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Starter Kit · Plans & Reports

Business Continuity Plan

Updated on 2 min Reviewed by: Cenedril Editorial
A.5.29A.5.30 ISO 27001ISO 22301

A security incident at 3 a.m., the logistics platform is down, customers are calling — now what? Without a documented business continuity plan, crisis response is pure improvisation. The template below gives you a proven structure: from activation through recovery scenarios to formal return to normal operations.

ISO 27001 (A.5.29 and A.5.30) requires organisations to plan, implement and regularly test their information security continuity. ISO 22301 provides the overarching BCM framework. Our template brings both perspectives together in one practical document.

What the plan covers

The template is structured into nine sections that map the full lifecycle of a business disruption:

Purpose and scope define which critical processes the plan protects — the results of your Business Impact Analysis (BIA) provide the foundation. Without a BIA, priorities are missing and the plan remains arbitrary.

Activation sets out trigger conditions (e.g. system outage longer than 30 minutes) and decision authority. Who may activate the plan? Who gets notified within 15 minutes? Crisis phone tree, SMS, status page — everything is predefined.

Roles and responsibilities are laid out in a table: CMT chair, BCM lead, ISO, IT operations, communications, DPO. Each role has a named person and a deputy.

Recovery strategies form the core. The template contains four fully worked scenarios with concrete time steps: what happens from T+0 to T+15 minutes? From T+1h to T+4h? What capacity must be reached by when?

Dependencies and resources list suppliers, failover options and emergency equipment. Recovery procedures reference specific runbooks for technical restore steps.

Template: Business Continuity Plan

Full policy text

Business Continuity Plan

.md · EN.md · DE

Document control
Owner: Business Continuity Lead
Approved by: CEO
Version: 1.3
Effective date: 2026-02-20
Next review: 2027-02-20
Classification: Confidential — BCM team

1. Purpose and scope

This continuity plan covers processes P-01 (Shipment booking and tracking) and P-02 (Dispatch and route planning), identified in the BIA as critical with an MTPD of 8 and 12 hours respectively.

The plan applies to disruptions that affect Hamburg HQ, the Rotterdam branch, or critical suppliers (primarily Vendor X Logistics, AWS, M365). It does not cover personnel emergencies, which are handled by the HR continuity plan.

2. Activation

2.1 Trigger conditions

Activation is triggered by any of the following:

  • The logistics portal (AST-002) is unreachable for more than 30 minutes during business hours.
  • Hamburg HQ is inaccessible for more than 1 hour during business hours.
  • A confirmed major incident (severity High or above) affects a critical system with RTO ≤ 4 hours.
  • Declaration by the Crisis Management Team (CMT).

2.2 Decision authority

The BCM Lead, the ISO, or the IT Operations Lead may declare activation. The CEO is informed immediately and has override authority.

2.3 Notification

On activation, the following notifications are issued within 15 minutes:

  • CMT members via the crisis phone tree.
  • All affected staff via SMS and email.
  • Customers via the portal status page.
  • Key suppliers that are relied on during recovery.

3. Roles and responsibilities

Role Name Responsibility During Activation
CMT Chair Katharina Meier (CEO) Overall decision-making, external communications
Deputy Thomas Weissenberg (CFO) Financial decisions, deputising for CEO
BCM Lead Markus Schulz Coordinate recovery, maintain situation log
ISO Anna Weber Security implications, incident response interface
IT Ops Lead Markus Schulz (deputised) Technical recovery of IT systems
Ops Lead Tobias Wagner Business process continuity
Comms Lead Sarah Lindner Internal and external communications
DPO Julia Hoffmann GDPR impact assessment if applicable

4. Recovery strategy

4.1 Scenario A — Logistics portal outage (Vendor X Logistics)

Objective: Maintain 30% shipment booking capacity within 2 hours, full capacity within 4 hours.

Steps:

  1. T+0 to T+15 min: BCM Lead confirms outage with vendor. IT Ops Lead opens P1 ticket with vendor. CMT notified.
  2. T+15 to T+30 min: Activate fallback procedure LOG-FB-01 (manual intake via phone + shared spreadsheet). Dispatch team switches to the printed route sheet from the last export.
  3. T+30 to T+60 min: Customer service team announces fallback on portal status page and prepared email template. Top-20 customers are called individually by account managers.
  4. T+1h to T+2h: Additional staff cross-deployed from customer support to dispatch to reach 30% capacity.
  5. T+2h to T+4h: Continue manual operation. Monitor vendor updates every 30 minutes. Prepare for portal recovery.
  6. On recovery: Reconcile manually captured bookings into the portal. Issue recovery confirmation to customers.

4.2 Scenario B — Hamburg HQ inaccessible

Objective: Relocate critical operations to Rotterdam within 4 hours.

Steps:

  1. T+0 to T+15 min: CMT activates relocation. Rotterdam branch is notified.
  2. T+15 min to T+1h: Core staff (dispatchers, IT on-call, BCM Lead) relocate to Rotterdam or work from home with pre-provisioned laptops.
  3. T+1h to T+4h: Rotterdam office provides 6 hot desks + conference room for CMT. VPN + VoIP redirected to Rotterdam.
  4. T+4h onwards: Monitor HQ status. Plan return.

4.3 Scenario C — M365 tenant outage

Objective: Maintain internal and external communication via alternative channels.

Steps:

  1. T+0 to T+15 min: Confirm outage with Microsoft Service Health. Notify CMT.
  2. T+15 min: Switch internal communication to Signal (pre-provisioned crisis group) and personal phone numbers.
  3. T+30 min: Customer communications via portal status page and vendor-hosted backup email (crisis@nordwind-logistics.net).
  4. T+1h onwards: Critical documents accessible via offline copy of the crisis binder and daily export of key M365 data.

4.4 Scenario D — Ransomware or major cyber incident

Managed jointly with the Incident Response Plan (PROC-001). BCM activation focuses on business continuity while incident response focuses on containment and eradication.

5. Resources available at activation

  • Crisis room: Hamburg HQ, room Nordsee. Backup: Rotterdam, room Haven.
  • Crisis binder: Printed copies at HQ, Rotterdam, at the BCM Lead's home.
  • Fallback kit: 6 preconfigured laptops, 2 × 4G routers, 2 × satellite phones stored in the HR safe.
  • Crisis communication templates: See Crisis Communication Template document.
  • Offline contact lists: Employees, suppliers, customers (top 50), authorities.
  • Alternative email: crisis@nordwind-logistics.net hosted at a separate provider.

6. Dependencies

Dependency Provider Failover
Logistics portal Vendor X Logistics Manual fallback (LOG-FB-01)
Email and collaboration Microsoft M365 Signal + backup email
Cloud infrastructure AWS eu-central-1 Cross-region read replica
Connectivity Primary fibre ISP 4G mobile backup router
Power Grid UPS (30 min) + generator (24h)
Dispatch expertise 4 dispatchers Cross-trained customer service staff

7. Recovery procedures

The plan references the following runbooks:

  • RB-DB-001 — Customer database restore
  • RB-SAAS-002 — Logistics portal failover and recovery
  • RB-AD-001 — Domain controller failover
  • RB-ERP-001 — ERP failover
  • LOG-FB-01 — Manual logistics fallback procedure

8. Testing and review

  • Tabletop exercise: Twice per year (last: 2025-11-10, next: 2026-05-20).
  • Partial simulation: Annually (last: 2025-09-15 — portal failover).
  • Full walk-through: Annually.
  • Plan review: Annually or after any significant change in people, processes, technology, or suppliers.

9. Return to normal

Once the triggering incident is resolved, the BCM Lead assesses readiness for return:

  • Systems operational and verified.
  • Data integrity validated.
  • Security posture restored (confirmed by the ISO).
  • Staff briefed on return procedures.

The CEO formally declares return to normal operations. Lessons learned are captured in a post-incident review within 10 working days and fed into the CAPA register.

Approved by Katharina Meier (CEO) on 2026-02-20.

Sources

ISO 27001 Controls Covered

A.5.29 Information security during disruption A.5.30 ICT readiness for business continuity

Frequently asked questions

Does every organisation need its own business continuity plan?

Yes — once your ISMS identifies critical processes, ISO 27001 (A.5.29) requires documented continuity plans for those processes. Granularity depends on size: a small company may get by with one plan, while larger organisations need one per critical business area.

What is the difference between a BCP and a disaster recovery plan?

The BCP covers the entire business operation — processes, people, communication, fallback sites. The disaster recovery plan focuses on technical restoration of IT systems and data. Both complement each other: the BCP references the DRP for the technical side.

How often must the plan be tested?

ISO 27001 A.5.29 requires regular testing. In practice that means at least one tabletop exercise per year, supplemented by technical restore tests and — ideally — a partial simulation. Every test produces lessons that feed back into the plan.