--- sourceDocument: Australia Governance, Risk, and Compliance sourceDocumentLink: https://www.servicenow.com/docs/r/australia/governance-risk-compliance Release : - australia ft:locale : - en-US ft:publication_title : - Australia Governance, Risk, and Compliance ft:clusterId : - grc bundleId : - grc workflow : - Technology --- # Global recovery teams and collaboration threads # Global recovery teams and collaboration threads {#ariaid-title1} Release version: Australia Updated August 17, 2026 ![](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/portal-asset/ico-clock) 3 minutes to read Summarize ![AI sparkle icon](https://servicenow.com/docs/portal-asset/ai-sparkle-icon) Summarized using AI This content was generated using new OpenAI-powered functionality. Results are provided on an as is basis and are not guaranteed to be accurate or complete. ## Summary of Global recovery teams and collaboration threads This functionality in ServiceNow Business Continuity Management (BCM) enables organizations to coordinate business continuity responses through reusable global recovery teams and integrated collaboration threads. Recovery teams can be managed centrally and applied across BCM applications to address defined problems efficiently. Integrated communication tools support real-time coordination and comprehensive tracking during crisis events. Show full answer Show less ## Key Features * **Global recovery teams:** Create and store reusable recovery teams with hierarchical parent-child relationships to model complex organizational structures and locations. * **Collaboration threads:** Capture discussions, decisions, action items, and email communications in a centralized timeline with attachments, ensuring all event-related information is available in one platform. * **Automated notifications and recipient resolution:** Automatically notify team members and resolve nested group memberships to streamline communication during urgent situations. * **Lifecycle and activity tracking:** Manage team activation status, track all decisions and actions with audit trails, and maintain compliance-ready historical records. * **Integration with recovery plans:** Reference saved recovery teams within multiple recovery plans for consistency and reduced administrative overhead. * **Data integrity:** Business rules prevent invalid team hierarchies and cyclic relationships, ensuring robust and accurate team configurations. ## Practical Benefits * **Centralized tracking:** Eliminates scattered spreadsheets and fragmented communication by capturing all event-related activities in one system. * **Reusability:** Define recovery teams once and reuse them across plans and events for consistent organizational responses. * **Hierarchical organization:** Model multi-level team structures (site, regional, global) with automatic cycle prevention to reflect real-world organizational setups. * **Real-time coordination:** Keep team members aligned with integrated collaboration threads and automated email alerts, reducing the need to switch between tools. * **Audit and compliance:** Maintain a comprehensive activity stream and historic record for post-event reviews and compliance audits. ## Use Cases * Coordinating site evacuation teams reporting to regional and global recovery teams during incidents. * Capturing crisis event discussions, decisions, and task assignments through collaboration threads. * Automatically escalating events based on crisis levels and notifying appropriate recovery teams. * Running exercises and tabletop discussions with automatic capture of decisions and actions. * Developing recovery plans that consistently reference pre-configured global recovery teams. * Conducting post-event analysis with a complete audit trail of all collaboration and recovery activities. ## Components and Configuration Recovery teams are managed via dedicated BCM tables that store team details, user and group memberships, and hierarchical relationships. Access control roles (coreviewer and coremanager) govern permissions to view and manage recovery teams and their associated collaboration threads. Business rules enforce data integrity by preventing cyclic team relationships. ## What ServiceNow Customers Can Expect ServiceNow customers implementing global recovery teams and collaboration threads will gain a centralized, reusable, and hierarchical recovery team framework integrated with real-time communication tools. This enhances coordination, reduces manual administrative tasks, supports compliance through robust audit trails, and improves overall crisis response efficiency across the organization. Recovery teams and collaboration help organizations coordinate business continuity responses using reusable teams and integrated communication. ## Recovery team management {#recovery-team-collaboration__section_hpv_xj4_3kc} Recovery teams are supported at global level and they are available across all BCM applications. BCM users can create and store recovery teams to address defined problems and fulfill organizational requirements. Key features include an active flag for recovery teams, support for global recovery teams, ability to reference saved recovery teams within plans, and enhanced recovery team hierarchy management. ## Recovery teams module in Business Continuity Workspace {#recovery-team-collaboration__section_owg_zl4_3kc} BCM administrators can create and manage recovery teams from the Recovery teams module in Business Continuity Workspace. ## Benefits of using recovery teams {#recovery-team-collaboration__purpose} Recovery teams and collaboration provide the following benefits: {#recovery-team-collaboration__benefits_table__entry__2} | Benefit | Details | |-|-| | Centralized tracking | Eliminates scattered Excel spreadsheets and fragmented communication. All event-related collaborations, decisions, and actions are captured in a single platform. | | Reusability | Recovery teams are created once and can be associated with multiple recovery plans and events, reducing administrative overhead and ensuring consistent team definitions across the organization. | | Hierarchical organization | Parent-child team relationships enable modeling of complex organizational structures (site-level, country-level, global teams) with automatic cycle prevention. | | Audit trail | Built-in activity streams and historical records capture all decisions, actions, and communications for compliance requirements and post-event analysis. | | Real-time coordination | Integrated collaboration threads, email capabilities, and action tracking keep all team members aligned during crisis events without context switching to external tools. | | Automatic recipient resolution | Email notifications automatically resolve team membership including nested groups, eliminating manual recipient management during urgent situations. | [Table 1. Recovery team and Collaboration benefits] {#recovery-team-collaboration__benefits_table} ## Capabilities and use cases {#recovery-team-collaboration__overview} The BCM recovery team and collaboration functionality provides key capabilities for coordinating business continuity responses. {#recovery-team-collaboration__overview__entry__3} | Capability | Description | Use case | |-|-|-| | Team management | Create reusable recovery teams with hierarchical structures, configurable membership, location association, and lifecycle management | Site Evacuation Team reports to Regional Safety Team, which reports to Global Recovery Coordination Team | | Collaboration threads | Capture discussions, decisions, coordination, action items, and email communications with timeline and attachments | Fire incident: Evacuation Team documents decisions, Safety Team reports status, Facilities Team assigns restoration tasks | | Crisis event coordination | Automatically notify recovery team leads with context about impacted assets and recovery objectives | Crisis declared: team members receive notifications enabling immediate action without manual coordination | | Escalation and routing | Tag events with crisis levels and automatically resolve team recipients including nested group members | High crisis level signals executive teams; system resolves all recipients eliminating manual email management | | Multi-team coordination | Parent-child team hierarchies enable coordination between specialized teams with organizational oversight | Data Recovery team reports to Infrastructure Recovery team; Site Evacuation to Regional Safety to Global Recovery | | Exercise and planning | Participate in exercises and tabletop discussions with automatic capture of decisions and actions | Recovery teams join exercises; all decisions captured for improvement tracking without manual spreadsheet updates | | Plan development | Select pre-configured teams from global repository ensuring consistent definitions across all plans | Administrators reuse teams across plans; updates to team definitions benefit all referencing plans and events | | Post-event analysis | Complete collaboration thread serves as authoritative record capturing all activity, decisions, and actions | Resolved events provide comprehensive audit trail for post-event reviews, compliance, and improvement planning | [Table 2. Recovery team and collaboration capabilities and use cases] ## Components used in recovery teams {#recovery-team-collaboration__architecture} The global recovery team consists of the following components: {#recovery-team-collaboration__architecture__entry__2} | Component | Description | |-|-| | Tables || | sn_bcm_recovery_team | Core table storing recovery team records with fields for name, description, location, and active status | | sn_bcm_m2m_recovery_team_user | Junction table linking users to recovery teams with automatic department mapping for picker filters | | sn_bcm_m2m_recovery_team_group | Junction table linking groups to recovery teams, supporting recursive group membership resolution | | sn_bcm_m2m_recovery_team_recovery_team | Self-join hierarchy table supporting parent-child team relationships with automatic cyclic-relationship prevention | | sn_bcp_m2m_plan_recovery_team | Junction table linking recovery teams to recovery plans | | Access control || | core_viewer | Read and report-view access to recovery team records | | core_manager | Create, write, delete, and management permissions for recovery teams. These roles extend to all related records including collaboration threads and email communications. | | Rules || | Business rules | Validate parent-child relationships and prevent invalid team hierarchies. The system prevents cyclic relationships and self-loops automatically, maintaining data integrity during team configuration. | [Table 3. Recovery team components] ## Key capabilities {#recovery-team-collaboration__key_capabilities} Recovery teams and collaboration provide the following key capabilities: * Team management and planning * Create reusable teams with hierarchical structures and configurable membership * Reference teams across multiple recovery plans with automatic filtering of active teams * Collaboration and communication * Coordinate through integrated threads with automated email notifications and recipient resolution * Track activity streams, delivery status, attachments, and role-based work notes * Event escalation and tracking * Tag events with crisis levels to indicate severity and control access * Maintain persistent escalation values across all event views * Documentation and reporting * Export complete recovery timeline to Word and PDF with collaboration threads and event details * Automatically propagate email history and activity updates to parent crisis event feed **Related concepts** * [List view](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/ZLEgDLsQdoMH_jDZJHJhPw "The List view in the BCM Configurable Workspace displays BIA, planning, exercise, and crisis event records along with their key metrics. You can filter records, create new ones, and open them to display the scope of all BCM functional components and their key metric information.") * [Recovery teams, loss scenarios, and recovery tasks](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/KEycJRyBHZcZXwUOA_R9vA "Business continuity planning workspace guides you to complete your business continuity plan. You can create a recovery team, define roles for the users, and direct the team to execute the plan. When you create a continuity plan for a department or a business unit, it is necessary to identify the loss scenarios to the business continuity plan.") * [Creating collaborations in exercises and crisis events](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/vKcnUF7Z1bDa1eho~hPbeg "Starting with BCM core release 12.x.x, crisis managers can create collaboration threads on crisis events to coordinate responses with recovery teams and send email updates.") **Related tasks** * [Create and manage a recovery team](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/FglYn4o39F52Zo7JWgHakQ "Create a recovery team in the Business Continuity Workspace, add users and groups, attach locations, and build parent-child relationships to organize your business continuity response structure.") * [Create a collaboration thread in a crisis event](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/XfH65tn3_Q~jURhGmcm8uw "Create a collaboration thread on a crisis event and send an email to its recovery teams to coordinate a response.") **Related reference** * [Create Collaboration thread form](https://www.servicenow.com/docs/EGVKEsY2aA_rEmXMW5K26Q "Use the Create collaboration thread form in the BCM Configurable Workspace to enable team members to communicate and coordinate responses during an exercise or a crisis event.")