Business continuity Planning
Having a business continuity plan is a very important requirement for businesses. A business continuity plan allows a business to be able to deal with large-scale incidences and disaster and allows the business to be able to resume normal operations as soon as possible.
Business impact analysis
The first task the business continuity manager needs to carry out is a business impact analysis. Any business will have risks. The primary role of a business impact analysis is to figure out the impact of risks on the business (Hiles, 2011). Different risks are classified differently. There are critical risks that cannot be allowed to happen. Critical risks are those risks whose impact is considered to be unacceptable to the business. After these risks are identified, the business continuity lead is supposed to come up with a recovery point objective and a recovery time objective (Hiles, 2011). These will make up an important part of the business continuity plan. The recovery point objective analyzes the amount of loss that the company can be able to recover from without adverse effects. For instance, if a company uses batch updates of its servers, it could be possible to recover effectively after losing one day’s worth of data. The recovery time objective dictates the time that is acceptable to have things running normally (Snedaker & Rima, 2014).
After a business impact analysis of the potential risks to the company, a threat and risk analysis requires completion. This will be specific to the business detailing the possible threats and risks and how they affect the business. After they have been established, it is required that a recovery plan is detailed for each threat (Watters, 2014). Again, the threats are classified according to the possible impact to the business. There are different steps to recover from each unique threat (Snedaker & Rima, 2014). For instance, the recovery plans for system failure because of hacking will be different from the recovery plans because of a flood. This is achieved by coming up with impact scenarios. In case of a flood, it is important to come up with different ways that it might affect the business. This is very important when coming up with the final recovery plan, as it will allow individual addressing of each threat and risk (Hiles, 2011).
Recovery requirements
Before identification of the solutions to the problem, it is important to come up with recovery requirements. In this case, it is important to have an inventory of all assets owned by the business that can be used to resolve the problem. In case of a flood at the headquarters, it is possible to transfer the main functions of the business to an off-site location that is not affected by the flood. This will allow the business to resume operations while repairs are still being carried out at the main office. Identifying assets for recovery is very important as it allows a business continuity manager to know the resources; they have at their disposal to manage disasters (Watters, 2014).
Comprehensive continuity plan
Finally, after the impact, risks, and resources have been identified, a comprehensive continuity plan can then be developed. This is specific and addresses threats and risks individually. This allows the business to have a recovery plan for a wide variety of threats. Having individual plans also allows the business to be able to recover from a potentially dangerous situation quickly.
Convincing skeptical bard members
In order to convince skeptical board members, it is important to show the need for the continuity plan for the individual business. This will mean that a presentation should be tailored for the company. This is very important as it allows the board members to see the direct impact on the company. For instance, a threat scenario tailored for the company can be prepared such as a flood. What would happen if a flood affected the main facility? Would the business be able to continue with its operations? How long would the business take to recover to normal levels after the incident? What would be the financial impact and cost to the business? By showing management the financial impact to a company and the impact of the business continuity plan in helping to reduce the said financial impact to the company, it would be possible to convince skeptical board members to take up a business continuity plan.
Challenges
The most critical challenge in the first stages of the initiative is acceptance by the people. Many businesses operate without continuity plans. This is because many people do not think that they can be faced by adverse situations. Many businesses will have a strategic plan. However, not many will have a continuity plan to enable the business achieve its strategic goals in case of a major disruption to operations. Overcoming this challenge is difficult as the management of any company need to be convinced of the importance of having a continuity plan. Educating management on the need for a continuity plan is the most appropriate way of overcoming this challenge. In this case, management can be given examples of many companies that were doing well at their time. However, lack of a continuity plan led to the collapse of such companies after major disasters disrupted their operations.
References
Hiles, A. (2011). The definitive handbook of business continuity management. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley.
Snedaker, S., & Rima, C. (2014). Business continuity and disaster recovery planning for IT professionals. Waltham, MA: Syngress.
Watters, J. (2014). Disaster recovery, crisis response, and business continuity: A management desk reference. New York, N.Y.: Apress.
