Business Analysis
Where can it go wrong and what is the impact!Most businesses grow organically, even businesses with strategic plans undergo a certain amount of organic growth. Ensuring that all aspects of the business operation and infrastructure are included in the Business Continuity Plan is important.
Inside the Business
Looking at the business can be a tough job.
Looking objectively at a business from the inside is difficult, there tends to be an unintentional bias regarding the business as people are immersed in the day to day running of the business.
So it is necessary to focus on where things could fail and what the impact of the failure would be, this is commonly referred to as a Business Impact Assessment and it is the first step in creating the Business Continuity Plan.
If you have been with the business for a significant period of time, you may have to think in a different way – play “The Devils Advocate”.
In short assume that anything that breaks is likely to be fatal to the business, until proven otherwise.
Analyse everything
Could a small problem become a major issue for the business.
Challenge
Business Continuity Planning has a simple and straight forward goal, keep all critical functions and core requirements available during unforseen circumstances.
Many will realise how challenging this simple goal is, many unfortunately will not and will spend time and money on developing a plan that is not fit for purpose.
These companies like those with no plan, are likely to be among the companies and businesses that fail during adverse circumstances.
Around 60% of businesses will fail within six months, 75% will fail within three years of a major disruptive event.
Solution
A business continuity plan (BCP) is the solution, but investment in the whole concept is important. A comprehensive plan is the goal, this requires input from all sections of the business.
It is equally important to be adaptable and flexible, an example here would be that prior to March 2020 very few plans would have allowed for a pandemic.
Looking objectively at the business can be difficult, particularly for people who have been in situ for a long period of time.
The plan is to keep the business going through adverse circumstances, plan for the unexpected.
What should I look at?
Looking for areas that can be impacted is, as already stated not an easy task as there are may potential impacts both internal and external causes.
Below is a list of the more common areas to consider during the impact assessment, some may not apply in your case and others not in the list may – so the list is for guidance only.
But a key operand is to ensure the health and safety of anyone coming into contact with the business, this always applies in any of the sections below.
Employees
Look at what your employees do, are there any that have key skills that could not easily be replaced.
Is the information and local knowledge that each holds available to others in the organisation, could it be lost if the employee left?
Is there a go to person, most businesses actually do have one or more. Does a single name crop up frequently, especially in meetings and dicussions.
Premises
What would happen if you lost access to your premises, could you redeploy staff to other locations or could they work from home.
What would be the impact of a theft, fire or burglary at the premises, how would that impact business opertations.
Could you access all the required information you require, without access to your premises.
Customers
Are you over exposed to a single customer, how would their failure impact the business?
Have customers shared their Business Continuity Plan with you and do they need to?
Do you have clearly documented processes, one that will allow you to maintain communication with customers.
Do your customers have emergency or alternate contact details? How would you deal with a customer in the event they have a major disruptive incident?
Suppliers
Do you have any suppliers that you would consider critical, could what they provide be quickly sourced from an other vendor?
How would you operate in the event they invoked their BCP and it proved inadequate, would there be a direct impact?
In the event that you had a major incident, could you maintain contact with your suppliers?
Systems and Processes
Are your Systems and Processes documented and well understood, could these documents be handed to someone and allow them to complete a task they hadn’t done before?
Are the documents simple and in plain English, do they contain all the required information and contact details to make them easily useable?
Are the documents simple, available in both hard copy and online from more than one source – could you get access if the office and the technology it contained was for some reason inaccessible?
IT and Data Compliance
What are the critical IT Systems, are the systems and applications fully supported. How long could you live without systems or applications, what contingency do you have in place for loss of power or cooling.
Are there tested disaster recovery plans for the systems, are emergency contact details available for system and application vendors. Are copies of the support contracts available in hard copy?
Is your data safe, is it recoverable and is access and storage compliant with current legislation. Is any of the data you hold regulated, do you have a suitable plan to access the data should you need it?
Logistics
How are your logistical challenges met, could you meet your commitments if you or one of your partners lost access to warehousing capacity.
Are you tied to a single logistics operation, if they were unavailable could you use an alternate.
Are there suitable contingency plans to allow the flexability that may be needed at short notice, particularly around peak trade times.
The End Result is a List!
After having a good look around, speaking with people in as many areas of the business as possible you should have a list for each section of the business.
The list can be treated as your Risk Register and your BCP should aim at mitigating as much of it as possible.
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info@volt-technology.com