Preparing for the Worst
Right now, businesses around the world are struggling to recover from the devastation caused by both natural and manmade disasters. The idea that your company could one day find itself in the same position is hardly inconceivable.
Having a detailed and organized business continuity management (BCM) strategy in place and ready to use if the need arises substantially increases the likelihood that your enterprise will be able to get back into action swiftly and efficiently after a crisis or disaster.
A BCM strategy that will truly protect your mission-critical operations must cover every aspect of continuity analysis and planning, and be flexible enough to adapt to your business’ unique preferences and requirements. To establish a solid BCM program, you will need to assess internal and external vulnerability and risk, ensure that your vendors will be able to recover promptly in the event of a disaster, build a step-by-step BCM plan to address all contingencies, and know how to manage emergency communications. Only by doing so can you be confident that your final BCM program will support the restoration of your business after a crisis.
Developing that plan should be part of the overall business operation and considered as strategic as many of the day to day operations. The roadmap laid out in this white paper has four distinct steps:
- assessment
- vendor viability
- detailing the precision of the plan, and
- managing emergency communications.
The wise development of these steps protects everything in your operation. In a disaster situation it can mean the difference between a total loss, and rising above the circumstance.
See Preparing for the Worst, a white paper from Sungard (registration required).
Tags: Business Continuity, Sungard
