What is BCP, Business Continuity Plan

Last updated: 2025-08-24

Definition of Business Continuity Plan

A Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is a documented playbook that helps small and midsize businesses prepare for, respond to, and recover from disruptions. The goal of a BCP is to keep people safe, protect critical assets and data, and maintain or quickly restore essential operations after an incident.

Here are the key components of a BCP:

  • Risk Assessment: Identifying likely threats such as severe weather, power outages, cyberattacks, supply chain issues, or facility disruptions.
  • Business Impact Analysis (BIA): Estimating how disruptions affect key processes, customers, revenue, and compliance, and setting recovery priorities.
  • Risk Mitigation: Putting safeguards in place (backups, redundancy, vendor alternatives, insurance, cybersecurity controls) to reduce the likelihood or impact of risks.
  • Recovery Strategies: Defining how to continue or quickly restore critical services (e.g., remote work procedures, alternate sites, data restore steps, manual workarounds).
  • Testing and Maintenance: Training staff, running drills and tabletop exercises, fixing gaps, and updating the plan as the business, staff, or technology changes.

A practical BCP helps SMBs keep core services running during emergencies, protect their reputation, meet customer expectations, and reduce financial losses.

What does business continuity mean for mid-sized companies?

  • Business continuity isn’t just about preventing downtime—it’s also about how you respond when disruptions happen.
  • It means being ready to maintain essential, mission-critical operations after an incident or interruption.
  • This readiness is typically documented in a Business Continuity Plan (BCP).

How Aptien Helps Manage Business Continuity

  • Risk Identification and Assessment: Spot and evaluate risks and threats to your day-to-day operations.
  • Business Impact Analysis: Identify critical processes, systems, and suppliers needed to keep the business running.
  • Process and Workflow Updates: Document policies and standard operating procedures (SOPs).
  • Policy Management: Centralize and share policies, procedures, workflows, and best practices across the company.
  • Employee Training: Streamline onboarding and ongoing training with guided workflows.
  • Business Continuity Plan (BCP): Host and manage your BCP within the policy portal.
  • Communication Plan: Set up clear channels to keep employees, customers, and partners informed during disruptions.
  • Review and Improvement: Drive continuous improvement with shared tasks, tracking, and feedback.