Essential protection

Ironically, many brokers spend time advising clients on business continuity planning but forget to look over their shoulder to see what is happening back at their own offices.

It is great that you back up your computers but have you ever checked that the backups, tapes or whatever media they be, are not corrupted or faulty themselves and that you have a true audit trail of your work, client records and other files?

There are many areas that need to be considered and underpinning it all is a nagging question: if we don't do it and something happens meaning that we cannot service our clients' needs, what view will the Financial Services Authority take? I think you know the answer.

There are products and services out there to help you identify and analyse areas of concern and, although we are compliance consultants, we ourselves are beefing up our health-check questions with regard to business continuity planning to encourage brokers to look more closely at the areas that affect their businesses.

The areas for consideration will vary according to the individual business. For instance, if you occupy one floor of a high-rise block, there will be an evacuation plan and access plan that applies to all tenants; if you own or rent a standalone property, you will have to give thought to these arrangements for yourself.

Your plan needs to be flexible and able to deal with changing circumstances. If there is a major transport shutdown then how would your staff get to work? If only selected people have access to keys or alarm codes, what happens if they cannot travel to the office? What about key functions in the office such as check signatory, supervision or signing off the granting of cover? Think also about third-party factors: what happens if key personnel that you rely on within the supply chain - for example insurers - are not available to you for a week or more? Is your planning something that you should take up with key suppliers?

What happens if post is not delivered? What if you have an outbreak of swine flu in the office? Will business continue as usual, with the public being allowed to come and go freely?

Some of these points may not be specifically relevant to your business but the point is that you need to evaluate the risks and contingencies at board level.

Returning to the wider issue, have you considered: the implications of a major fire or oil spillage near your premises? Could there be a denial of access issue? Can you arrange for your phones to be diverted to mobiles and, critically, how quickly? Do you have a relocation plan in the event of serious physical damage to your offices? Going back to my initial point, how reliable and accessible are your data records if you need to reconstitute to new hardware? Beyond that, will your data and programs still run?

It would be a good idea to listen to your co-director and put this topic on your next board meeting agenda.

It is a compliance issue for the reasons mentioned earlier but you should now see that business continuity planning strikes at the real core of your business' income and shareholder value because some of the scenarios highlighted here could put you out of business.