralization of business operations
as central to BCP. Fourth, it may have to expand its sphere of concern to include the
regional impacts of a disaster (including economic) to the area where a business is located.
Fifth is a new concern for the human relationships that a business depends on for its
survival. The sixth implication for BCP is a recovery time of zero. The seventh implication
is the renewed importance of critical data back-up systems. The eighth is the inclusion of
physical security concerns. The expansion of BCP to encompass more concerns leads to
the ninth implication, which is the increased importance of and pressure on business
continuity planners.
September 11th raised awareness of the fact that the survival of business depends on many
