The unthinkable can happen...

The events of September 11, 2001 demonstrate that the unthinkable can happen, however unlikely it may seem.  Even if we ignore terrorist scenarios,  business is still vulnerable to weather,  power failures,  communication disruptions from solar storms, critical staff illnesses and other disruptions.

Business contingency planning extended the scope of management thinking into the the unusual, unlikely and even unthinkable circumstances that could affect a business and its customers. Business to business linkages that bind an organizations supply chain together enlarge the points of vulnerability that must be considered. While these considerations are often pushed off into information technology areas, the strategic impact of potential business process and supply chain disruptions should not be ignored by senior management. It may be considered a measure of organizational maturity to identify where the real decisions about unusual business operating environments are made.

But can be offset by planning and preparation... business impact assessments should consider issues like:

• What is important for the business to service clients and stay in business, profitably?

• How long could services be interrupted before damaging relationships and forcing clients to seek other alternatives, perhaps never to return?

• What are the likely sources of interruption -- weather, utilities, supply chains?

• Would your customers and competitors also be affected?

• Consider the business as a whole, not just the computer systems.

• Remember, successful businesses are systems with extensive dependencies:

  • Internally between operating and support functions.

  • Externally to suppliers and customers.

  • Consider how different service interruptions could affect these relationships and what, if anything, could be done to mitigate the impact.

  

• Critical business operating knowledge exists in many forms:

  • As data within computer systems.

  • Document files in paper and other media.

  • Experience and knowledge of key individuals at many levels.

  • Consider how a service interruption would affect this knowledge and what should be done to minimize the impact of loss -- documents and data can be duplicated, people cannot.

• Are service functions structured to be fault resilient? If not, does it matter?

• Are business functions geographically distributed? Should they be?

• Are there potential single points of failure for systems or key business functions?

• And how can overall organizational preparedness be evaluated?

• And are contingency services a separate initiative or an integrated part of the business management framework?

How Technology Strategists can help:

 We can provide assistance with business impact assessments, organizational and system redundancy analysis, operational safeguards design, technology recovery planning, business continuity planning and recovery plan auditing. We can assist in developing contingencies around specific events. We can also assist in developing and testing recovery strategies with the service provider of your choice.