CONTINUITY PLANNING
Part of your continuity
and incident planning.
When something goes wrong – a site closes, a system is down, an account is taken over – you need to reach the right people, keep what is said on the record, and know who can act. ComplyChat can be one of the routes you plan for. It does not replace your continuity or incident-response plan; it can sit inside it.
WHERE IT FITS
A route to plan for.
With its limits in writing.
Three things ComplyChat can bring to your plan, and the limits to plan around.
A second route that does not use your Microsoft 365 accounts.
People in your channels sign in with their own mobile number and a texted code, not with a Microsoft account. So staff, volunteers, families and trustees who are already in your channels can still be reached without anyone signing in to your Microsoft 365. Staff who usually reply from Microsoft Teams should be added to the channels and set up on their phones in advance.
Space for the groups you would need.
Governance includes up to ten channels, against two on Foundation, with no charge per person. That leaves room to keep a standing channel for incident or out-of-hours cover alongside your everyday ones. Each channel can have its own local number, arranged with you in advance.
Tools already in every channel.
Ask people to acknowledge an instruction and see who has confirmed it, run a poll for a quick roll-call, set an event for a briefing, and give named people a task with a due time. Acknowledgements and tasks are completed in the app.
Know the limits.
Your administrators sign in to the client portal with Microsoft, so plan who will act if that sign-in is unavailable. ComplyChat itself runs on Microsoft Azure in the UK and relies on text messaging for sign-in codes; it targets 99.9% monthly availability, which excludes outages of Azure, of your own Microsoft 365 tenant and of SMS networks that we cannot reasonably mitigate. It is not a backup of your Microsoft 365.
WHAT WE DO ON OUR SIDE
Our recovery design.
Set out in the DPA.
Our recovery design is set out in DPA Annex B, Part 2. The recovery objectives are in our Incident Response Plan, which is available to customers under NDA.
UK South, with backups in UK West
ComplyChat runs in Microsoft Azure’s UK South region. Backups of its operational database are replicated to UK West, Microsoft’s paired UK region. Some supporting services process elsewhere (service providers and locations).
A documented recovery plan
If UK South is lost, ComplyChat has a documented recovery plan to restore the service in UK West, Microsoft’s paired UK region. A person declares and starts the switch; it is not automatic. The service comes back first without in-app history. Your filed records stay in your own Microsoft 365 archive throughout and remain readable there. Rebuilding in-app history from that archive is currently disabled as a safety precaution (see the 14 October 2026 operational notice in our DPA).
Your filed record stays yours
On a paid plan with a connected, verified archive, everything already filed sits in your own Microsoft 365 tenant, under your retention rules and Preservation Lock. That filed record survives even the total loss of ComplyChat’s own systems. Anything not yet filed at the moment of loss is not covered (see DPA Annex B). If your Microsoft 365 tenant itself is compromised, your own Microsoft 365 controls protect that record, not ComplyChat.
A target, not a guarantee
ComplyChat targets 99.9% monthly availability. That figure is derived from the lowest availability commitment Microsoft make for any component the service runs on, so it cannot exceed it.
EVERY PAID PLAN
If an account
is taken over.
Not a Governance extra: these come with every paid plan.
If a member thinks someone else has their account, they can act from their own phone without waiting for IT: “Sign out everywhere” signs them out on every device, removes their passkeys and cancels their sign-in links. “Someone else may have access to my account” does the same and, on paid plans, tells your organisation.
On every paid plan, if you suspect a member’s account has been compromised, an administrator can sign that member out of all their devices from the client portal. Their passkeys go too, and they stay a member with the same channels and roles. Administrators with the admin role can also review that account over a period you choose: its sign-ins and devices, the conversations it was in and what it sent. They can list everyone who shared a channel or direct message with it, with a download so you can contact them. Viewing the review and exporting that list are both recorded on your access feed.
The client portal on paid plans uses Microsoft sign-in, so plan who will act if your Microsoft 365 sign-in is unavailable.
How members and their accounts are protectedEVIDENCE AND SUPPORT
A record afterwards.
A person to talk to.
What you have to show for it, and who to contact.
Your access feed.
Every organisation has its own access feed. It is a content-free, hash-chained log, re-verified nightly and each time an administrator opens it. One button exports the whole ledger as JSONL for your incident review or auditor. It carries counts, ids and settings, never message content, and it is not a backup of your messages.
Quarterly compliance reports.
On Governance, quarterly compliance reports are included. Each is a governance record, not an incident report.
A named lead, in support hours.
On Governance you have a named account lead, with response times agreed and stated on your Order Form, during support hours (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm UK time, excluding English bank holidays).
Security incidents and breaches.
On every paid tier, reports of a security incident or suspected data breach affecting the service, sent to compliance@chat.org.uk, are treated as urgent and are not subject to the normal response targets. If we confirm a personal-data breach affecting your data, we notify you without undue delay – in practice, within 24 hours of confirmation.
SET UP BEFORE YOU NEED IT
A short checklist.
Done in advance.
Things to do on an ordinary day, so they are in place when you need them.
Add the people you would need.
Add them to channels by mobile number, including staff who normally work in Teams.
Keep a channel ready.
Keep one of your Governance channels ready for incident or out-of-hours cover. A channel you keep ready counts towards the ten.
Arrange local numbers in advance.
Each channel can have its own local number, which we set up with you. Numbers are live within days, not on the day.
Keep each private line’s contact export current.
On paid plans, an administrator can keep a private line’s contact list in step with your existing system using a complete CSV export. Your system must produce the export, a separate one for each line; this is not a direct MIS connection.
Agree who your portal administrators are.
Include them in your Microsoft multi-factor authentication and Conditional Access controls. Organisational administration on a paid plan requires Microsoft sign-in.
Read DPA Annex B.
And ask for our Incident Response Plan, which is available to customers under NDA.
Can ComplyChat be part of our business continuity plan?
It can be one of the routes you plan for. People sign in with their own mobile number rather than your Microsoft 365 accounts, so those already in your channels can be reached if your organisation’s Microsoft 365 sign-in is unavailable. It is not a backup of your Microsoft 365 and does not replace your plan.
Does ComplyChat keep working if Microsoft is down?
ComplyChat runs on Microsoft Azure in the UK, so a wider Microsoft or Azure outage could affect it too. We target 99.9% monthly availability; the target excludes outages of Azure, of your own Microsoft 365 tenant and of SMS networks that we cannot reasonably mitigate. Members’ sign-in does not depend on your organisation’s own Microsoft 365 accounts.
Can our administrators manage ComplyChat if our Microsoft sign-in is unavailable?
Organisational administration on a paid plan requires Microsoft sign-in, so new portal sign-ins wait until it is back. Agree in advance who your administrators are, and include them in your Microsoft security controls.
What if someone takes over a member’s account?
On every paid plan, not only Governance, the member can use “Sign out everywhere” or “Someone else may have access to my account” from their own phone, and an administrator can sign that member out of all their devices from the client portal. Their passkeys go too, and they stay a member with the same channels and roles. Administrators with the admin role can also review that account over a period you choose.
What happens if ComplyChat loses its UK region?
If UK South is lost, ComplyChat has a documented recovery plan to restore the service in UK West, Microsoft’s paired UK region. A person declares and starts the switch; it is not automatic. The service comes back first without in-app history. Your filed records stay in your own Microsoft 365 archive throughout and remain readable there. Rebuilding in-app history from that archive is currently disabled as a safety precaution (see the 14 October 2026 operational notice in our DPA). Anything not yet filed at the moment of loss is not covered (see DPA Annex B). Recovery objectives are in our Incident Response Plan, available under NDA.
Is there 24/7 support on Governance?
No. On Governance you have a named account lead, with response times agreed and stated on your Order Form, during support hours (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm UK time, excluding English bank holidays). On every paid tier, reports of a security incident or suspected data breach affecting the service, sent to compliance@chat.org.uk, are treated as urgent and are not subject to the normal response targets.
How many channels can we keep ready?
Governance includes up to ten channels, against two on Foundation, and there is no charge per person on any paid plan. That leaves room to set one of your ten aside as a standing channel for incident or out-of-hours cover, alongside your everyday ones. A channel you keep ready counts towards the ten. If you need more than ten, the next tier is a conversation with us.
TALK IT THROUGH
Bring your continuity plan.
We’ll talk it through.
Tell us how your organisation works and what your plan needs to cover.
A real person replies within one UK working day.