Business Continuity Planning That Keeps You Operating

Beyond Emergency Response

Emergency plans address immediate threats—fire, medical emergencies, security incidents. But what happens after the emergency is resolved? How does your organisation continue operating when your building is inaccessible, your systems are down, or key staff are unavailable?

Business continuity planning addresses the operational reality of disruption. It ensures your organisation can maintain critical functions, serve customers, meet obligations, and protect revenue during and after adverse events.

Many organisations discover the gaps in their continuity planning only when disaster strikes. By then, improvisation replaces preparation, and the costs—financial, reputational, and operational—multiply rapidly.

Messana Group develops business continuity plans that transform uncertainty into structured response, giving your organisation the resilience to weather disruption.

What Business Continuity Covers

Operational Disruptions: Events that prevent normal business operations—building damage, utility failures, IT system outages, supply chain interruptions.

Extended Incidents: Situations that continue beyond the immediate emergency response period—prolonged building closures, pandemic restrictions, infrastructure damage requiring extended repairs.

Resource Unavailability: Loss of access to key personnel, equipment, systems, or facilities needed to maintain operations.

Recovery Coordination: The structured process of returning to normal operations after disruption, including catching up on delayed work and restoring full capability.

Our Business Continuity Services

Business Impact Analysis

Understanding the consequences of disruption is the foundation of effective continuity planning. Our business impact analysis identifies:

Critical Functions: Which business activities must continue during disruption? Which can be suspended temporarily? For how long?

Recovery Time Objectives: How quickly must each function be restored to avoid unacceptable consequences? What is the maximum tolerable downtime?

Recovery Point Objectives: For data-dependent functions, how much data loss is acceptable? What backup frequency is required?

Dependencies: What resources—staff, systems, facilities, suppliers, information—does each function require to operate?

Impact Assessment: What are the financial, operational, regulatory, and reputational consequences of function unavailability over time?

Recovery Strategy Development

With impact analysis complete, we develop strategies to maintain or restore critical functions:

Alternative Operating Procedures: How can critical functions continue if primary methods are unavailable? Manual workarounds, alternative suppliers, remote working arrangements.

Resource Requirements: What minimum resources are needed to execute alternative procedures? Staff numbers, equipment, systems access, workspace.

Relocation Options: If your primary premises are inaccessible, where can operations continue? Home working, alternative sites, third-party facilities.

Communication Plans: How will you communicate with staff, customers, suppliers, and stakeholders during disruption? What channels will you use if primary systems fail?

Business Continuity Plan Development

We document your continuity strategies in a structured plan that provides:

Activation Criteria: Clear thresholds for when the continuity plan should be activated, avoiding both premature activation and delayed response.

Team Structure: Roles and responsibilities during continuity operations, including decision-making authority and communication chains.

Response Procedures: Step-by-step procedures for activating alternative operations, prioritising activities, and managing resources during disruption.

Recovery Procedures: Structured approach to returning to normal operations, including catch-up activities, system restoration, and operational verification.

Contact Information: Essential contacts for internal teams, key suppliers, service providers, and external stakeholders.

Plan Testing and Exercises

Plans untested are plans untrusted. We help you validate your business continuity arrangements through:

Tabletop Exercises: Facilitated walkthroughs of disruption scenarios, testing decision-making processes and identifying plan gaps without operational disruption.

Functional Exercises: Testing specific continuity capabilities—activating alternative work locations, switching to backup systems, executing manual procedures.

Full-Scale Exercises: Comprehensive tests that simulate actual disruption conditions, validating end-to-end continuity capabilities.

Exercise Evaluation: Detailed assessment of exercise outcomes, identifying strengths, weaknesses, and areas for plan improvement.

Industry-Specific Continuity Planning

Different industries face different continuity challenges. Our experience spans:

Healthcare: Patient care continuity, medication access, medical records availability, regulatory compliance during disruption.

Financial Services: Transaction processing, regulatory reporting, customer access, data integrity requirements.

Manufacturing: Production continuity, supply chain management, inventory protection, quality control maintenance.

Professional Services: Client service delivery, project continuity, confidential data protection, knowledge worker productivity.

Retail: Sales channel availability, inventory management, customer communication, payment processing.

Education: Teaching continuity, student safety, examination integrity, administrative function maintenance.

We understand the specific regulatory requirements, operational constraints, and stakeholder expectations relevant to your sector.

What You Receive

Business Impact Analysis Report: Comprehensive assessment of your critical functions, dependencies, and recovery requirements.

Business Continuity Plan Document: Professionally formatted plan document containing all procedures, contact information, and reference materials.

Quick Reference Guides: Condensed procedure summaries for continuity team members and key staff.

Exercise Materials: Scenario scripts, facilitation guides, and evaluation frameworks for testing your plan.

Implementation Guidance: Recommendations for communicating the plan to staff, training continuity team members, and maintaining plan currency.

Maintaining Your Business Continuity Plan

Business continuity plans require ongoing maintenance to remain effective:

Regular Review: Plans should be reviewed at least annually to ensure they reflect current operations, personnel, and contact information.

Change Management: Significant operational changes—new systems, organisational restructuring, premises moves—should trigger plan updates.

Exercise Feedback: Lessons learned from exercises should be incorporated into plan revisions.

Incident Learning: Real disruption events provide valuable learning opportunities for improving future resilience.

We offer ongoing support to maintain your continuity capability over time.

Integration with Emergency Planning

Business continuity planning complements your emergency response procedures. Emergency plans address immediate threats and life safety. Continuity plans address operational recovery and sustained alternative operations.

We can help integrate these frameworks to ensure seamless transition from emergency response to continuity operations, with clear handoff points and coordinated procedures.

Why Messana Group for Business Continuity

Emergency Management Foundation: Our sixteen years of emergency management experience provides deep understanding of how disruptions unfold and what organisations actually need during crisis.

Practical Approach: We develop plans that work in practice, not theoretical documents that fail under pressure. Our plans are tested through exercises and refined based on real-world feedback.

Cross-Industry Experience: We have developed continuity plans for organisations across sectors, bringing lessons learned from diverse operational environments.

Ongoing Relationship: Business continuity is not a one-time project. We maintain relationships with our clients, supporting plan updates, exercise facilitation, and continuous improvement.