Business Continuity: is Your Business Ready for the Unexpected?
How to Deal with Risk in Organization?
Risks could arise in the form of disruptions both from external (such as disaster, malware, etc.) and internal threats (such as human error, utility disruptions, etc.). Risk could be defined as the occurrence of an event that could affect the goals of organizational achievement. The disruptions have increased with the increasing number of companies that implement information technology and become more linked to the external network.
Huge losses and even bankruptcy may occur in an organization if there was no planning to deal with it. Regardless of how complex IT in the organization, they need a plan to deal with the disruptions that affect their businesses. Therefore, a plan is necessary to ensure that the operational activities of an organization still operate although there were disruptions. One of the efforts is creating a suitable business continuity plan (BCP) as a part of Business Continuity Management (BCM).
Benefits of Business Continuity Management
The main reason to implement a BCM is to ensure that your business processes remain operational in the event of a disruption. However, there are plenty of other reasons to adopt the system. For example, it will protect your organization’s reputation. The public will be impressed if you can respond quickly and efficiently following a disruptive incident. This will mitigate any negative sentiments that will accompany the loss of productivity.
Furthermore, BCM also boost employees’ morale. If the system is well managed, everyone in the organization will be accounted for, proving to employees that management has considered their needs. Lastly, it could build your relationship with third parties and subsidiaries. An effective BCM demonstrates that the organization is being manage well from top to bottom, which will encourage anyone that you work with. It shows that you are a reliable partner that has taken into account its responsibilities to customers, employees and partners.
Five Steps to Business Continuity Planning
To create an effective business continuity plan, an organization should take the five essential steps. First, Risk Assessment. This phase includes evaluation of the company’s risks and exposures, assessment of the potential impact of various business disruption scenarios, determination of the most likely threat scenarios, assessment of telecommunication recovery options and communication plans, and prioritization of findings and development of a roadmap.
Moreover, the second step is called Business Impact Analysis (BIA). During this phase we collect information on recovery assumptions, including Recovery Point Objectives (RPO) and Recovery Time Objectives (RTO). After that, the next step is Business Continuity Plan Development. This phase includes obtaining executive sign-off of Business Impact Analysis, synthesizing the Risk Assessment and BIA findings to create an actionable and thorough plan, developing department, division and site level plans, and reviewing plan with key stakeholders to finalize and distribute
Then, Strategy and Plan Development is a step when we validate that the recovery times that we have stated in our plan are obtainable and meet the objectives that are stated in the BIA. They should easily be available and readily accessible to staff, especially if and when a disaster were to happen. In the development phase, it’s important to incorporate many perspectives from various staff and all departments to help map the overall company feel and organizational focus. Lastly, Plan Testing & Maintenance is the final critical element of a business continuity plan. This includes conducting periodic tabletop and simulation exercises to ensure key stakeholders are comfortable with the plan steps, executing bi-annual plan reviews, and performing annual Business Impact Assessments.
Conclusion
Create a suitable business continuity plan (BCP) as a part of Business Continuity Management (BCM) becomes one of the efforts of organizations to avoid huge losses and even bankruptcy that may occur due to business disruptions. It is created to ensure that the operational activities of an organization still operate although there were disruptions because regardless of how complex IT in the organization, they need a plan to deal with the disruptions that affect their businesses.
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References
Baker, A. (2021, January 19). Why is business continuity management so important? IT Governance Blog En. https://www.itgovernance.eu/blog/en/why-is-business-continuity-management-so-important
Eze Castie Integration (ECI). (n.d.). Five Steps of Business Continuity Planning. Retrieved July 23, 2021, from https://www.eci.com/blog/135-five-steps-of-business-continuity-planning-for-investment-firms.html
Fani, S. V., & Subriadi, A. P. (2019). Business continuity plan: examining of multi-usable framework. Procedia Computer Science, 161, 275–282.
