When a business is forced to shut down unexpectedly, the impact on profits, shareholder equity, partners and well being of employees can be catastrophic. September 11, 2001, taught many executives the value of disaster recovery (DR) and business contingency plans designed to help employees cope with adversity and to carry out day-to-day tasks while the business works to return to normal.

The Yankee Group has received many questions from service providers and end users about business continuity (BC) and disaster recovery planning. In this research note, we address the most frequently asked questions.

Question
How does the Yankee Group define business continuity and disaster recovery?

Answer
Business continuity is a strategic process for the continuation of essential business operations in instances when a natural disaster or other calamity disrupts an organization’s critical operations or services.

Disaster recovery is a tactical process--or the “how-to” of coping with adversity. It is a bottom-up approach.

Question
What should an enterprise do to ensure its business continuity plan (BCP) will be effective?

Answer
A business continuity plan must be unique to the organization and it is essential that every department within the organization support it. The support of IT, facilities and finance is important; but for a BCP to really work, it must cover all aspects of a corporation’s critical functions. Without broad support from all involved, a political and logistical morass will likely develop.

Calculating potential for loss is a key factor to outline in an ROI analysis. Business continuity ROI is different from a traditional service or equipment ROI because BC and DR are not usually revenue producers. That helps to explain why even the most comprehensive numbers-based case can be a difficult sell to upper management.

Question
What are the key components of BC and DR plans?

Answer
The core business continuity plan should outline specific technology strategies that address individual components of your IT infrastructure. The goal is to achieve 100 percent uptime during a disaster. Your priorities should be structured to support that objective.

A business continuity plan must ensure employees can go into operation at the same speed as the corporation’s IT systems. If the systems at a back-up site can be up in 2 hours, a BCP must consider whether the staff can occupy and set up at the site within that same time frame.

The goal should be to run the company’s business-critical operations with as few people as possible. Make sure that key people are adequately trained for their tasks and that they will have a facility in which to work.

Question
What are the phases of enterprise business continuity planning?

Answer
The three phases in developing a business continuity plan are:

1. Assessment of Business Continuity Needs. Assess the priorities for business operations and who will offer corporate support (and sponsorship) of a plan. The key is to have a multi-faceted team from your business and IT operations capable of determining which systems and processes must be 100 percent available and which can be recovered over time.

2. Implementation and Testing. Understand what works. Testing is key to the success of any business continuity plan. The testing process will help uncover holes in the plan or potential problems that have not been considered. Be sure to do both planned and unplanned tests. We have yet to encounter an enterprise that got it right the first time. Be sure to regularly test the plan so that the first rehearsal is not also opening night.

3. Revisions to the Continuity Plan. Update the business continuity plan whenever you change business operations, applications or priorities. The combination of consistently updating and testing the plan will dramatically improve a company’s chance of recovering from a disaster.

The Yankee Group originally published this article on 31 December 2002

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