Planning Steps for Implementing BCM for Town Council

What are the Key Steps Undertaken to Implement BCM for a Town Council?

Before the start of your Business Continuity Management (BCM) project, one of the initial key steps is to have a good "Understanding of Your Organisation: Town Council", in the context of  business continuity management. 

What is Business Continuity Management?

According to the ISO 22301 BCMS Standard, Business Continuity Management (Goh, 2015), or BCM is a “Holistic management process that identifies potential threats to an organization and the impacts to business operations those threats, if realized, might cause, and which provides a framework for building organizational resilience with the capability for an effective response that safeguards the interests of its key stakeholders, reputation, brand and value-creating activities."

Source: ISO 22301:2012 – Societal Security – Business Continuity Management Systems - Requirements - clause 3.4

This definition can be simplified as an organization-wide discipline and a complete set of processes that identifies potential impacts which threaten an organization. It provides a capability for an effective response that safeguards the interests of its major stakeholders and reputation.

What is BCM for Town Councils?

In the context of town councils, business continuity management is a complete set of processes that identifies potential impacts which threaten the town council as well as various aspects that the town council manages.

It allows the town council, as an organisation, to be equipped in protecting its reputation and dealing with any incoming threats that may hinder its ability to perform its various daily tasks such as maintaining the cleanliness of various zones or maintaining landscape grounds.

BCM Planning Methodology

Town councils are vulnerable to disruptions and threats. Any incident, if not managed properly, can escalate to become a disaster or crisis, or even cause significant injuries to employees or even death. Therefore, a town council should be prepared for an incident before it occurs to minimize its impact should it happen. One such way to prepare is to adopt a BCM Planning Methodology.

The BCM planning methodology, like any other planning process, provides a framework for requirements, effort, and deliverables, each phase leading into the next in an endlessly repeating cycle. The BCM Planning Methodology (Goh, 2015) is divided into the various steps. The key is to divide the entire process such that it is manageable.  

Risk Analysis and Review [RAR]

Within the context of a Town Council, a wide array of risks, can be identified. One possible risk scenario is the loss of an office building (New Market Town Council, 2017) or IT systems. The risk rating is determined based on the multiplication of the likelihood and impact. In addition to these factors, controls are often present to reduce risks.  Because the facilities managed by the town council can be geographically dispersed over a large area, the threats should be reviewed and analyse based on location.

Business Impact Analysis [BIA]

Business functions, such as the cleaning of common areas or electrical maintenance, are analysed to determine whether they are critical or non-critical to the town council as a whole. A set of criteria is developed to guide this analysis. Business function criticality will determine the priority and urgency in which the disruption is dealt with.

Besides the direct services or "business functions" mandated as its core responsibilities under the Town Council Act, operating the town council should also include backroom business functions that may not be as obvious. As mentioned in the earlier blog, examples of such business function should include  Administration, Human Resources and Finance which is not external facing.  These functions are often centralized or even outsourced, their identification and prioritization should be considered as part of the BCM scope.

Business Continuity Strategy [BCS]

Once critical business functions are identified, it is time to develop interim recovery guidelines and procedures to allow town council's business units to operate between the “time of disaster” and “ready for routine business.”  There is a need to develop strategies to provision for alternate facilities, service providers and store backups of vital equipment and records in a safe place

Plan Development [PD]

In the plan development phase, the BC plan and its associated procedures for the recovery of the town council after a crisis or disaster is documented. This plan is based on all the important details from the earlier business impact analysis and business continuity strategy phases.

Testing and Exercising [TE]

Once the BC plan is documented, tests and exercises are carried out to ensure the BC plan works, and its validity proven. The plan from the plan development phase is run through simulations where it is ultimately graded based on criteria. If the results of a test or exercise is deemed to be unsatisfactory, any error or omission it might have will need to be corrected.

Program Management

How To Be BCM Competent and Where Do I Start?

If you are a Singapore-based company or Singaporean and Permanent Resident, you can opting to received training via:

• Singapore Workforce Skills Qualifications (WSQ) Course Code: BCM-310; 320;330]
• CITREP+ Critical Infocomm Technology Resource Programme PLUS (CITREP+)

References

Goh, M. H. (2015). Business Continuity Management Planning Methodology. International Journal of Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity, 6, 9–16. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.14257/ijdrbc.2015.6.02

NMTC (2017). Business Continuity Plan: New Market Town Council. New Market Town Council, (Jun).

Tideswell, J. (2015). Business Continuity Management Strategy. West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service. Retrieved from http://www.westyorksfire.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Business-Continuity-Management-Strategy-332.14kb.pdf