Business Continuity Management the United Kingdom - Term Paper Example

Business Continuity Management Name & ID Course Name & Code Instructor’s Name 28th March 2010 1. Operating environment and stakeholder analysis The number of accidents and incidents are continuing to rise and it may be attributed to technological changes, societal misgivings, and natural factors. Fires, accidents and incidents occur in homes, schools, and anyway where people are involved. Thus, Fire and Rescue Services in UK has played a major role in ensuring risks are minimised while, while being on time if incidents occurs, and putting in place mitigation actions to ensure the society or scene reverts to its previous position (before the incident occurred). An example of company that is under the UK government and it provides this service is the Lancashire Fire and Rescue Services (LFRS) (Blyth, 2009). Statutory duties LFRS and UK Fire and Rescue Services roles can be understood through reviewing the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 that was passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom, it then received Royal Assent on 22 July 2004, and it became operational on 1 October 2004. Some of the statutory duties and powers of Fire and Rescue Authorities that are defined by this Act includes (Hiles, 2007): Fight fires Promote fire safety Rescue civil from road accidents Protect property and people from fires Provide assistance in other specific emergencies such as terrorist attack, and flooding Ensuring that they provide optimum assistance and service to the community when need arises Operating environment The LFRS is an emergency service department that provides its services for the Shire County in England. The department brings into consideration six commands, which are Pennine, Central, Eastern, Southern, Northern, and Western. Moreover, the department also provides assistance to other fire and rescue departments when need or nature of the incident that occurs (Elliott, Swartz & Herbane, 2002). Stakeholder The fire and rescue department is an important inclusion in the society as it ensures the safety and security of the communities. This means that it brings into consideration many stakeholders that try to ensure the service both quality and quantity is per the requirements of the community (Gallagher, 2002). Some of the stakeholders that are involved in fire and rescue services include: Police – they provide assistance and security measures during incidents time, and during prevention. Ambulances and hospital – ambulances ensures that the injured are rushed to the hospital, while the hospitals provide the appropriate medical assistance. Media – updates the public on the development of the incident or the prevention strategies that are in place. Private agencies and Non-governmental organisations – assists in providing the necessary equipments, technology and human resource but are required to follow the provisions provide by the government and the fire and rescue authority. Government – passes appropriate legislations and statutory directives to ensure the public, and other stakeholders operate efficiently, championing safety and security (Matthys, 2004). Emergency response Emergency response requires the collaboration of the entire organisation assisted by other stakeholders. It calls upon the involvement of human resource and equipments in a way that it does not cause conflicts. This means the staff should be allocated clearly defined responsibilities and roles to ensure efficiency and effectiveness (Elliott, Swartz & Herbane, 2002). 2. Critical activities and maximum tolerable period of disruption LFRS provides numerous important services to the community. The level of competency and the availability of appropriate equipments and machines determine the capability of LFRS and its efficiency. Some of the activities that are accomplished by LFRS include: Emergency response – the aim of most fire and rescue services is to ensure that at time of emergencies, they provide optimum services and assistance. Fire safety enforcement – it is important to inform all stakeholders, and organisations on the threats that may occur in cases of accidents. The fire and rescue service is required t ensure the organisations and communities follow completely legislations and statutory laws that have been passed by the government or sector regulators (Hiles, 2007). Training – the staff and other people that are involved in the fire and rescue services should be efficient and effective. The training process includes the use of modern technology, and any other equipment that requires technical considerations. Community (educate public) – informed community members decreases chances in which accidents may occur. This means that fire and rescue services should educate and inform the community on the threats and risks that are associated with fire especially clarifying on ignorance and arrogance (Matthys, 2004). Maximum tolerable period of disruption This is the period after an incident in which organisations viability will be irrevocably threatened if the service delivery is not restored (Elliott, Swartz & Herbane, 2002). This means that it is important to ensure that services are restored ensuring the needs and requirements of the society and community are fulfilled. 3. Time recovery objectives When emergencies occur, it results in disruption of services, and thus disruption may affect the way in which the organisations and other sectors can operate. The time recovery for many services should be at minimum to ensure adverse consequences are not reported. Thus, recovery time objective is the maximum that may elapse before business function is restored. The following table explores on time recovery objectives and plans. This planning process is based on tires (Blyth, 2009): Objective Time Discussions Incident Response 2 hours (first few hours) The aim of this part is to ensure the response team is within the incident site, providing most important assistance ensuring that health and safety of the public is championed. The main objective is to decrease the impact of the emergency to society and community. Business Continuity 24 hours (first few days) Most things in the society are defined by the way businesses operate, and services that are provided. Thus, it is appropriate to ensure that business continuity is championed at the earliest time possible to reduce influences of stress and panic. Recovery Process Later days e.g. weeks, months and even years Recovery process depends on the nature of incident that as occurred. Some incidents time recovery may take some hours while others may take years. 4. Critical dependencies Critical dependencies are those components and requirements that are needed so that the organisation can operate effectively (Elliott, Swartz & Herbane, 2002). In cases of incidents, these components and essentials may not fulfil the requirements since they may be destroyed or any other means that may prevent its effectiveness. Thus, in the case of fire and rescue services, the most critical dependencies issues are: People – communities are important and they are the most vulnerable components during time of incidents. People are valued more than any component and thus appropriate measures should be in place to ensure restoration is optimised. Human resource/staff depends on people to accomplish the response and recovery strategies, and hence should be provided with optimum assistance. Therefore, it is important to ensure and maintain safety and security of the individuals affected by the incident (Gallagher, 2002). Buildings – These structural components define physical or environmental nature of surroundings. They are usually adversely affected by incidents and disasters, and furthermore are important components that people cannot operate without. Stability and nature of these buildings should be assessed periodically and on daily basis in the case of incident. Vehicles – vehicles helps in ensuring prevention and mitigation measures are accomplished effectively. This means that destruction of vehicles may inhibit the success of prevention, and any other measure that can be utilised to accomplish emergency purposes. Thus, appropriate measures should be in place to insure these vehicles, and ensure they operate effectively (Hiles, 2007). Information technology – technology requirements are huge, which means that appropriate measures should be in place to safeguard technological equipments. Advancement in technology has ensured information technology is present in everything that organisations utilise. Thus, in the case of data, back up systems should be in place, and should include other security measures. Fuel – fuel can easily contribute to the speed and extent in which fires burn. Fuel should be stored away from communities or society, and prevention (e.g. retardants) utilised in preventing adversities associated with fire incidents (Gallagher, 2002). Moreover, fuel should be provided in large quantities to ensure the fire engines, ambulances and other machines that utilise fuel to operate efficiently and effectively. 5. Strategies for maintaining critical dependencies It is appropriate to determine a strategy that deals with the critical dependencies so that activities may not stop. Thus, this strategy ensures that critical activities are maintained in case of incidents. Hence, the strategies for emergency incidents are (Blyth, 2009): People – in the case the fatalities exceeds 25% it is appropriate to formulate and implement a plan that ensures activities continues to operate efficiently. Some of the strategies that can be used to solve these issues are the use of third parties, multi-skilled workforce, succession planning, and documentation on how things are accomplished (Elliott, Swartz & Herbane, 2002). Buildings - if more than two buildings are affected it is important to provide for other areas that tasks and duties can be completed. It means alternatives should be in place that may include alternative buildings either within the organisation or provided by third party. Moreover, work can be completed remotely or from home. Technology – technology drives everyday requirements, which means that absence of some of these technologies may be disastrous. When more than ten percent of information technology infrastructure is destroyed, it is paramount to provide a plan. The plan may include utilisation of external provision, remote access, and making these infrastructures resilient to incidents. Stakeholders’ strategies - stakeholders or suppliers are important components in an organisation, which means that a strategy is in plan to deal with any eventualities. Some of the strategies that may be utilised include maintaining stock, stockpiling, increasing the number of suppliers, effective and reliable stakeholders’ relationship. 6. Critical dependency monitoring arrangements The type of crises determines monitoring arrangements, which also defines the roles and responsibilities for each managerial position. This means that delegation of duties, championing involvement improves on efficiency of tasks and motivation. Moreover, it reduces changes of conflicts or misunderstanding between the departments involved. Fire and Rescue Services bring into consideration different departments that are supposed to work together ensuring threats and risks are minimised. For example in most Fire and Rescue Services, there are Head of the department then, Head of IT, Head of fire risk management, Head of human resources, Head of transport and Head of media. In specific scenarios, and the size of incident the structure in which monitoring is based on is flexible. Thus, if an incident occurs in the garage, the persons who will be involved are the head of department and the supervisor of the garage(Blyth, 2009). It means that the position and position holder should be respected since they have better understanding of their region compared to other persons. Moreover, maintenance and inspection framework should be formulated so that the nature and position of equipments and other organisational resources are known. Furthermore, a risk assessment plan should be implemented to determine the most vulnerable places that appropriate measures should be initiated (Hiles, 2007). 7. Plan invocation arrangements Plan invocation is an important requirement in times of incident, because it provides a balance between the incident and planning team. Plan invocation brings into consideration numerous factors that shape the planning and involvement process. Some of the tasks that are completed in this segment include: Responsibility – it is prudent to define the responsibility of people involved in that there is clearly defined person who is responsible for invoking the plan. Trigger points – invoking the plan requires clearly understood measuring points or frameworks that could result in determining optimum time to utilise it. This is because at times, invoking the plan may be inappropriate or may lead to numerous complexities. Thus, it is prudent to determine clearly the trigger points. Crisis Planning Team – the team should include most heads of department or people who are responsible for specific sectors. This will provide convenient means for analysing the available resources, and the most appropriate means and points of trigger to ensure the entire process is efficient and effective. Other factors that can be brought into consideration are the locations where the meetings would be held, the method that will be utilised in invoking the plan and standing the Crisis Plan Team down (Elliott, Swartz & Herbane, 2002). 8. Generic response arrangements for managing disruption Generic emergency planning is a framework that is designed to manage the response to, and recovery from any incident whatever the nature, size or cause. It means that the generic emergency planning provides a means in which key responsibilities and roles are identified thus include incorporation of coordination arrangements and agreed management, and communication procedures. Thus, all stakeholders that are involved in providing services and products should ensure that they coordinate among themselves fulfilling the requirements of the public (Gallagher, 2002). 9. A media strategy for internal and external stakeholders Media plays a major role in the community especially at times of incidents and emergencies. This means that there should be in place a clearly defined media strategy to ensure that the external and internal stakeholders are satisfied. When an emergency occurs, the media plays a major role to the society that includes provision of prompt and first-hand coverage of the incident. This means that understanding the media allows for a convenient way in which the disaster management team engage them (Blyth, 2009). At the time of incident, they facilitate the transmission of messages that helps in informing public behaviour, generation of humanitarian assistance, and contribute towards improving quality of life. Two strategies may be used to create alliance between the media and the stakeholders. One of the strategies is that the media should be provided with information on the emergency, impact on the population, developments and relief operations. This means that when information is based on evidence and facts, the media can help in making impact of the incident on population, managing population response, focusing attention to specific matters, reducing uncertainty, and thus informing the public (Hiles, 2007). The second strategy is building alliances with the media allow for coordination of initiatives to protect community’s health. Thus, the media can promote participation and civil support, direct cooperative efforts; bringing into consideration groups providing assistance, response teams, and donors. Generally, the media is supposed to ensure that civil public understand the situations and informing them that business requirement would operate as usual during emergency periods. Accurate information should be provided and this information should not cause panic. Hence, the civil society could ensure all duties and tasks since the media do not transmit inflammatory and inaccurate information (Elliott, Swartz & Herbane, 2002). 10. Plan development, review and training arrangements Clearly developed and defined plans should be in place to ensure any threat that occurs has a clear means in which it can easily be solved. To ensure that the organisation operates efficiently, it is paramount and prudent to provide for plan development, review of plans, and training arrangements (Matthys, 2004). Plan development can be defined as a way or means in place that provides framework and platform in which emergencies can be addressed. Plan development provides proposals and policies that informs and guides day-to-day decision-making ensuring these decisions are consistent and rational. The plan development brings together views of stakeholders, and helps in formulating a framework that address any issues that may occur within the county or jurisdiction area (Elliott, Swartz & Herbane, 2002). The plan should be review consistently because changing environment requirements may make some parts of the development plan and other plans obsolete. Frequent reviews are better and should also analyse the appropriate of equipments and technologies that are in place. On the other hand, training provides an opportunity in which the staff can understand the way in which equipments can be utilised and means in which they can work together as a team. Moreover, the training process should include dealing with different types of disasters, ensuring that the staff can deal with any disaster that may occur (Gallagher, 2002). 11. Embedding the plan into the day to day management systems and organization culture Plans are usually formulated for future references and use. Goals are usually set first before the plan is developed since the goals define the steps that should be followed. Formulation of the plans should place into consideration the impact of the plans to internal and external stakeholders. This means that the views of the organisation stakeholders should provide their views so that it is embedded into the plan. Moreover, workshops and orientation should be carried out to ensure that the culture of organisation is streamlined into the fundamentals of the organisation (Blyth, 2009). 12. Conclusion Business continuity plan is an important requirement for an organisation that deals with fire and rescue requirements. This means that every fire and rescue department should have a clearly defined business continuity plan to address the frequent changing requirements in the society. Numerous factors are brought into consideration including stakeholders in addressing community and societal issues as illustrated in this report. 13. References Blyth, M., 2009. Business Continuity Management: Building an Effective Incident Management Plan. New York: John Wiley and Sons. Elliott, D., Swartz, E. & Herbane, B., 2002, Business continuity management: a crisis management approach. London: Routledge Publishers. Gallagher, M., 2002. Business continuity management: how to protect your company from danger. New York: Trans-Atlantic Publications. Hiles, A., 2007. The definitive handbook of business continuity management, 2nd Ed. New York: John Wiley and Sons. Matthys, E., 2004. Business Continuity Management. New York: Benefolo. UCLA. Business Continuity Management Read More