Business Continuity Management and Business Impact Analysis - Coursework Example

Table of Content 1. Introduction………………………………………………………………….….2 2. Crisis Management…………………………………………………….………3 3. Business Continuity Management and Business Impact Analysis……...3 4. British Red Cross…………………………………………………………..…...3 5. Fire and Rescue Serivce of BRC………………………………………………4 6. Crisis Management in FESS ………………………..…………………………5 7. Resource Management……………………………………………………….6 8. Procurement…………………………………………………………..………..7 a. Human Resource………………………………………………………8 b. Logistics…………………………………………………………………9 c. Financial Management………………………………………………..9 d. Communication and Advocacy………………………………………10 9. Decision Making Techniques and Resource Management during Fire Emergencies……………………………………………………………………11 10. Conclusion……………………………………………………….…………….12 11. References…………………………………………………………….………….14 Managing Resources {This analysis has been done under the preview of Crisis Management literature. It includes the analysis of vital and operational function of British Red Cross – FESS (Fire and Emergency support service). The report also includes the relation between important organisational functions and major process which are critical at the time of emergency and fire & rescue services of British Red Cross. We will analyze the critical processes and identify any potential vulnerability in them. The analysis has been done on the basis of information given on websites, journals, articles, research papers, books and many other sources.} 1. Introduction The very objective of this report is to analyze the processes and resources that need to be taken care of during any emergency regarding the fire and rescue services in U.K. This report has been written under the preview of literature related to Crisis management. For that matter we will first develop an understanding of crisis management, its process and planning. Additionaly, a voluntary sector organisation the British Red Cross (BRC) has been selected to examine the role of the ‘third’ sector. Four major resources has been identified, which are Human, Financial, Communication and Logistic resources. After an in depth analysis of these resources, an improvement plan has been proposed for consideration by the management team. Some of the strategy models like Business Continuity management (Business Impact Analysis) are also considered for proper analysis and planning. 2. Crisis Management Crisis management is a process by which any institution or organisation prepares itself for any unpredictable event which can put pressure on the work processes and efficiency of the organisation. Crisis Management is a part of risk management and in this the Fire Service works to avoid situations, which can threaten the organisation. There is a requirement for proper planning, skills and knowledge. 3. Business Continuity Management and Business Impact Analysis Business Continuity Management is a process, which provides a framework to ensure the resilience of any business; it is for ensuring the continuity of any business whether it is governmental or non-governmental. It provides a basis for ensuring the long term sustainability and strategies for survival. The emergency or any serious, unplanned situations can create a hurdle for the sustainability of the organisation. These situations can be natural disasters, unfortunate events, criminal activities etc. As a part of crisis management, an organisation needs to prepare strategies in advance. The British Red Cross, which exists as a voluntary organization to support the community in an emergency and disruptive situations. (Gallagher) Business Impact Analysis (BIA) is a very vital part of the business continuity management process. The main focus of BIA is to identify the impact of the different external and internal impacts on the functions and resources of the organisation during a crisis. BIA analysis is used to understand the most important impacts of operational hurdles and then to plan for how to protect the business process. There are various key elements of the BIA, which includes identifying critical business functions: “to determine the effect on the business function during an emergency and to find out the non-performing functions, which can be measured on the basis of regulatory, legal, financial and operational grounds.” (Barnes, 2004) 4. British Red Cross British Red Cross is among world largest non-government orgainisations (NGO’s), which is working for humanitarian motives, with a stated aim: “caring for people in crisis”. It has been established since 1863. Since then it has worked and served society during major crises like World War I and II and many other emergency situations (Fire and Rescue) and disaster. It abides by seven fundamental principles: – Humanity, Impartiality, Neutrality, Independence, Voluntary services, Unity and Universality. (Principle and Values) Its services include providing first aid training, fire and emergency support, humanitarian education, health and social care, HIV awareness etc. (Strategy Review and Analysis, 2003) 5. Fire and Rescue Serivce of BRC The British Red Cross (BRC) provides assistance to fire and rescue services all over the world and every year, thousands of families and individuals suffer physical and social damage to their home and lives from fire and other kinds of similar incidents. The fire and emergency support service (FESS) of the BRC is being developed with thousands of volunteers who are using a specially adapted vehicle, provides practical help and emotional support to vulnerable people affected by a domestic fire or similar incidents. Under this they provide services like immediate shelter, temporary accommodation, ensuring availabilities of basic amenities, communication facilities and recovery plans. FESS’s volunteers work in co-operation with local fire services across the UK and are ready to help. (Fire and emergency support service n.d.) The support provided by the BRC permits Fire & Rescue Services to use more of their own resources in more focused areas relating to their key performance indicators (KPI’s). These KPI’s can be found on the websites of every UK Fire Service and are the key measures used to independently assess the organizations performance each year. 6. Crisis Management in FESS Crisis management is a function of identifying current fire hazards and formulating ways through which the damaging effects of the identified risk hazards can be effectively managed and ways designed through which post crisis management can be carried out. Fire and rescue service crisis management focuses on maintaining public safety during major events in order to fulfill its corporate mission statement and assure stakeholders that recovery strategies are in place (Mitroff, 2003). 7. Resources Management It is imperative to identify the critical key performance indicators of a Fire Service before undertaking a BIA for identifying the importance of objectives in risk analysis and crisis management. This will help us to draw the boundaries of critical business functions and processes. To define these boundaries, first we need to analyze the inputs (people, material, time, and finances), process, output (the products and services). Typical KPI’s are: Reducing the number of primary fires. Reducing the number of deaths from fire Reducing the cost of service provision per 10,000 people of the Fire Authority’s area. Increasing the number of women and ethnic minority employees to match the % in the community (Lancashire Fire & Rescue Service Performance Plan , 2008) The audit commission has been tasked with the responsibility of performance assessment of all English Fire & Rescue Services each year. The KPI’s (which used to be known as ‘Best value indicators) highlight how well the resources of the Fire Service have been deployed to achieve their stated core objectives of saving lives, reducing injuries and protecting the community from harm. There are various resources, which are important for survival and sustainability at the time of crisis because without resources no organisation can provide a service to the community. There are four major resources which we have identified that are necessary at the time of crisis. Without proper management of these resources, all is vain. 8. Procurement In general terms, procurement means the provision of sufficient effective operational equipment, water facilities, clothing, IT systems, communications channels, which will be needed at that time of any crisis or sudden situation. So it is always better to procure these before any crisis. It is a part of preplanning during crisis management and it is essential because if resources are not available then the firefighters are compromised. Technically, the term procurement means a system for assessment, specification, purchase, evaluation and contractual costing and aftercare of equipment, personal protective clothing, appliances, furniture & fitting and all other service contracts. It is a part of long term planning also because to demonstrate efficient use of the budget, the procurement department must consider the ‘whole life’ costs of everything purchased. A common mistake is for an organization to purchase a piece of equipment because it is the cheapest on the market, only to find out in a few years that it is expensive or impossible to repair because there is no back-up service. For instance, the British government licensed Fire Buy Limited to procure firefighting equipment for 47 Fire and Rescue services in UK. The purpose is to get the best ‘whole life’ value for the lowest price through the bulk-buying of vehicles, protective clothing and respiratory equipment for all fire & rescue services. a. Human Resource Management Human Resources Management is very important for a Fire & Rescue Service organisation. This is the key resource of it because it represents the skills, knowledge, attitudes and values needed to perform various tasks to translate the core vision of the service into action. A fire fighter’s prime responsibility is to save lives and fight against fire. Many UK Fire Services such as Merseyside, West Yorkshire and Lancashire are modernizing the way they deploy their human resources. Since the ‘Bain’ report in 2003 the emphasis has moved from re-active (fire-fighting) to pro-active community (preventative) work. The prime responsibility of a firefighter has not changed. The method s used to save lives have changed and it is working according to the performance results of many UK Fire Services. Lancashire has recorded a fall in the number of deaths and injuries in the community every year for the last three years. Lancashire Fire & Rescue Service Performance Plan, 2008 b. Logistics Inter-organisational co-operation is very essential for effective crisis management and, should be based on a very clear hierarchy. Resources like firefighters, logistics, water and helicopters may be essential but their integration within planned operations is very important. For example if a telecommunication system in a helicopter is not compatible with the systems used by the fire fighters on the ground then this does not generate the desired results. c. Financial management Finance is one of the most important resources for any organisation. It has the same importance for a Fire & Rescue Service also, where unpredictable costs of working and extraordinary expenses are often required. (Barnes, 2004) The question is how Fire services authorities raise funds to finance the delivery of their services. Some of the money could be generated through increases in the rate of council tax, government grants, national business rates, and fees from customers for ‘special services’. The Fire and Rescue Services spend their money as per priorities for payment of salaries and pension to staff and purchase of fire engines, boats and hovercraft (for sea), helicopters (for air rescue), equipment like winches and harnesses etc., training equipment, personal protective equipment, firefighting equipment and high rise rescue equipment. The annual budget controls the total amount that can be spent and many meetings need to take place before the final budget is agreed well in advance. Every department works hard to show why their requests are most important. Strong management is important at these meetings to make sure that the finance is distributed to ensure the ‘essential’ priorities are financed first before requests for ‘desirable’ needs are agreed. d. Communication and advocacy There are more than 50,000 house fires each year in the UK, causing an average of 350 fatalities and 11,000 injuries – and most of these are preventable. As an overall communication and advocacy strategy in the delivery of community fire safety, Lancashire Fire & Rescue Service have achieved a good report from the Audit Commission inspectors in their Direction of Travel” reports. LFRS Performance Plan, 2008(a), p5 The communication system used within this Fire Service is housed in a modern communications building with a computerised Management Information System (MIS) linked to the mobilising system for the dispatch of fire engines. All information passed from Incident Commanders at each fire or crisis is automatically recorded within the MIS and this information is available to all officers within the organisation. This is a critical resource and is used to make the risk plans showing where most fires are happening. Then the community fire safety officers can focus their work in these areas to improve results in the year ahead. Figure 1 - Resources 9. Decision Making Techniques and Resource Management during Fire Emergencies – On the global front we have seen major events like 9/11, hurricane Katrina and forest fires, which required a lot of co-operation between systems and processes. But we have seen ineffective and poor management during these crises and this had worsened the situations out there. This is all because of the poor decisions taken by the management. So for this matter decision-making process needs to be perfect in crisis management. None of the crises are handled by a single fire and rescue service provider, it is always a co-ordination of many agencies. If a three-tier decision-making process is not applicable then crises are managed at national, regional and local level. When lots of agencies become involved in responding to an emergency – then strategic decision-making is not the responsibility of one single organisation and the 3-tier command structure needs additional resources. 10. Conclusion To conclude the above discussed processes and resources of Fire & Rescue Services under business continuity management as a part of crisis management, we can say that the basis purpose of any fire and rescue organisation is to control the situation from the start of any emergency through to the recovery phase. For this purpose all human, communications, operational and financial resources should be reliable, accurate and available so that fire fighters can work effectively with proper co-ordination. The most important resource available to fire brigades is finance because no planning for the delivery of any resources can happen without money. The critical meetings to plan the allocation of the annual budget must be guided by strong management. The human resources are the next most important because all the systems and procedures agreed will not work unless the personnel are trained and possess the necessary skills, knowledge and attitudes to deliver the required outcomes for the organisation. The Management Information System of Lancashire Fire & Rescue Service should be updated to serve the community fire safety departments’ better. The Regulatory Reform Order (Fire Safety) 2005 has placed different responsibilities upon the Fire Safety Inspectors and the MIS could be used to link technical Fire Safety officers with community fire safety personnel to identify risks in industrial and commercial sectors as well as the homes of the community. Fire Vehicles must carry enough infrastructures to ensure that their vehicles have enough water supplies without interruption because water supplies are the most important resource at a fire outbreak. References July 18, 2003. http://www.ifrc.org/cgi/pdf_appeals.pl?annual03/01590302.pdf (accessed April 15, 2009). Barnes, Joseph. Business Impact Analysis. November 2004. http://www.josephbarnes.co.uk/businessimpactanalysis.htm (accessed April 15, 2009). Fire and emergency support service. http://www.redcross.org.uk/standard.asp?id=82 (accessed may 21, 2009). Gallagher, Michael. "Business Continuity Management." http://www.scribd.com/doc/10324521/eBook-Pearson-Ed-Business-Continuity-Management (accessed April 15, 2009). "Global Positioning." November 9, 2007. http://www.ifrc.org/cgi/pdf_appeals.pl?annual06/MAA00008PU2.pdf (accessed April 15, 2009). Lancashire Fire & Rescue Service Performance Plan, 2008: http://www.lancsfire.gov.uk/IRMP/PerfRep2008/index.asp, (accessed May 18th, 2009) Mayers, James. "Power Tools - Stakeholder Mapping Influence." http://www.policy-powertools.org/Tools/Understanding/docs/stakeholder_influence_mapping_tool_english.pdf (accessed April 15, 2009). 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