Business Continuity Planning under ICS in Financial Organisations

This report delves into the critical aspects of Business Continuity Planning (BCP) and the Incident Command System (ICS) within financial organizations. It underscores the importance of BCP in identifying potential risks and preparing for emergencies, especially in institutions heavily reliant on technology. The report highlights the advantages of a robust ICS, including improved risk mitigation, clearly defined roles and responsibilities, enhanced resource and information flow, better coordination, and the incorporation of technically skilled personnel. It also acknowledges the disadvantages, such as high investment costs, potential resistance to implementation, and dependence on technology specialists. The conclusion emphasizes the vital role of BCP in safeguarding operations, revenue, and reputation, while acknowledging the challenges of its implementation.

A Report
On
Advantages and Disadvantages Of Business Continuity Planning
Under The Incident Command System
For
Financial Organisations
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1. Abstract
Every progressive organisation tries to keep itself prepared for all kinds of emergencies to
facilitate a seamless business operation. The report tries to throw light on the meaning and
scope of Business Continuity Planning (BCP) and Incident Command System (ICS) which is
adopted by most organisation to mitigate the impacts of the emergency situations. The prime
objective of this report is to bring forth the advantages of having a robust ICS in financial
organisation which are at higher risk owing to their greater dependability on technology. The
report also tries to list the limitations associated with the adoption and implementation of
BCP under ICS in these organisations.
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2. Introduction
Business Continuity Plan is an organisation’s ability to identify its potential risks and being
prepared for those risks by putting its resources together and planning its response and
recovery (Hayes & Kotwica, 2013).
Incident command system gives the required support during an emergency by providing for
single command, control and communication is provided for (Nogara, 2014). Incorporating
an Incident command system provides for a robust response plan that can cater to emergency
situations arising out of terrorism, political unrest, failure of financial mechanisms, natural
disasters. The Incident Command System is essential to clarify the chain of command and
communications during service disruptions.
3. Risks in Financial Organisations
 The financial institutions rely heavily on complex computer software, programs and
databases. Most financial institutions call for extremely demanding recovery points
for the activities that are very crucial. Business continuity planning helps a financial
institutions to carry on its activities ( mainly maintenance and recovery of
data/operations) in the face of threats such as natural calamities, failure of technology,
cyber theft of data, or terrorism so that it can continue to provide seamless services to
its customers and other stakeholders (Taplin, 2016).
4. Advantages of Business Continuity Planning under ICS
 Incident Command System allows a financial organisation to identify its potential
risks well in advance and plan accordingly to avoid any kind of service disruptions
leading to customer dissatisfaction. This in turn helps in minimising the risk of
financial loss and retain company’s image (Burtles, 2016).
 The ICS facilitates the business continuity program by clearly defining the roles and
responsibilities of each Process Head, as the roles are defined and there is minimum
confusion and error during the emergency situation. The ICS clearly documents the
flowchart indicating responsibilities and responses during emergencies. (Venclova,
Urbancova, & Vydrova, 2013).
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 ICS not only improves flow of resources and information within the all levels of the
organizational hierarchies which have multi locational operation, it also enables quick
response time for the deployment of resources and facilitates cohesive team work.
 The implementation of ICS also provides better coordination among the different
functions and resources within an organisation.
 The BCP calls for the inclusion of technically skilled persons like Fraud investigators
and Application and Network Security professionals who in turn can identify the
technical threats and take quick action for recovery and prevention. The
Communication team through its PRO mechanism can work on the media
communication that is directed at damage control within a stipulate time. BCP thus,
prepares an organisation to mitigate the unfavourable disruptions that might affect its
plans and reputation (Hiles, 2010)
 Implementation of a robust incident command management system helps the
organisation in gaining experience and enriching the knowledge bank of an
organisation with each crisis situation and eventually develop better efficiency in
restoration of services (Kashyap, 2016).
 Business continuity plan facilitates the process of selecting the best Insurance plan
that may cover the risks life theft, fire or any other natural calamity that the business
could be susceptible to.
5. Disadvantages of Business Continuity Planning under ICS
 The entire concept of incident command planning is based on possible risks which the
organisation may or may not have to encounter. However implementing the ICS as a
part of Business Continuity plan requires heavy investment in personnel and
technology which the organisations may not be prepared to bear.
 The implementation of BCP within an organisation requires a lot of investment in
terms of time, at times the existing organisational culture resists the BCP’s inclusion
as an integral part of the organisation (Venclova, Urbancova, & Vydrova, 2013).
 The incident command system is dependent extensively on the technology specialist,
too much dependence on individuals who can join competitor organisation may be
harmful for the current organisation .
6. Conclusion
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The Business Continuity Planning prepares an organisation for exigencies of all kinds which
if not integrated within the organisation’s culture can lead to huge loss both in terms of
organisation’s operations, revenue and image. Having a BCP gives a clear command and well
defined responses for situations arising out of various threats. It helps in documenting the
best practices and improves the efficiency of the organisation. The process though is heavily
dependent on technology, money and time, has emerged as a vital element in an
organisation’s success plan.
7. Bibliography
Burtles, J. (2016). Principles and Practice of Business Continuity: Tools and Techniques Second
Edition. Rothstein.
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Hayes, B., & Kotwica, K. (2013). Business Continuity: Playbook. Elsevie.
Hiles, A. (2010). The Definitive Handbook of Business Continuity Management. John Wiley & Sons.
Kashyap, A. K. (2016). Financial Market Regulations and Legal Challenges in South Asia. IGI
Global.
Nogara, C. (2014). Effective Utilization of the Incident Command System in a High-Reliability
Environment. Internatioanl Journal of Business and Social Research, 146-154.
Taplin, R. (2016). Managing Cyber Risk in the Financial Sector. Routledge.
Venclova, K., Urbancova, H., & Vydrova, H. (2013). Advantages and Disadvantages of Business
Continuity Managemen. World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, 895-899.
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