BCM No More A Choice But A Necessity

According to a Gartner research, the impact of a disaster that lasts more than one week can have an enormous impact on revenue, reputation and the brand. Regional incidents, terrorism, service provider outages and pandemics can easily disrupt services. Therefore, it is imperative for enterprises to build a protective wall to shield them from any unforeseen disasters and risks. A method which does just that and which is also spreading like wildfire to secure an organisation is Business Continuity Management.

BCM Explained

As someone who plays a major role in ensuring that Deutsche Bank is safeguarded in all situations and from every aspect, Rohit Verma, Assistant VP Corporate Security And Business Continuity, Deutsche Bank, India says, “BCM is essentially about being prepared to face various risks such as political uncertainty, natural disasters, unrest, strike and the like. We have to determine how all these situations impact the day-to-day business and how well prepared the organisation is to face these situations.”

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Putting A Disaster Recovery Plan In Place

An essential component of BCM is Disaster Recovery. Having a disaster recovery site in place is a huge relief to CIOs, as the fear of losing critical data is less. As a lot of enterprises now realise the need of a robust DR plan, where and how to start definitely stands as an obstacle.

According to Sandeep Ghildiyal, Practice Head, Platform Consulting, Wipro Infotech, “DR planning has to be followed as a religion. It is a very disciplined subject. There is a DR manual, as it is termed in the technology sphere, which contains step-by-step instructions highlighting what has to be done to set up a DR plan.”

Opined Sarabjit Singh Anand, Head IT- India, GSSC and Nepal, Standard Chartered Bank, “If you’ve understood the needs and criticality of the business, you would technically deliver a solution which is very close to what the enterprise needs.” Continuing on the same note Rohit Verma added, “Putting a DR plan involves detailed interaction with each business unit because each department has its own peculiarity, with different levels of criticality for different applications.”

DR Has Its Share Of Challenges

One of the key challenge that comes up when while setting up a DR solution is getting as much upfront knowledge as possible from a business perspective, because not all information is necessarily thought through and available and not everyone is serious about DR.

In Rohit Verma’s view, the enterprise needs to understand what the particular department needs, what is its nature of operations, its criticality criteria and what is that will impact the department severely if something was not functioning properly. Depending on that criticality, it is the company’s duty to make sure that the department is covered from all aspects.

According to K. S. Bajwa, GM - IT Operations, Punjab National Bank, “The main challenge that arises while instituting a DR plan is the time lag between the main centre and the disaster recovery site, because then you have to import everything there and then start working.”

Trends in the DR Space

With DR becoming increasingly popular, Sandeep shares the latest trends with us.

Sandeep Ghildiyal, “Some of the smallest organisations in the country, which you would never imagine opting for DR, some years back have now started thinking of DR. DR was earlier more of a regulatory requirement but now it is more driven by competition. In the last one year, DR has become a buzzword in the IT industry. Everybody has understood the importance of having DR in place, for the survival of the organisation.”

Periodic Tests and Drills Mandatory For DR

Just having a DR plan in place is not enough; it is vital to have periodic drills and tests to see if the plan is up to date with the latest requirements of the enterprise.

“The DR plan has to be updated on a regular basis for the new services that have been rolled out. That is why it is an ever-evolving process. The more you do a DR drill and the more you refine it, the better a DR plan will be,” suggested Sandeep Ghildiyal. Taking this thought further, Rohit Verma said, “We have periodic tests and drills, which inculcate that discipline and the behaviour, which ensures that a user is ready at all times.”

BCM And Its Challenges

Now that we have evaluated DR, let’s go back to BCM and the challenges that enterprises battle with, to have a perfect BCM in place.

In Rohit’s words, the challenges are more on the lines of BCM awareness. Today not many people or organisations are aware of what BCM is. If one looks at situations like 9/11 some amount of curiosity has been aroused and some amount of awareness has come into the day-to-day life. But the level of its impact is still lacking in some organisations.

Experts’ takes on the significance of BCM

BCM is an integral part of the business process in the enterprise and certainly holds great importance.

Says K.S. Bajwa, “We are very keen that our systems should be available to our customers 24/7. At no point should the systems be down. If the system is not available for any reason, the BCP is available for branches and they know what is to be done and how it is to be done. Multiple connectivity channels have been made available.”

Rohit feels that BCM is extremely critical because in a normal scenario where everything is fine, not much thought is given to future risks. Thus, BCM gives us a clear picture of future risks and how to prepare ourselves in the event of unforeseen circumstances.

Predictions for BCM

With so much being said about BCM, it is clear that it is no more a choice but a necessity. Let’s see what the future holds for it.

Elucidated Rohit, “It is going to gain more importance. More awareness has to be brought in and I see that happening more gradually in the industry. Various organisations are now organising awareness programmes and more people need to participate in the same. This will increase general awareness and this will make people better prepared to face any eventuality or any situation within the organisation.”

As mentioned in a Gartner report, enterprises with the best BCM and DR practices have a corporate culture that values availability and an understanding of the costs associated with business process outages. These enterprises also realise that following a well-defined process when disaster strikes is significantly better than trying to respond to an incident in crisis mode.