Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery
At OutSec Legal, we recognise that our clients rely on us to provide consistent, secure and dependable legal transcription services. We therefore take business continuity and disaster recovery seriously and have measures in place to help ensure that we can continue to support our clients in the event of an unexpected disruption.
For many of our clients, OutSec Legal forms an important part of their own business continuity and disaster recovery arrangements. By using a reliable external transcription service, our clients are able to maintain access to essential transcription support even when they are experiencing disruption to their own people, premises, systems or working arrangements. As a result, it is particularly important to everyone at OutSec Legal, as part of The OutSec Group, that our clients understand the business continuity and disaster recovery measures we have in place.
The importance of this approach was demonstrated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the unprecedented disruption caused by the pandemic, OutSec Legal continued to operate and provide its services as normal. This enabled our legal clients to continue accessing our transcription services and, where their own working arrangements had changed significantly, helped them to maintain their operations and continue working.
The OutSec Group maintains a Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Policy, supported by documented procedures and arrangements designed to help us prepare for, respond to and recover from a range of potential disruptions.
What Does the OutSec Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Policy Cover?
Our Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Policy provides a structured framework for managing significant disruptions to our people, premises, technology, systems or other critical resources.
The policy incorporates a number of key elements, including:
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Business Impact Analysis (BIA) – to identify our critical activities, understand the potential impact of disruption and establish appropriate priorities for recovery.
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Incident Response Procedure – to provide a clear framework for responding to incidents, assessing their impact and taking appropriate action.
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Crisis Management – to establish appropriate management arrangements for significant incidents and ensure that decisions can be made promptly and effectively.
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Communication Procedures – to ensure that appropriate internal and external communications can be maintained during a disruption, including communication with clients and other relevant stakeholders.
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Disaster Recovery arrangements – to support the recovery of critical systems, services and operations following a significant disruption.
Why is Business Impact Analysis important?
Our Business Impact Analysis helps us understand which activities and services are most important to the continued operation of the OutSec Group.
It considers the potential consequences of disruption and helps us establish priorities and appropriate recovery requirements. This enables our continuity arrangements to be based on the actual needs of the business rather than relying solely on generic assumptions.
This is particularly important because the continuity of our services can also contribute to the continuity of our clients' own businesses. We therefore consider not only the impact that disruption could have on OutSec Legal, but also the importance of maintaining our services for clients who rely on us as part of their own continuity arrangements.
What Happens if a Significant Incident Occurs?
Our Incident Response Procedure provides a structured approach to managing an incident.
Depending on the nature and severity of an incident, appropriate personnel can be notified and the relevant response arrangements activated. The response process is designed to help us assess the situation, protect people and critical activities, communicate effectively and take appropriate steps towards recovery.
For more significant events, our Crisis Management arrangements provide an additional management structure for coordinating the response and making appropriate decisions.
How Would OutSec Communicate with Clients During a Disruption?
Effective communication is an important part of our business continuity arrangements.
Our communication procedures identify how relevant stakeholders should be kept informed during a significant disruption. Where appropriate, this includes our clients, suppliers, service providers and other relevant parties.
We recognise that during a disruption, maintaining clear and timely communication can be just as important as restoring systems and services. This is especially relevant where clients depend on OutSec Legal to support their own business continuity arrangements.
Does OutSec test its Business Continuity arrangements?
Business continuity arrangements are intended to be maintained and reviewed so that they remain appropriate to the organisation and its changing circumstances.
Where appropriate, our plans and procedures are exercised or tested to help identify areas for improvement and ensure that those with responsibilities understand their roles.
The results of exercises, incidents and reviews can be used to improve our business continuity and disaster recovery arrangements.
What does this mean for OutSec Clients?
Our approach is designed to provide reassurance that business continuity and disaster recovery have been considered as an integral part of the way the OutSec Group operates.
We recognise that our resilience is important not only to OutSec Legal, but also to the many legal clients who rely on our services as part of their own business continuity and disaster recovery plans. Maintaining the availability and continuity of our services is therefore a responsibility that we take seriously.
The experience of the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the importance of this approach. While the pandemic created significant challenges across the legal sector and wider business community, OutSec Legal continued to provide its transcription services as normal, enabling our clients to continue using our services and supporting them in maintaining their own working arrangements during an exceptionally challenging period.
While no organisation can eliminate every potential source of disruption, we have established documented arrangements to help us prepare for, respond to and recover from significant incidents, with the objective of minimising disruption to the services we provide to our clients.
Business continuity is an important part of our commitment to providing reliable, professional and resilient legal services. It is also an important part of the support we provide to our clients, many of whom depend on OutSec Legal to form part of their own continuity and disaster recovery arrangements.