Are you prepared for disaster?

Nuchanat Pattanakarnwijit , associate director in the IT effectiveness practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers in the Southeast Asia

Business-continuity management (BCM) can help your organisation quickly return to a state of "business in a degraded but acceptable mode" should any disaster occur.

At some companies, there are business-continuity plans that require the "documented collection of procedures and information", ready for use in an incident. Business-continuity management, on the other hand, involves managing the recovery or continuation of business activities in the event of a business disruption, and the management of the overall programme through training, exercises and reviews to ensure that the business-continuity plan stays current and up-to-date.

 There is some feeling that business continuity is just about disaster recovery and crisis management and that it only applies to IT. This is simply not true and a very costly assumption for organisations to make.

Business continuity covers people, processes, technology and other resources critical to the operation of the business. It is not sufficient to recover critical computer systems and resume key business processes. It is crucial, for instance, to effectively manage the crisis and communicate with your staff, customers, and the media.  In addition, the plans must be broader and consider more catastrophic disaster scenarios, such as loss of key people, destruction or inaccessibility of an entire business district or metropolitan area, and simultaneous disruption among your vendors and business partners.

Another costly assumption is that small- and medium-sized businesses or firms not connected with the financial services arena don't need business continuity solutions. They have the same needs for protection and accessibility to data and records as large organisations, but on a smaller basis. A business-continuity solution can be tailored to address the needs of each company, regardless of size.

To implement BCM, organisations should consider the following points:

Obtain senior management 'buy-in' and sponsorship.

Develop a business case that informs key stakeholders of the need to implement BCM.

Define 'mission critical' processes and activities for business survival.

Determine the risks to these critical activities, or risks that would increase the likelihood of the business-continuity plan needing to be put into action.

Select a recovery strategy to cover people, technology, facilities, information, suppliers and all key stakeholders that is purposeful and cost-effective.

Develop a plan based on defined strategies to cover the following topics: crisis management, damage assessment, plan-activation processes, roles and responsibilities, IT and physical infrastructure, business-recovery processes and other supporting information.

Test to get the plan right, and maintain the plan over time to ensure it stays current and up-to-date.

Implementation of BCM provides your business with stronger operational resiliency, as well as more efficient use of resources through a better understanding of the minimum levels required. Overall, it creates a higher level of confidence and trust among your employees, customers and suppliers. Ultimately, BCM has the potential to protect and save your business and its future.

Nuchanat Pattanakarnwijit is an associate director in the IT effectiveness practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers in the Southeast Asia peninsula region, comprising Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.