COMPANY NAME Crisis Management Team

2. CRISIS MANAGEMENT TEAM

The Crisis Management Team (CMT) is the group of senior staff which commands
the resources needed to recover [xxx] operations in the event of an incident at
[xxxx].
The CMT will convene for all incidents.
CRISIS MANAGEMENT TEAM CONTACT MATRIX
Recovery Role Name Contact Details
CMT Leader Office:
Home:
Mobile:
Deputy CMT Office:
Leader Home:
Mobile:
CMT Member Office:
Home:
(Operations)
Mobile:
CMT Member Office:
Home:
Mobile:
CMT Member Office:
Home:
(BCP/IT)
Mobile:

CMT Member Office:

(Corporate Home:
Facilities) Mobile:
CMT Member Office:
Home:
Mobile:
CMT Member Office:
Home:
Mobile:

Unless decided otherwise at the time of the incident, the CMT will operate initially
from an Emergency Control Centre (ECC). If [xxxx] is available following the
incident, recovery will take place at this site. Otherwise, recovery will take place at
an alternative site, as decided by the CMT at the time of the incident. A permanent
site will be sought concurrently with any recovery effort.

Business Continuity Plan Page 1

COMPANY NAME Crisis Management Team

Alert Description One or more of the following apply:

Green Minor incident • Incident expected to be fully closed within 0-
2 hours.
• The incident is unlikely to affect business
operations.
• No staff casualties.
• The incident can be dealt with and closed by
the CMT and/or the Emergency
Services.
• Minor staff casualties (no hospitalisations).
Amber Significant • Business unit(s) affected for 2-24 hours.
disruption • Staff hospitalisations (no fatalities).
• Connectivity to fileservers denied for more
than 24 hours.
• Access denied to building for more than 24
hours.
Red Major disruption • Catastrophic impact - BCP invoked. Impact
48+ Hours.
• Destructive loss of all or part of the working
premises at [xxxx].
• Destructive loss of fileservers or data and
voice communication infrastructure.
• Major wide-scale incident at the whole
building at[xxxx].
• Significant disruption to business activities.
• Staff fatalities.

Actions for all Alerts:

• Initiate a meeting of the CMT.
• Determine a meeting place.
• Contact Primary Site Team leader/deputy and request damage reports of
current IT and building facilities.
• Resolve problem and advise appropriate members of staff or raise an
amber alert.
Actions for Amber/Red Alerts Only:
• Alert Alternate Site Team Leader/Deputy.
• Alert appropriate Business Recovery Teams.
• Continually assess status from Primary Site Team.

Business Continuity Plan Page 2

COMPANY NAME Crisis Management Team

• Decide which Business Recovery Teams to invoke.

• Resolve problem and advise staff or agree a red alert with Business
Recovery Teams and Dispatch Alternate Site Team.

Actions for Red Alerts Only:

• Contact all Recovery Team Leaders or their Deputies
• Inform the Company’s Business Continuity Team of
situation – telephone number
• Activate contingency agreements
• Follow Recovery Objectives and Recovery Actions below:

2. Crisis Management Team......................................................................................1

2.1 Red Alert Recovery Objectives ..........................................................................4
2.2 Red Alert Recovery Actions................................................................................4
2.2.1 Throughout the Recovery............................................................................9
2.3 Supporting Information.....................................................................................10
2.3.1 Data Sheet.................................................................................................10
2.3.2 Invoking Recovery Teams.........................................................................10
2.3.3 Standing Down from Invocation.................................................................11
2.3.4 Briefing Team Leaders...............................................................................11
2.3.5 Emergency Transport Guidelines..............................................................11
2.3.6 Emergency Expensing Guidelines.............................................................12
2.3.7 Assessing Recovery Progress...................................................................12

Business Continuity Plan Page 3

COMPANY NAME Crisis Management Team

2.1 Red Alert Recovery Objectives

Timeframes
(Approx Times)
Crisis Management Team Red Alert Recovery Objectives
2 hrs 4 hrs 1 day 1 wk 6 wks

• Co-ordinate Emergency Response. 

• Place alternate site on standby. 
• Invoke or place Teams on standby. 
• Notify critical emergency contacts (internal and 
external).
• Decide whether to invoke Continuity Plan. 
• Decide which Teams should be invoked. 
• Formalise recovery strategy and operational 
requirements.
• Adapt Plan to account for prevailing circumstances.     
• Manage the recovery.     
• Provide periodic reports to the Company.     
• Control Public Relations (PR).     
• Minimise damage to the Company’s public image.     
• Control all expenditure decisions.     
• Monitor staff welfare.     
• Oversee insurance claims.   
• Plan and implement the move to permanent premises.  

2.2 Red Alert Recovery Actions

By 2 Hours
1. Notify critical emergency contacts (internal and external).
2. Liase with the Alternate Site Team Leader to select, obtain access to and
prepare the Emergency Control Centre (ECC) location for initial CMT
meeting.
3. Inform all CMT members of the selected ECC location and time of the
initial CMT meeting.
4. Contact the Primary Site Team Leader to verify:
• Emergency security at the primary site.
• When entry will be allowed.
5. Contact Recovery Team Leaders to obtain a list of missing persons and
known casualties.
6. Verify with the Alternate Site Team Leader that the landlord has been
advised.
7. Contact IT Team Leader to :
• Install recorded message on incoming voice lines pending relocation.
• Prepare to redirect voice and data lines to the selected alternate site,
if necessary.
8. Decide when and where the full CMT team briefing will take place.

Business Continuity Plan Page 4

COMPANY NAME Crisis Management Team

9. Decide which Recovery Team Leaders should be placed on standby or

activated.
10. Invoke call out procedures. Provide any immediate instructions to
Recovery Team Leaders [section 2.3.2].
11. Receive Initial Assessments from Recovery Team Leaders.

By 4 Hours
1. Hold the initial CMT meeting.
2. Liase with Primary Site Team to:
• Inform insurers.
• Devise and release a detailed statement for internal and trusted third
party use.
• Devise a holding press statement for external release.
3. Brief the CMT Secretary and telephone operators on PR, call filtering and
establish routing to other staff.
4. Complete an interim impact assessment. Consider:
• Loss of fileservers.
• Loss of applications.
• Loss of communication links.
• Loss of data.
• Fileserver recovery priority.
• Loss of assets.
• Which operations will be effected if the Plan is not invoked.
5. Decide whether to continue Plan invocation.
6. If the Plan is NOT to be invoked then resolve any problems and
implement the stand-down procedure [section 2.3.3]. Otherwise,
continue with the planned response.
7. Refine the Recovery Strategy according to the situation. Decide which teams
must become active and by when.
8. Establish the minimum facilities and equipment that will be required by each
recovery team to achieve its minimum acceptable level of operations.
9. Establish what facilities and equipment are available at each alternate venue
and by when, including any accessible workspace and facilities still available at
the primary site.
10. Contact Alternate Site Team Leader to:
• Invoke the alternate site(s).
• Verify the level of resources and materials required.
• Plan occupation by Recovery Teams.

Business Continuity Plan Page 5

COMPANY NAME Crisis Management Team

• Verify retrieval of emergency resources from off-site storage.

• Verify timeframes for the availability of day one critical servers;
• Verify voice line redirection, message content and call routing /
handling.
11. Contact Primary Site Team Leader and establish whether access has been
allowed and if so:
• What has been salvaged and its condition.
• What has been irretrievably lost or destroyed.
• What is intact, but inaccessible.
• Infrastructure damage and access availability.
• Expected rebuild timeframes.
• Location for reconstruction activities.
12. Hold the Recovery Team Leaders’ briefing [section 2.3.4].

By Day 1
1. Contact and inform other third party contacts [Appendix B].
2. Use approved statements to respond to incoming calls.
3. Authorise recovery agreements with third party service providers.
4. Arrange a meeting with landlord to establish insurance and reconstruction
responsibilities.
5. Ensure:
• That all Health and Safety regulations are satisfied at the alternate site.
• That Fire Officers and First Aiders have been assigned and briefed.
6. Keep detailed PR response updated as per continuing situation. Determine if
assistance from third parties is required. Decide whether to hold a press
conference.
7. Confirm with the Alternate Site Team:
• Redirection of lines and recovery status for the PABX.
• The recovery status of the following day one critical applications:
• To be specified,
• Others
• Which day's backups where used to restore the computer systems
i.e. extent of information loss.
• Obtain status of the following:
• Disaster recovery agreements.
• Redirection of voice and data communications.
• Retrieval of back-up media.

Business Continuity Plan Page 6

COMPANY NAME Crisis Management Team

• Access to critical servers.

• IT Help Desk re-established.
• IT Emergency procedures initiated.
8. Liase with the other Recovery Teams to obtain status of the following
objectives:

• Acceptance Processing Team

• Activities resumed.
• Contact Centre Operations Team
• Activities resumed.
• Primary Site Team
• Co-ordination safety and security.
• Damage assessment.
• Informed and invoked third parties (salvage, loss adjusters, insurers).
• Salvage procedures initiated.

By Week 1
1. Work with Oversight Board to:
• (Finance Director – [Mr xxxx]) Agree purchasing and budgetary limits
with insurers. Authorise placement of orders / invocation of
emergency procurement agreements for equipment.
• (Company’s BCP Manager – [Mr xxx]) Confirm that IT & business
operations at the alternate site are stabilised.
2. Contact the Alternate Site Team Leader and verify recovery status of
computer systems:
• Determine the extent of backlogs and their impact on recovery
timeframes.
3. Continue contact with the Primary Site Team to review status of damage at
[xxx].
4. Continue to assess staff reaction to the disaster and address any HR issues
with the Personnel department.
5. Ensure that management remains visible and accessible.
6. Review the status and effect of any PR activity.
7. Consider issuing further PR update to inform interested parties that
outsourcing has recovered to acceptable operating levels.
8. If [xxx] will not become habitable within one month, meet with Property
services to plan longer term recovery options. Otherwise, authorise
reconstruction and refit of [xxxx]. Also investigate the availability of local
office space for short-term rental.
9. Liase with the Recovery Team Leaders to begin to develop a long term

Business Continuity Plan Page 7

COMPANY NAME Crisis Management Team

recovery plan. Convene a CMT meeting to confirm and communicate

updates to the recovery objectives and strategies.
10. Obtain further progress report from each Recovery Team Leader. Verify:
• Manpower and resource adequacy.
• All fileserver and applications restoration progress
• Document, file and other reconstruction progress.
• Progress against planned objectives for each team.
• Operating levels achieved.
• Problem areas and possible solutions.
11. Consolidate the detailed damage assessment and salvage report from the
Primary Site Team.
12. Meet with the loss adjuster and the insurance company representative to
establish the basis for submitting insurance claims.
13. Contact Oversight Board and obtain an update on the financial position.
Assess recovery expenditure outlay to date.

By 6 weeks
1. Begin to develop a long term recovery plan. Convene an CMT meeting to
confirm and communicate recovery objectives and strategies.
2. Decide if refit of [xxxx] is viable. If necessary, search for local office space for
short-term rental.
3. Consolidate the detailed damage assessment and salvage report from the
Primary Site Team.
4. Meet with the loss adjuster and the insurance company representative to
establish the basis for submitting insurance claims.
1. Contact Alternate Site Team Leader to confirm progress on the permanent
site, in particular:
• Construction/refurbishment.
• Floor layout design.
• Plans for phased occupancy of the site.
• Procedures for security, cleaning, post and other services.
• Procurement, installation, commissioning and testing of replacement
fileservers.
• Procurement, installation, commissioning and testing of replacement
PABX.
• Status of voice and data communication links.
• Cutover date and time.
• Emergency procedures.
• Health and Safety regulations satisfied.

Business Continuity Plan Page 8

COMPANY NAME Crisis Management Team

1. Prepare staff briefing note on the new site. Include:

• The level of equipment and facilities available.
• Site layout plans and areas allocated to teams.
• Directions to the site.
• The date of transfer of operations.
• Expected length of stay.
• Special arrangements regarding transport of staff.
• Altered working arrangements for staff, where necessary.
• Recompense for disruption of work patterns if necessary.
1. Authorise systems cutover to the new site.
1. Authorise voice and data comms cutover.
1. Authorise occupation of the new site.
1. Authorise clear down of disaster alternate sites and systems.
1. Retrieve and review copies of team Incident Logs. Identify:
• Exceptional performance.
• Sources of delay or inefficiency.
• Errors or inappropriate responses.
• Actual timeframes for activity completion.
1. Hold post-incident review meeting and obtain written report from each
Recovery Team Leader [section A.6.4].
1. Compile and submit insurance claims.
1. Submit final report to Head Office.
1. Update the BCP.
1. Update internal operating and emergency procedures.

2.2.1 Throughout the Recovery

1. Use Appendix A for guidance on how to use and interpret the Plan.
2. Maintain Team Incident Log [section 1.3].
3. Maintain contact with all Recovery Team Leaders:
• Respond to requests for information.
• Inform of changes in strategy.
• Inform of notable occurrences which may affect priorities.
4. At each timeframe:
• Receive Recovery Team reports of recovery progress against
target timescales.
• Review and update strategy and operational requirements [section
2.3.7].

Business Continuity Plan Page 9

COMPANY NAME Crisis Management Team

• Update the Time Frame Schedule.

• Prepare update for all CMT Members, Recovery Team Leaders.
• Assess well-being of staff and identify need for Personnel
department support.
5. Liase with Oversight Board to control and review the effect of PR activity.
• Control PR to minimise damage to Company’s internal and public
image.
• Decide when to initiate PR exercises to clarify issues and promote
confidence in recovery.
• Determine if assistance from third parties is required.
• Decide what is to be communicated to third party organisations.
• Provide approved statements for use by the Recovery Teams.

6. Control all expenditure decisions and maintain regular contact with the
Finance department.
7. Work with the Primary Site and Alternate Site Teams to ensure the
prompt submission of any insurance claims.
8. Use the Alternate Site Team Help Desk:
• Inform it of any problems at the alternate site.
• Inform it of any systems-related problems.
• Check extent of data loss following restoration of backups.
• Check availability of individual servers and other systems.
• Check salvage status - availability of paper-based records and
extent of information lost.
• Request updates on casualties / staff well being.
• Request staff counselling or other assistance, if required.
• Request support for recruitment, if necessary.
9. Conduct regular CMT briefings on progress and strategy.

2.3 Supporting Information

2.3.1 Data Sheet

Insert a copy of the Team’s Data Sheet from Appendix C after this page.

2.3.2 Invoking Recovery Teams

The message to Team Leaders must:

Business Continuity Plan Page 10

COMPANY NAME Crisis Management Team

• Provide the minimum data to initiate the response and explain the current
situation.
• Verify the Team’s specific Emergency Response tasks.
• Identify any business-critical activities which should receive priority.
• Confirm CMT and Team Leader’s immediate contact details.
• Give notice of the CMT and Team Leaders’ briefing time and place.
• Clearly state the need for secrecy pending a formal press release.
• Instruct Team Leaders to prepare Initial Assessment Forms.

2.3.3 Standing Down from Invocation

The following actions need to be considered if the plan is NOT to be invoked:
• Notify all members of the CMT of stand down.
• Notify other employees as appropriate.
• Notify the Primary Site Team Leader to restore suspended facilities and services.
• Retrieve items from the alternate site(s) to off-site storage.
• Business Continuity Planning Co-ordinator (BCC) must submit a report to the
CMT for review.

2.3.4 Briefing Team Leaders

Deliver and discuss the following:
• Internal press release, résumé of events and status.
• Damage and impact assessment.
• Salvage status.
• Recovery strategy and Critical Milestones.
• Roles and responsibilities.
• Operating recovery targets.
• The alternate site(s) to be used.
• Staff transport arrangements to the alternate site(s) [section 2.3.5].
• Timeframes for critical resource recovery (systems etc).
• Funding and emergency purchase limits [section 2.3.6].
• Team reporting and problem escalation guidelines.
• Voice and fax communications availability and usage.
• Progress reporting.

2.3.5 Emergency Transport Guidelines

• All reasonable emergency travel expenses will be reimbursed.

Business Continuity Plan Page 11

COMPANY NAME Crisis Management Team

• [xxxx] has an account with [TAXI companies], which should be used where public
transport is unsuitable or unavailable [section B.3.4].
• Reimbursement of minor travel expenses must be obtained through a regular
expense claim.
• Reimbursement of major travel expenses such as airline tickets, must be
sanctioned and obtained through the CMT via the Recovery Team Leader.

2.3.6 Emergency Expensing Guidelines

• All reasonable 'out of pocket' expenses will be reimbursed.
• A supply of Emergency Expense Forms is maintained. These will be issued in
the event of an incident.

2.3.7 Assessing Recovery Progress

Contact Recovery Team Leaders for:
• Progress against Critical Timeframes.
• Problem areas and exceptions.
• Salvage priorities.
• Additional staff and resource needs.
• Schedule of subsequent actions.
• Assess known losses and damage and update the Initial Damage
Assessment.
• Identify current and anticipated staff needs. Decide which staff need to be
stood down, activated or, if necessary, re-assigned to other teams.
• Assess the morale of staff.
• Assess the adequacy of the site and necessary proximity to other teams.
• Assess the availability and performance of systems and telecomms.
• Identify current and anticipated resource needs. Contact the Help Desk to
determine resource and service availability.
• Identify and prioritise future team activities.
• Assess current and anticipated problem areas.
• Release copies of the latest CMT statements to staff and third parties.
• Establish overall recovery progress.
• Review and adjust the Recovery Strategy.
• Work with the Alternate Site Team Leader to control resource allocation.

Business Continuity Plan Page 12