Business recovery services have become popular in recent years as the regulatory environment has forced companies to carefully examine their risk management processes. While South Africa may not be in the crosshairs for earthquakes or volcanic activity, being able to recover all or part of one`s business from the unforeseen is a critical component of good governance.
"While many executives today would agree that business continuity is an important aspect of corporate governance, few have a reasonable idea of what it entails," says Jorgen Nielsen, director of ContinuitySA. "To create a reliable business continuity plan requires more than reading up on best practices or hiring a third party service provider."
Nielsen believes the following eight steps will provide companies with a start in developing a reliable business continuity solution.
1. Be prepared and aware
Business continuity costs money, but no company can afford not to do it - every business must be prepared for any eventuality.
2. It`s more than IT
Business continuity is not about IT, although technology is a vital component of the process.
3. Do a business impact analysis (BIA)
The BIA is the cornerstone of business continuity. The process requires experienced continuity staff to visit each department in the company to ascertain what they do and how important each function is to the organisation`s operations. This is accomplished by determining the operational and financial impact of losing that process. Without the BIA, a company can`t implement any strategies because it doesn`t know what it needs to recover.
4. Not a template approach
Every company needs to develop its own business recovery process, there is no one-size fits all. All templates do is ensure consistently bad results; they lock companies into a way of thinking that aims for the minimum response.
5. Map people, processes, offices and IT services
You need to map everything in the plan: from the dependencies of key outputs of the company to the building blocks that make each process work.
6. Initiate scenario planning
Scenario planning is a practical tool to test the usefulness of business continuity plans in a low-risk manner. Any disaster will result in one of three permutations - lose the office, lose the technology or lose both - so plan for those scenarios.
7. Stick to a standard
Organisations should stick to business continuity standards that are globally accepted, such as the Business Continuity Institutes` Good Practice Guidelines. There is no excuse for not doing business continuity properly anymore as there is a worldwide standard covering everything that needs to be done.
8. Test plans and processes
Testing is a fundamental requirement of business recovery. Even the greatest plans constructed according to optimal global standards and best practices can not be guaranteed to work if they have not been tested.
"The most important rule about business recovery, when considering the costs and effort involved in setting up a programme, is to do your homework and do it right," adds Nielsen. "Trying to cut corners or do it on the cheap is not worth the effort because when disaster strikes a second-rate plan is guaranteed to fail."
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