What is MBCO or Minimum Business Continuity Objective?

What is MBCO?

The MBCO, or Minimum Business Continuity Objective, is the minimum level of products or services provided during a disaster. Articulated correctly, the MBCO gives guidance on what should be recovered and how extensive the recovery should be.

For example, an MBCO may provide telephone services to all premium-tier customers within 4 hours of a disruption. Here, we see the call centre as a CBF providing service to "premium-tier" customers, and this function, should it be disrupted in a disaster, would have to be recovered and resumed within 4 hours.

3D Dictionary 5th Edition Typically, MBCOs can be classified as either Corporate MBCO or Business Unit MBCO.

Corporate MBCO

The Corporate MBCO is set with a management perspective. Therefore, it is not meant to go into every detail but focuses on the most significant must-haves in the organisation.

Business Unit MBCO

Based on the highlighted priorities, business units would then take their cue from the Corporate MBCO and develop their own BU MBCOs. Generally, the Corporate MBCO is business-driven, so you might not see life and safety mentioned in the Corporate MBCO, but this does not mean employee safety is a low priority. Instead, such crisis priorities are a given and must be carried out.

Conducting a BIA is essential for your organisation's business continuity programme. Knowing these key concepts is critical for successfully implementing a business impact analysis exercise. The lack of clarity, often referred to as the "precision" in understanding the BCP terminology, is caused by the incorrect implementation of the BC programme.

Structure and Format of MBCO

Here is some quick guidance on the writing of the MBCO:

Identify your organisation's mission
- This would be the primary purpose of the organisation

Identify your organisation's essential products and services
- These should ideally be aligned with the task of your organisation

For each key product/service, think about a disruption (e.g., fire) at Headquarters, call centres, warehouse and the various impacts.
For each key product/service, determine either:
- To continue <Service/ Product/ Business Activity> to <Type of Customer> within <Acceptable Timeframe> OR
- To resume <Measurable percentage / Amount> OF <Service/ Product/ Business Activity> WITHIN <Acceptable Timeframe>

Examples of MBCO

S/No	Business Unit	MBCO
1	Human Resources	Process all monthly staff salaries within no more than seven days after the disruption Deliver critical internal communications across the organisation within no more than a day
2	Digital Tech	Maintain and bring up all urgent customer-facing and back-end applications within a period of <?> hours Maintain and bring up all store/food outlet systems within a period of <?> hours
3	Retail Services	Continue all Retail Services across Supermarkets and branches within a period of 1 day
4	Food Services	Continue unimpeded operations of Food Courts, Coffee Shops, and Hawker Centre operations Continuation of catering services for the relevant service centres
5	Supply Chain	Ensure all stocks can continue to be received within a period of 2 days. Ensure storage locations are all operational within two days Ensure that transport needs are met for both internal customers (B2B and B2C) as well as external customers are up within five days
6	Finance	Ensure all urgent payments are processed within seven days
7	Technology Service Provider	Maintain the SLA requirements for all customers and minimise the impact of disruption were reasonably practicable Ensure compliance with regulatory requirements
8	Biomedical Manufacturing	Process & ship products to customers & distribution centres T + 5 days of a disaster. Maintain > 50% production capabilities for production line T + 2 weeks of a disaster. Maintain > 50% production capabilities for all production line T + 4 weeks of a disaster.
9	Power Generation	Ensure the safe operation of all chemical plants in support of the generation of electricity, with minimum interruption within the permissible regulatory requirements
10	Insurance	Ensure existing policies are maintained, "critical" claims are assessed, and valid claims are paid out.

More Information About Blended Learning BCM-5000 [BL-B-5]

To know more about our blended learning program and when the next course is scheduled, feel free to contact our friendly course consultant colleagues via sales.ap@bcm-institute.org. They are the BL-B-3 Blended Learning BCM-300 ISO22301 BCMS Implementer and the BL-B-5 Blended Learning BCM-5000 ISO22301 BCMS Expert Implementer.