Business Continuity Management
BCM and Technology
The firms with challenging production environments often have the greatest struggle when planning for how to recover and, or continue to operate during catastrophic events or disasters. Many organizations have dealt with on-going technical challenges that hindered efforts to modernize or shift to cloud computing for instance. The following questions are just a brief introduction to the extensive planning and decisions required to solidify your organization’s future with a robust BCM strategy and plan.
- What do you need your constituency to know about how they can do business with you during
the significant outage or event? - Develop pre-determined messaging (along with how it will be delivered) that can be invoked
- Dire circumstances dictate you will likely be operating in a degraded mode.
- What services or activities can you off-load to the IVR during such times?
- These capabilities should be developed and sitting on the shelf ready to activate.
- Previously developed emergency messaging can front-end all calls routed through the IVR.
- You can still plan and achieve access to premise systems, but the proliferation of cloud
computing has simplified the process of shifting staff and client interactions when business
disrupting events occur. - Work from Home (WFH) capability has long been available and deployment challenges can be
minimized with cloud platforms.
- Are you utilizing cloud computing to simplify routing and handling of this traffic?
- Have you previously discussed plans and methods for ramping up volume significantly?
- Does it make sense to have an on-going mix of internally handled volume and outsourced
volume? This can be quite beneficial during times of emergency or even “global pandemic.”
- Is it fully leveraged in terms of capacity?
- What would it take to have additional capacity on stand-by?
- Is more investment required over time to establish continuity capacity?
- What is required if you wanted to quickly convert all of your staff to WFH?
- Can you continue campaigns during the business disrupting event?
- Should you continue with outbound campaigns even if you still have the capability?
- Aside from voice interactions, do you have other technology in place that allows you to communicate with your client community on a mass scale?
- Plan for BCM capabilities each time you make decisions about altering your current production
technology. - Ask the hard questions about the impact to your sustainability and recovery capability with each
technology change you are planning to undertake. - Does it fundamentally change your capability and continuity plan?
- Does the new technology enhance the current continuity plan, or does it create new gaps that must be addressed?
- Are any negative impacts sufficient to warrant the need for different approaches to your production environment?
BCM Planning
All things on this list and numerous other factors must be considered when developing a comprehensive
and successful plan. Pre-determined plans and decisions that have been thoroughly vetted during
calmer times can make the difference between surviving (or not) and thriving during a significant
business impacting event. You hope that you never have to invoke these plans, but your clients, staff,
stakeholders and perhaps the global community at large, will undoubtedly reap the benefits of your
company’s preparedness!