The Emergency Management Cycle: How Each Phase Supports Business Continuity
When institutions think about emergency management and business continuity, these often appear as separate conversations. But in reality, business continuity is embedded in every phase of the emergency management cycle—mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. Schools that weave continuity planning throughout this cycle are far better equipped to manage crises, maintain academic integrity, and restore normal operations swiftly.
Let’s explore how Kuali Ready helps institutions integrate business continuity into every stage of emergency management—and how that builds a culture of resilience across campus.
1. Mitigation: Reduce Risk with Proactive Planning
Emergency Management Focus: This phase involves identifying risks and reducing their potential impact—whether it’s reinforcing infrastructure, improving cybersecurity, or redesigning campus layouts for safety.
Kuali Ready in Action:
Mitigation in business continuity starts with understanding risk. Kuali Ready enables institutions to conduct risk assessments and business impact analyses—the foundational steps to identifying which assets, processes, and people are critical to keep running.
At Sacramento State, the Risk Management team used Ready to develop continuity strategies that consider their unique geography—like forest fires and river flooding. “We needed something flexible and easy to use,” said Don Nahhas, who built custom forms and sections to map vulnerabilities across programs.
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Key Takeaway: Use Ready’s customizable platform to assess critical functions and protect what matters most—before the disruption hits.
2. Preparedness: Plan, Train, and Empower
Emergency Management Focus: Institutions develop emergency response plans, conduct drills, and train staff and faculty.
Kuali Ready in Action:
Business continuity preparedness goes beyond writing plans—it’s about getting people engaged. At CSU Monterey Bay, the Safety & Sustainability team built a three-year plan to train departments across campus. With Kuali Ready’s real-time collaboration and intuitive interface, 86% of plan owners were onboarded in just three months.
Ready’s custom reporting tools empowered CSUMB to build university-wide projects like its Enterprise Continuity of Operations Plan (E-COOP) and Business Impact Analyses.
See how institutions use Kuali Ready in real life:
“Now people want to be proactive,” said Kendall Emerick, Continuity and Safety Specialist at CSUMB. “We’re pretty much in maintenance mode.”
Preparedness Tip: Use Kuali Ready’s templates and reporting features to run continuity drills and simulations, then refine plans with stakeholder feedback.
3. Response: Act Quickly and Maintain Continuity
Emergency Management Focus: The response phase prioritizes safety and stabilization—evacuating buildings, alerting the campus, securing facilities.
Kuali Ready in Action:
In a disruption, keeping critical services running is essential. That’s where continuity meets crisis response. Kuali Ready supports this phase with automated alerts, access-anywhere plans, and real-time updates.
At Boston University, Kuali Ready has become part of their emergency toolkit. “I like that I can turn it over to my end users and not babysit it,” said Stephen Morash, Director of Emergency Management. “It’s very intuitive—I can train someone to use it in 20 minutes.”
Action Step: Set up automatic workflows in Ready to notify teams and trigger essential next steps when a plan is activated.
4. Recovery: Restore Operations—and Improve
Emergency Management Focus: Once the crisis passes, recovery means restoring systems and improving processes. That can include reopening buildings, supporting affected students, or strengthening infrastructure.
Kuali Ready in Action:
Recovery isn’t just about bouncing back—it’s about bouncing forward. Kuali Ready supports post-incident review with lessons learned templates, integrated after-action reporting, and tools to track plan effectiveness.
CSUMB used Ready to consolidate over 60 plans into a streamlined set of coordinated, department-led plans. Sacramento State used Ready to compare critical functions across departments and identify scalable solutions. With every plan updated and tested, they’re now focused on long-term resilience.
Reflection Prompt: Use Ready’s reporting and documentation features to track what worked, what didn’t, and how to better prepare next time.
The Full Cycle: From Risk to Resilience
Resilience isn’t a single plan or platform—it’s a mindset built into every phase of campus operations. With Kuali Ready, institutions like Boston University, CSUMB, and Sacramento State are embedding business continuity into their emergency management strategy—ensuring that no matter the disruption, learning and operations continue.
Want to See Kuali Ready in Action?
Learn how your institution can build, manage, and sustain a resilient business continuity program with a tool designed for higher education.