What is Business Continuity Plan?
A business continuity plan (BCP) is a documented strategy that defines how a company will keep operating during and after a disruption — like a fire, cyber attack, pandemic, or supply-chain failure. It lists the critical processes, the resources needed to keep them running, and the recovery time targets.
How It Works
- Starts with a business impact analysis: which processes are critical and how long can they be down
- Defines a recovery time objective (RTO) and recovery point objective (RPO) for each system
- Specifies backup locations, alternate suppliers, and a crisis-management team
- Includes communication scripts for staff, customers, regulators, and media
- Tested at least annually through tabletop exercises or live drills
Saudi Context
In Saudi Arabia, regulators like SAMA (for banks) and the CMA (for capital market institutions) require formal BCPs and periodic testing. The National Cybersecurity Authority (NCA) also includes BCP and disaster recovery in the Essential Cybersecurity Controls (ECC).
Example
A Riyadh bank runs an annual BCP drill. The team simulates a primary-data-center outage, fails over to the secondary site, processes a batch of payments from there, and reports the recovery time to SAMA — confirming the bank meets its committed RTO.