About Business Continuity
Investing in business continuity planning is the most basic form of insurance you can have for your business and is critical no matter how small or large your operation. Business continuity planning means having plans in place to keep your business running in the event of unforeseen circumstances.
This could be anything from a lengthy power outage to having to vacate your building for a period of time.
You need plans in place to get your organisation meeting customer and stakeholder expectations as quickly as possible and to reduce the financial and reputational loss to your business.
These plans need to be linked with your information technology disaster recovery, crisis management and any risk management frameworks. We ensure there is integration of all these elements and that the level of preparedness is appropriate to our client’s needs.
What we offer
Our approach to business continuity is to take the best aspects of international standards, blend these with our own experiences, and then customise a solution that meets the needs of our clients. We can help to develop your capability or assess your existing capability.
Although we tailor our approach to each client, we work with a range of recognised guidelines for business continuity. We do this to ensure compliance with recognised standards, including:
- AS/NZS 5050:2010. Business Continuity - Managing Disruption-Related Risk
- BSI ISO 22301:2012
We are guided by the Business Continuity Institute definition of business continuity management:
“a holistic management process that identifies potential impacts that threaten an organisation and provides a framework for building resilience and the capability for an effective response that safeguards the interests of its key stakeholders, reputation, brand and value creating activities.”
Step 1
Familiarisation with the organisation, management structure, culture and facilities
Kestrel Group visits the organisation and meets with key management and staff to obtain an understanding of the operations of the business, any existing business continuity plans, the risks, critical processes, information technology, infrastructure and facilities as well as dependencies on key suppliers or other business partners.
Step 2
Identify critical business processes, business recovery strategies and resource needs
Using the information gathered in Step 1 we establish the critical business activities, the timeframes in which these would need to be re-established, strategies to be employed, internal and external interdependencies and resources required.
Step 3
Development of the plan
Documentation which covers crisis management, business continuity, IT and business recovery is developed (or refreshed). The content of plans complies with international standards but reflects the style of documentation which is appropriate for the organisation.
Step 4
Maintenance, training, testing and compliance programme
An annual maintenance, testing and training programme is developed and guidance and support provided to those within the organisation responsible for the ongoing management and maintenance of business continuity.
We also offer Information Technology Disaster Recovery
Ensuring an organisation can withstand major information technology business interruptions, and continue to operate is critical to its ongoing resilience.
Whether you have your own in-house IT disaster recovery solution that needs testing, or you need to review or develop your IT capability, Kestrel Group can help through our business partner - Plan-b.
Plan-b is New Zealand’s largest dedicated business continuity company. It provides contingency services to over 500 organisations in New Zealand and Australia.
Plan-b provides around the clock access to standby business recovery facilities in Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch. It also provides mobile workspace units for managing tape and online backups, replicating servers, testing and proving recovery, and providing remote access to crisis response information.
Our association with Plan-b allows us to offer our clients specialist IT disaster recovery support integrated with business continuity planning.