Business Continuity Plan Development

Details

Conduit Consulting's Business Continuity Plan (BCP) Development service ensures that utilities build operational resilience through structured, tested, and process-aligned continuity planning. It integrates a formal Business Process Framework with comprehensive risk assessment and change management to ensure BCPs are operationally viable, regularly tested, and sustained across the organization.

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Key components include:

• Business Impact Analysis and Critical Function Identification

• Business Process Framework Assessment or Development

• Comprehensive Risk Assessment (Operational, Technical, Cyber, Workforce, Supply Chain, Regulatory)

• Recovery Strategies and Actionable Procedures

• Communication and Escalation Plans

• Testing, Validation, and Organizational Change Management

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The Business Continuity Plan (BCP) Development service provides a structured, process-centric approach to building operational resilience for natural gas, electric, and water utilities. Rather than creating static planning documents that sit on shelves, we facilitate comprehensive BCP development grounded in your utility's actual business process architecture, integrated with people-centered change management to ensure plans are operationally viable, regularly tested, and continuously improved.

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Modern utilities face an expanding threat landscape—cyberattacks, extreme weather events, supply chain disruptions, and workforce challenges—combined with increasingly rigorous regulatory requirements. Most utilities operate with fragmented, outdated BCPs that fail to address these modern threats, lack alignment between critical functions and actual business processes, and miss the interdependencies that create compound risks.

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Our BCP development approach addresses three critical gaps:

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Building Process-Aligned Business Continuity

We align your critical functions to documented critical processes, creating a clear line of sight from business objectives to operational recovery. Unlike traditional BCPs that identify critical functions (e.g., "Restore Power," "Maintain Water Quality") without detailed process architecture, we document the specific business processes required to execute those functions. This ensures recovery procedures reflect how your organization actually works and can be tested, practiced, and refined.

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A formal Business Process Framework (BPF) becomes the foundational architecture of your BCP. If your utility lacks a documented BPF, we work with cross-functional teams to develop a high-level one aligned to regulatory standards and industry best practices. This BPF ensures your BCP remains aligned to operational reality as business processes evolve.

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Comprehensive Risk Assessment Across All Threat Categories

We perform rigorous risk assessment covering operational risks (equipment failure, supply chain disruption), technical risks (IT/OT system failures, cybersecurity threats), workforce risks (key personnel loss, pandemic scenarios), regulatory risks (NERC/FERC non-compliance), physical risks (natural disasters, facility damage), and external risks (supplier failure, third-party dependencies).

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Each identified risk is mapped to the critical processes it could affect, creating a comprehensive view of threat-to-impact-to-recovery-strategy. This comprehensive approach identifies interdependencies and compound risks that fragmented departmental assessments miss. For example, a cyberattack affecting billing systems may cascade to customer communication processes, revenue collection, and regulatory reporting—all connected through underlying process architecture.

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Operationalizing Continuity Through Change Management

A BCP is only effective if your team understands it, believes in it, and practices it. We employ Prosci-certified change management methodologies to build awareness, adoption, and sustainable organizational capability. This includes:

• Change Strategy and Readiness Assessment: Evaluation of organizational readiness, stakeholder impact analysis, and integrated change roadmap

• Leadership and Sponsor Enablement: Executive sponsorship clarity, leader readiness coaching, and change leadership toolkit development

• Communications and Engagement: Multi-channel communication strategies, feedback mechanisms, and stakeholder engagement

• Workforce Readiness and Training: Role-based readiness assessments, training strategy alignment, and manager enablement

• Adoption Measurement and Reinforcement: Adoption metrics, behavioral KPIs, resistance mitigation, and reinforcement strategies

Deliverables

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1. Detailed Business Continuity Plan with Actionable Recovery Procedures

A comprehensive BCP document including:

• Executive summary with governance structure and escalation procedures

• Detailed critical functions, their supporting critical processes, and recovery priorities

• Recovery strategies aligned to your utility's specific risks (redundancy, alternate suppliers, backup facilities, manual procedures)

• Step-by-step recovery procedures for each critical process with role assignments and resource requirements

• Communication plans (internal and external) with notification procedures and stakeholder contact lists

• Testing and validation schedules with defined frequency and scope

• Plan maintenance and update procedures

2. Business Impact Analysis (BIA) Linked to Critical Processes

A thorough BIA that identifies critical business functions and maps them to underlying critical processes and process steps. This analysis quantifies the impact of disruptions (downtime costs, customer impact, regulatory risk, reputational damage) and establishes Recovery Time Objectives (RTO) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPO) for each critical function.

3. High-Level Business Process Framework (BPF) Assessment or Development

Documentation (or formalization) of your utility's core high-level business processes across operational areas. This BPF becomes the foundational architecture upon which your BCP is built. If your utility lacks a formal BPF, we work with cross-functional teams to develop a high-level one aligned to regulatory standards and industry best practices.

4. Comprehensive Risk Assessment Addressing All Threat Categories

A rigorous risk assessment covering operational, technical, workforce, regulatory, physical, and external risks. Each risk is mapped to the critical processes it could affect, creating a clear line of sight from threat identification to impact to recovery strategy.

5. Change Management and Organizational Readiness

Prosci-certified change management support including stakeholder engagement plans, leadership enablement strategies, training program development, tabletop exercise facilitation, and communication strategies to ensure all stakeholders understand their roles in continuity and recovery.