Ask any business leader and they will assure shareholders, customers and regulators that they have extensive business continuity (BC) and disaster recovery (DR) processes in place and are ready for any unforeseen emergency. Trying to verify this claim will, in most circumstances, show a company with a few data backup and personnel evacuation processes in place, but a complete BC and DR programme will be hard to find.
Jorgen Nielsen, director of ContinuitySA, notes that very few companies are totally BC and DR compliant. "Less than 5% of large corporations are ready for anything," Nielsen says. "All companies have some aspects of BC in place, with perhaps a smattering of DR procedures for good measure, but most would not be able to recover their businesses in case of a disaster."
There are a number of reasons for the lack of BC planning in South Africa, the primary one being a lack of understanding and knowledge.
"Many companies see BC and DR as an IT function and ensure their data is safely stored offsite," adds Nielsen. "Some even have mirrored, or backup servers ready to take the processing load if the company`s main servers are out of action, but make no plans as to how, how many and where employees are going to go to run the business."
BC and DR costs money, effort and time, and executives are loathe to commit to something that seemingly delivers no return. Because they don`t understand the importance of BC and DR, these programmes suffer from budget restraints and a lack of resources that result in a partial job being done.
Additionally there previously was no accepted global standard for BC and companies simply chose what they wanted to implement. Today this has changed with the imminent ratification of BS25999 which covers everything companies need to know and do in terms of BC and DR preparedness.
"BC and DR is not a part time job for a few special people to undertake," notes Nielsen. "Every manager should have it as one of their key performance indicators and be measured on the preparedness of their departments."
Moreover, while only a few large corporations have a complete plan in place, Nielsen says he doesn`t know of one SMME that has developed a viable programme. Not only is this a danger for the SMME, but also to all the companies it deal with. Every BC/DR audit should include an analysis of the company`s supply chain and its suppliers` ability to deliver in times of an emergency.
Business continuity and disaster recovery plans are not the exclusive domain of large enterprises. Any company that wants to continue functioning in an emergency, whether that emergency means losing one server or losing an entire office, needs to have a programme in place. "There may be no immediate return on BC and DR investments," Nielsen adds, "but there will be a definite negative return when a business without a plan can`t function anymore."
Share
Editorial contacts