Sacramento State Continuity of Operations/Business Continuity Program

Introduction
Continuity of Operations, also known as business continuity (for businesses) or continuity of government (for government entities) is the discipline and practice of putting advance arrangements or preparations into place to be employed if operations are disrupted. The advance arrangements are designed to minimize the disruption to the extent possible, considering the nature of the disruptive event.

Executive Order 1014 delegates the responsibility for establishing and maintaining an effective Continuity of Operations program to each campus. Sacramento State has developed a unique, high quality computer application called the Business Continuity Planner to guide departments in the creation of their continuity plans. The Business Continuity Planner provides an online process for departments to create, store and maintain their own Continuity of Operations plans.

Departmental responsibility in Continuity of Operations planning
Departments identified as performing essential functions to campus have been or will be notified of the requirement to complete a departmental Business Continuity Plan. Once a department has been notified, the designated person is to follow the steps outlined below to complete the plan.

1. Contact the Office of Risk Management to schedule a tutorial by a member of the Risk Management staff in completing the organization's Business continuity/Continuity of operations plan. Training is also announced and provided to larger groups as the need arises, on an occasional basis.



2. Separately or as a part of the Continuity of Operations tutorial, Risk Management will conduct a Business Impact Analysis and Risk Assessment of a department. This means that the inputs (services and information the department requires from other departments) and outputs (services and information generated by the department for others) will be evaluated for criticality.



3. Planning can begin by going to the online application at http://www.rms.csus.edu/dcp/bcp.html



4. For a tutorial in using the system or in writing your department’s plan, click here: http://www.rms.csus.edu/dcp/bcp.html

Plan review and approval
Once you have completed your plan, it will be reviewed by the Office of Risk Management, who will provide feedback and recommendations as necessary. Once your plan has been approved, the BCP application will automatically prompt you to review and update your departmental plan annually, beginning 11 months after initial approval. In that process, Risk Management staff will again review your plan and any changes you have made to it.

Plan maintenance
Executive Order 1014 requires that continuity plans be updated periodically. This is accomplished by the annual review process described above. However, the application cannot know if your department undergoes substantial personnel changes or its scope of work is changed. In those cases a self-initiated review of your plan is appropriate. To review your plan at any time, simply log in to the site linked above and look it over.

Plan testing
The executive order also requires departments to test or evaluate some part of their plan once a year and all parts of the plan every seven years. Information and assistance with tests is available at the Office of Risk Management. The tests need to be approved by the Office of Risk Management.

Every departmental continuity plan is a part of the campus plan
After an adverse or disruptive event, each division or department is expected to employ its continuity plan and the resources gathered as part of it to restart its functions and begin serving its clients as soon as physically possible. That is the reason continuity plans are created. At the heart of every continuity plan is a set of procedures which, when followed, will restart the department's essential functions. As the campus is comprised of and depends upon its various divisions and departments, the campus continuity plan is comprised of the many divisional and departmental plans that have been prepared.

University Policy
The University policy on continuity planning can be found at http://www.csus.edu/umanual/admin/ADM0174.html.