Introduction
The Business Continuity Plan (BCP) for the Finance Division at Hythe Bridge Street (HBS) aims to ensure its critical business processes or activities can continue to operate in the event of an incident affecting staff and/or premises at Hythe Bridge Street. The plan seeks to avoid financial loss to the University by maintaining an ability to achieve required levels of service (e.g. paying staff and suppliers).
The Incident Management Team (IMT) is chaired by the Deputy Director of Finance and comprises the Management Board Members, Head of Communications and the Head of Financial Assurance Services. Delegates have also been agreed and can be appointed in the event that one of the members is unavailable.
Scenarios
The Finance Division BCP addresses the following risk areas, or scenarios:
Scenarios affecting the use of HBS*
Scenarios not affecting the use of HBS
Loss of IT services
Loss of power, or power spike
Total/partial loss of HBS
University incidents affecting HBS
Flu (or other) pandemic
The plan ensures business critical activities will continue in each scenario.
*In the event that the use of HBS is compromised, an alternative location has been agreed for the provision of business-critical activities which cannot be carried out remotely, e.g. paying suppliers. The alternative location is: IT Services, 13 Banbury Road, Oxford.
Defining business critical
Business-critical applies not just to activities, but also to the people who carry out this activity in their day-to-day role.
An activity will be business-critical if its delay will impact on the provision of services by the Finance Division, or has the potential to have a detrimental effect on the University’s reputation.
A staff member is defined as business-critical if:
Their presence will be required during an incident (i.e. those with management or fire marshal responsibilities)
Delaying their tasks/activities will have a critical effect on services provided (i.e. issuing payments)
They need to represent the department at the alternative location (i.e those requiring a card reader to issue payments)
Each team has a section plan highlighting critical activities. Individual line managers will be able to advise further on the plan for specific teams.
Incident preparation
All staff need to know the following, as a minimum:
Whether your role/activities are business-critical
Your line manager's contact number
How to access University email and services remotely
All staff need to provide:
An alternative contact number
Note: In the event that University IT systems cannot be used, staff will be notified of updates via the Oxford University Text Messaging Service. Messages will be cascaded to the number disclosed on your Alternative Contact Number form. These details must be kept up to date; you can edit your details at any time. If you experience any difficulties with using this form, or have any concerns about providing this information, please contact the Communications team.
Incident implementation
Once an incident has been confirmed by the Incident Management Team (IMT), an information cascade will be arranged, either in person or via email/remote device. This communication will confirm the following:
The type and extent of the incident, e.g. power cut with an outage of up to two days
Whether a building evacuation is required
If the alternative location is to be utilised and who should report to it
Throughout the incident all staff will be kept regularly updated, even if the status is unchanged.
