BCM lite operators

  • Release version: Xanadu
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 3 minutes to read
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    Summary of BCM lite operators

    The Business Continuity Management (BCM) application offers flexible user licensing by classifying certain users as lite operators. Lite operators are users who have read-only or limited task completion access, enabling them to respond to Business Impact Analysis (BIA) plans as contributors, and approve or reject assigned approval records. To activate these capabilities, users must be assigned the appropriate roles and added as approvers on records, allowing them to provide workflow notes and participate in approval processes.

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    BCM lite operator role

    The BCM lite operator role (snbcmlite.liteoperator) is a composite role that includes several specific roles granting viewing and limited action permissions within BCM. These roles allow lite operators to:

    • Respond to BIAs as contributors (roles: snbcmcontributor, snbia.biacontributor).
    • View BIAs, plans, exercises, events, and emergency notifications in a read-only format (roles: snbcm.coreviewer, snbcmviewer, snbcp.planviewer, snbia.biaviewer, snrecovery.eventviewer, sncrisisebn.viewer).
    • Receive and respond to assigned recovery tasks during exercises or crisis events (roles: snbcm.recoveryteammember, snrecovery.eventmember).

    This role structure allows organizations to manage licensing costs by limiting lite operators’ permissions to essential participation activities without full operator privileges.

    Roles not assignable to lite operators

    To maintain licensing flexibility, certain BCM operator roles must not be assigned to lite operators, as doing so would count the user as a full operator. These restricted roles include administrative and management roles such as:

    • snbia.biaadmin, snbia.biamanager, snbia.biaplanner
    • snbcp.planadmin, snbcp.planmanager
    • snrecovery.eventmanager, snrecovery.eventuser
    • sncrisisebn.admin, sncrisisebn.user

    Assigning these roles to users removes the flexible licensing benefit of lite operators.

    Activities and limitations of lite operators

    Lite operators have defined capabilities and restrictions across BCM processes, summarized as follows:

    • Business Impact Analysis (BIA): Can create, read, update, and approve responses when tagged as contributors.
    • Business Continuity Planning (BCP): Can view and download published plans, participate in workflows, and approve or reject plans.
    • Business Continuity Exercises: Can view exercise details, perform assigned recovery tasks, and participate in approval workflows.
    • Crisis Events: Can report and view crisis details, perform assigned recovery tasks, and participate in approval workflows.
    • Recovery Tasks: Can receive assigned recovery tasks and update their status and progress.
    • Emergency Notifications: Can view notification templates and participate in related workflows.

    This tailored access ensures lite operators contribute effectively to continuity and recovery activities while preserving licensing cost efficiencies.

    The Business Continuity Management application provides flexible user licensing terms. The terms are based on whether your operator has read-only access or can complete certain types of tasks.

    Overview of the lite operator classification

    The Business Continuity Management roles that classify as lite operators are users who are responsible for the following tasks:
    • Respond to the business impact analysis (BIA) plans when they are added as the contributors to the business impact analysis.
    • Approve the assigned approval record from the record in the Lists view or My tasks page.

    To enable lite operators to respond to tasks, you must assign them with the appropriate role for the activity and add them to the record as an approver. When this criteria is met, the lite operator can approve or reject a record and provide workflow notes.

    For detailed information that describes how to configure BCP or BIA plan templates, see Configure the business continuity plan template and Configure BIA templates with legacy assessment.

    For information about all roles that are installed with the activation of the Business Continuity Management application, see Components installed with Business Continuity Management.

    BCM lite operator role

    The BCM lite operator role (sn_bcm_lite.lite_operator) contains the roles listed in the following table.

    Table 1. BCM lite operator role classification
    Role Description Additional Information
    sn_bcm_contributor Enables the user to respond to BIAs in which they are tagged as a contributor. The BIA owner must add the user as a contributor to the BIA.
    sn_bcm.core_viewer Enables the user to view the BIA, plans, exercises, and events in the workspace UI.
    sn_bia.bia_contributor Enables the user to respond to BIAs in which they are tagged as a contributor. The BIA owner must add the user as a contributor to the BIA.
    sn_bcm.recovery_team_member Enables the user to receive and respond to the assigned recovery tasks.
    sn_bcm_viewer Enables the user to view all records in the BCM application.
    sn_bcp.plan_viewer Enables the user to view the plans in a read-only format.
    sn_bia.bia_viewer Enables the user to view the BIA responses in a read-only format.
    sn_recovery.event_viewer Enables the user to view an exercise or event in a read-only format. The read-only information is needed so that the recovery event member has the context of the entire exercise though the user can only respond to assigned tasks.
    sn_crisis_ebn.viewer Enables the user to view emergency notifications in a read-only format.
    sn_recovery.event_member Enables the user to receive and respond to the assigned recovery tasks during an exercise or event. Recovery tasks must be assigned to the recovery team member.

    BCM roles that you can't assign to your lite operators

    Operator roles can't be assigned to lite operators. If you assign a role to a user, it counts the user as an operator and you no longer have a flexible licensing model.

    You can't assign the following roles to your lite operators:
    • sn_bia.bia_admin
    • sn_bia.bia_manager
    • sn_bia.bia_planner
    • sn_bcp.plan_admin
    • sn_bcp.plan_manager
    • sn_recovery.event_manager
    • sn_recovery.event_user
    • sn_crisis_ebn.admin
    • sn_crisis_ebn.user
    For additional information on role assignments, see the GRC Business User Role [KB0864247] article in the Now Support Knowledge Base.
    Note:
    You must log in to Now Support to view the articles.

    Lite operator activities and limitations

    The following table describes the lite operator activities and limitations.

    Table 2. BCM lite operator activities and limitations
    Activity Description Create Read Update Approve
    Business impact analysis (BIA)
    • Respond to the BIA analysis.
    • View a completed analysis.
    • Participate in the BIA workflow.
    • Review the analysis and then approve or reject it.
    		 X X X
    Business continuity planning (BCP)
    • View and download the published continuity and disaster recovery plans.
    • Participate in the plan workflow.
    • Review and approve or reject an analysis.
    		 X X
    Business continuity exercises
    • View the exercise details.
    • Participate in the recovery tasks.
    • Participate in the exercise results workflow.
    • Review and approve or reject an analysis.
    		 X X
    Crisis events
    • Report and view the crisis details.
    • Participate in the recovery tasks.
    • Participate in the exercise results workflow.
    • Review and approve or reject an analysis.
    		 X X
    Update recovery tasks status
    • Receive the recovery tasks from the exercises and crisis events.
    • Report the progress and status back to your event coordinator.
    		 X X X
    Emergency notification template
    • View the emergency notifications.
    • Participate in the workflow.
    		 X X