What is the primary goal of business continuity planning?
According to the International Organization for Standardization (IOSA), the primary goal of a business continuity plan is to establish a system that will allow a company to conduct business in the event of unexpected disasters or events. A plan should first address the identification and assessment of the threats, which can be done through a risk assessment. The risks should be analyzed and the remedial measures should then be developed.
The plan should also address identification of the corrective actions needed to mitigate the effects of the disaster and restore the normal operations of the company.
The second part of the plan is to develop a company-wide preparedness plan. This document identifies the roles and responsibilities of all individuals and departments within the organization. It describes the critical processes that have to be carried out in order to ensure the continued operation of the business. The plan should also include the procedures to be implemented as soon as an incident occurs and the procedures that have to be adhered to once the occurrence has been contained. The plan should also specify the key performance indicators (KPIs) used to evaluate the progress and determine the status of the plan.
The third step in business continuity planning involves mapping the entire operation of the business continuity program. The plan maps all functions and systems of the company, beginning with the point of service, continuing with the operations of the supply chain, the information exchange, customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP). Each system is analyzed for its respective capability to deliver service under different conditions and to identify any limitations that may affect the overall performance of the organization.
The fourth step in what is the primary goal of business continuity planning considers the future threats to the continuity of the system. These include external threats and internal threats. External threats refer to external events that can disrupt the business system. These events may come from an unexpected attack by an external actor, sabotage or a natural disaster. Internal threats come from people within the company; these are known as risk management and planning.
What is the primary goal of business continuity planning considers the future threat profile of the organization. These threats may come from attackers who want to gain access to the business system, corrupt employees, environmental hazards and malicious intruders. Any of these can disrupt the service delivery model of the organization. They may also bring down the profit margins.
The fifth and last part of what is the primary goal of business continuity planning considers the financial impact of discontinuity on the organization. In case of a disaster, the cost incurred by the enterprise to recover and reconstruct the infrastructure might exceed the amount of money invested in establishing the system. Business continuity is therefore a long term investment with long lasting benefits. It does not make sense to design a system that will be expensive to install and implement.
