Language Bank
Business Continuity Policy

 1.0 Purpose

This document defines Language Bank’s policy on business continuity planning for all the critical business processes and service activities undertaken by Language Bank for its business/customers.  The policy (and related Business Continuity Plans) are intended to:

• Effectively manage any incident that may cause a business disruption to Language Bank.

• Provide continuity of critical business processes and services managed by Language Bank.

• Minimize the potential impact that any business disruption would have on Language Bank and its reputation.

2.0 Scope

This policy applies to all people, processes and systems of Language Bank required to maintain normal business operations and to recover from disruptions.

3.0 Definitions

A Business Impact Analysis (BIA) predicts the consequences of disrupting a business function and process and gathers information needed to develop recovery strategies.

A Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is concerned with keeping business operations running, perhaps in another location, or by using alternative tools and processes following a disruption.

4.0 Policy

Language Bank management shall regularly assess the impact of potential disasters on business operations as part of a periodic BIA exercise.

All internal processes that are then considered critical and whose extended loss would have a significant impact on Language Bank or customers’ use of our services shall have a Business Continuity Plan (BCP).

Management shall designate respective department heads responsible for maintaining a minimum acceptable standard of service in disaster situations. In addition, all management personnel and employees shall be made aware of the BCPs and their roles and responsibilities in achieving the continuity plans objectives. 

The BCPs shall be tested and reviewed at regular intervals to ensure they remain relevant.

Contracts with third-party suppliers that provide critical services to Language Bank shall include adequate contingency or recovery strategies over the lifecycle of the product and service.

4.1 Roles and Responsibilities

Language Bank will ensure that, for each area of the business where its processes require a Business Continuity Plan (BCP), roles and responsibilities have been assigned for:

• Managing all areas of the BIA and BCP

• Updating the leadership team on BCP readiness.

• Managing and improving BCP testing exercises by monitoring schedules, reviewing assessment results and maintaining records.

• Training and educating the relevant individuals with necessary information on business continuity activities.

• Coordinating and managing the BCP in an actual or potential disaster.

4.2 Business Impact Analysis

Language Bank shall define a formal process to determine the criticality of a given process, business units and the impact on Language Bank’s business, if they are not operational in case of a disaster (which may be an internal or external event). The output of any Business Impact Analysis should be used to determine business continuity priorities and requirements. The following should be considered in the BIA exercise:

• Maximum tolerable business downtime

• Operational disruption and productivity

• Financial considerations

• Regulatory requirements

• Contractual obligations

• Organizational reputation

4.3 Business Continuity Planning

Business Continuity Plans shall be documented and approved by management for processes that are identified as critical in the BIA.

The BCP shall include the activities to be performed in various scenarios in case of incident/disaster which can occur due to internal or external events. The BCP shall consist of activities to be followed to protect personnel and assets following a disaster and resume services quickly. A BCP involves the following:

• Strategies to ensure the safety of personnel

• Analysis of potential threats

• Alternate strategies to continue business operations (e.g. alternate sites of operations) in a defined time frame

• A list of the primary tasks required to continue the operations along with assigned responsibilities (recovery team)

• Easy to locate management contact information

• Explanation of where personnel should go if there is a disastrous event

• Information on data backups and organization site backup

• Communication strategies

• Buy-in from everyone in the organization

4.5 Exercising or Testing

Periodic tests shall be performed by designated personnel authorized by Language Bank’s management to test the execution of business continuity plans. When possible, the testing involves collaboration with critical third parties to ensure vendor-dependent services and/or system(s) can be recovered to meet Language Bank’s Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and Recovery Point Objective (RPO).

The test results shall indicate whether the test was successful or requires corrective actions. In addition, Language Bank’s Business Continuity Plans shall be updated based on the results of the tests performed and lessons learned.

Person responsible: Mr Vlatko Petrov
Managing Partner @ Language Bank
petrov@language-bank.co.uk mob:07989 249 919