Hamilton Group · Free Tool

Business Continuity Plan Builder

Build a practical business continuity plan for your organisation — recovery priorities, scenario playbooks and emergency contacts. Fill in the details and copy, download or print the finished plan.

1. Your organisation

2. Business continuity team

The people who run the response. Include at least one deputy — plans fail when the only named person is on holiday.

NameRole in the responsePhoneEmail

3. Critical business functions

What must come back first, and how fast. RTO is how quickly it must be running again. RPO is how much data you could afford to lose — the age of your last usable backup.

Function or processResponsibleRTORPO

4. Key systems & suppliers

Anything you can't operate without, and who you call when it stops.

System or supplierWhat it supportsContact / account ref

5. What you have in place

Answer honestly — anything switched off here is listed as a gap in the finished plan.

Data mainly in Microsoft 365 / cloud
On-premises servers still in use
Backups kept offsite
An offline or immutable backup copy
Backups restore-tested in the last 6 months
Staff can work fully remotely
Phones divert / softphone on mobiles
Backup internet (4G/5G failover)
Alternative premises identified
Recovery steps written down
Cyber insurance in place
Named deputy for every critical function

6. Scenarios to plan for

Each one adds a short playbook: what to do in the first hour, then how you recover.

Cyber attack / ransomware
Loss of premises (fire, flood, no access)
IT or cloud service outage
Data loss or corruption
Internet or telephony failure
Loss of key people
Supplier or partner failure
Power outage
Severe weather / travel disruption
Widespread staff absence
Sections to include
Communications plan
Regulatory notification (ICO)
Gap analysis & actions
Testing & exercise schedule
Emergency contact sheet
Definitions (RTO / RPO)

Your business continuity plan

A plan is only as good as the recovery behind it

Writing the plan is the easy part. Hamilton Group tests the restores, builds the offline backup copy, and makes sure the recovery actually works on the day you need it. Book a free continuity review.

This builds a starting-point business continuity plan from your answers, based on general UK good practice (NCSC, ISO 22301 principles, ICO guidance). It is not legal or insurance advice. Review it with your management team, check it against your insurance policy conditions, and test it before you rely on it.