Resilient or Risky? Put Your Business Continuity Plan to the Test

Is Your Organisation Ready to Act Swiftly and Effectively When Disruption Strikes? 

What is a Business Continuity Tabletop Test?  

A guided, scenario-based exercise that simulates disruptive events, from cyber-attacks and system outages to supply chain breakdowns or natural disasters, to test your organisation’s ability to continue operations should one of these events occur. 

tmc3 offers tailored tabletop exercises and simulations that put your leadership, IT, operations and communications teams to the test in a safe but realistic situation.  

Key Benefits of our Service:  

• Opportunity to experience realistic scenarios tailored to your industry and risk profile. 

• Strengthens collaboration between leadership, IT and operational teams. 

• Identifies weaknesses in your business continuity preparedness. 

• Provides actionable insights and recommendations to improve organisational resilience. 

• Demonstrates compliance with frameworks such as ISO 22301 and DORA. 

• Reduces the operational, financial and reputational impact of disruptive events through tested resilience planning. 

Real-World Disruptions and the Role of Tabletop Testing 

Publicised disruptive events affecting organisations are increasing in frequency and impact.  Organisations without tested business continuity plans risk serious operational, financial and reputational damage.  Some recent UK events include: 

Marks & Spencer Cyber-Attack in April 2025:

A cyber-attack disrupted Marks & Spencer’s online ordering and logistics systems. While some services have since been restored, the incident caused significant operational disruption, financial loss and reputational impact. Delays were caused in fulfilling customer orders and operational bottlenecks occurred.  
Fortune Theatre/ West End Outage in July 2025 

During a heatwave in July 2025, a power cut affected several West End Theatres. At the Fortune Theatre, the outage forced a performance cancellation, causing operational and reputational impacts. The cancellation also resulted in lost ticket revenue and potential refunds.  

Strengthening Resilience Through Business Continuity Tabletop Testing 

The above business disruptive events highlight the operational, financial and reputational risks organisations can face because of disruption. Tabletop Testing can help to mitigate these risks and improve resilience. 

• Accelerated Recovery: Tabletop exercises can significantly reduce the time it takes to restore operations when impacted by a disruptive event. 

• Proactive Risk Identification: Regular testing helps organisations anticipate operational bottlenecks and pain points before a real crisis occurs. 

• Structured Response: Practised response plans enable organisations to act methodically and effectively under pressure to maintain critical services or operations and minimise disruption. 

• Damage Limitation: Effective business continuity planning and testing can reduce the overall impact of an incident. 
  

Building Confidence Through Business Continuity Tabletop Testing 

Tabletop testing ensures that when disruption strikes, your organisation is ready to act swiftly and effectively.  

How to Build Resilience Through Business Continuity Testing​:  

• Run tabletop exercises at least annually for your mission-critical services and operations (quarterly in high-risk sectors). 

• Include leadership, IT, operations and communications teams.  Business continuity is everyone’s responsibility. 

• Test multiple scenarios, such as cyber-attacks, vendor failures, natural disasters and insider threats. 

• Review and refine your plans after each exercise where needed to close gaps and strengthen your response 
  

Prepared for the Unexpected: How Resilient Are You? 

tmc3 offers customised business continuity tabletop exercises to help organisations assess their resilience, identify weaknesses and strengthen response capabilities. This includes: 

• Real-world disruption scenarios. 

• Practical testing of your business continuity plan. 

• Insights that drive actionable improvements.  

• Creation and update of business continuity plans. 

See how your teams perform under pressure and uncover opportunities to improve before disruption strikes. 

Get in touch with tmc3 to ensure your organisation can maintain operations and reduce business impact when unexpected events occur.