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Clients expect their professional advisers to be available when required.
It is no longer acceptable for a solicitor to be unavailable, or unable to complete a transaction
owing to a disruption. Firms need to deliver at least the minimum acceptable level of service, whatever the circumstances, while maintaining client confidentiality and retaining access to documentation. An effective Business Continuity Plan delivers increased resilience and
additional financial benefit.
Major disruptions are suffered by one in five
of all businesses within a five year period.
Source: The Home Office
Following recent regulatory changes, solicitors are required to have a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) if they are to maintain their professional status. Prima facie, this is simply an additional administrative burden, but Business Continuity Planning can deliver a broader range of benefits:
- The obvious benefit is that by having a BCP a firm will be better protected from disruption.
- Less obviously, a BCP can be used as a marketing and positioning tool, it may also help
identify potential cost savings and efficiencies within a practice.
Increasingly, if a client has a continuity plan
he will ask his professional advisors for theirs
In parallel, the increasing uptake of continuity planning by client organisations is likely to have a pronounced “trickle down” effect: in that plans consistent with the British Standard (BS25999) need to take into consideration an organisation’s supply chain, which in this context will include professional advisers who must therefore expect to be asked to demonstrate their own organisation’s resilience.
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