BCM lite operators

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

    The Business Continuity Management (BCM) application offers flexible user licensing through a classification called BCM lite operators. These users have limited roles focused on responding to Business Impact Analysis (BIA) tasks, approving assigned approval records, and participating in recovery tasks during exercises or crisis events. Lite operators must be assigned the appropriate roles and linked as approvers or contributors on records to perform their activities.

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    BCM lite Operator Roles

    The BCM lite operator role (snbcmlite.liteoperator) is a composite of several specific roles that enable users to:

    • Respond to BIAs as contributors
    • View BIAs, plans, exercises, events, and emergency notifications in read-only mode
    • Receive and respond to assigned recovery tasks
    • Participate in workflows by approving or rejecting assigned approval records

    Key roles within this classification include snbcmcontributor, snbcm.coreviewer, snbia.biacontributor, snbcm.recoveryteammember, and others focused on viewing and task participation.

    Role Assignment Restrictions

    To maintain flexible licensing, certain administrative roles cannot be assigned to lite operators. These restricted roles include administrators and managers for BIA, BCP, recovery events, and crisis emergency notifications (e.g., snbia.biaadmin, snbcp.planadmin). Assigning these roles removes the flexible licensing benefits.

    Lite Operator Activities and Limitations

    BCM lite operators have the ability to:

    • Create, read, update, and approve assigned records for BIAs, BCPs, exercises, and crisis events at a task or record level
    • View published continuity and disaster recovery plans, emergency notifications, and crisis details in read-only mode
    • Participate actively in workflows related to their assigned tasks
    • Update and report progress on recovery tasks assigned during exercises or crisis events

    However, lite operators cannot approve entire BIAs, BCPs, exercises, or crisis events—only the specific approval records assigned to them. Approval buttons and workflow participation depend on configuration, notably the use of the approval configurator.

    Practical Implications for ServiceNow Customers

    For customers using ServiceNow BCM, the lite operator classification enables efficient management of user licenses by restricting certain powerful roles while allowing necessary task-level participation. Assigning BCM lite operator roles correctly ensures users can contribute to business continuity planning and response without incurring full operator license costs. Proper configuration of approval workflows and contributor assignments is essential to leverage the capabilities of lite operators fully.

    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 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.

    • Lite operators can approve records only if the approval record is generated by the approval configurator.
    • If the approval configurator criteria is not met, the system displays Approve and Reject buttons on the BIA or BCP.
    • When approvals are shown via the Approve header UI action, specific operator roles (BIA/plan owner or BCM admin) can approve the BIA or BCP respectively.

    BCM lite operator role

    The BCM lite operator role (sn_bcm_lite.lite_operator) contains the roles listed in the 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 these 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 'BCM lite operator activities and limitations' 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 BIA record assigned to you and then approve or reject the assigned record.
    		 Yes A BCM lite operator can update the assigned record. When a BIA is submitted for approval, it is sent to multiple users. A BCM lite operator can approve the assigned record but they cannot approve the entire BIA.
    Business continuity planning (BCP)
    • View and download the published continuity and disaster recovery plans.
    • Participate in the plan workflow.
    • Review and approve or reject the assigned record.
    		 Yes A BCM lite operator can approve the assigned record but they cannot approve the entire BCP.
    Business continuity exercises
    • View the exercise details.
    • Participate in the recovery tasks.
    • Review and approve or reject the assigned record.
    		 Yes A BCM lite operator can approve the assigned record but they cannot approve the entire exercise.
    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.
    		 Yes A BCM lite operator can approve the assigned record but they cannot approve the crisis event.
    Update recovery tasks status
    • Receive the recovery tasks from the exercises and crisis events.
    • Report the progress and status back to your event coordinator.
    		 Yes Yes Yes
    Emergency notification template
    • View the emergency notifications.
    • Participate in the workflow.
    		 Yes Yes