For many organizations their Business Continuity Plans (BCPs) are based on a worst-case scenario, meaning the loss or inability to access their primary location for an extended period of time. While this approach is essentially sound, it does not go far enough.
By answering a few simple questions, one of the most important, yet commonly disregarded issues in BCP can be addressed – why continuity planning must go beyond the corporate borders.
- What happens if one of your customers has a disaster?
- What is the impact on you?
- What must or should you do to support their recovery efforts?
- What can you do to ensure a minimal disruption to your organization?
- What happens if your outsourced contact center or your web service provider fails you?
- What is the impact on your customers, suppliers, and business partners if you have a disaster? What would you want them to do to support your recovery efforts?
The answers to these questions are most likely very similar to those that were first used to justify your Business Continuity Planning.
Michael Herrera
Michael Herrera is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of MHA. In his role, Michael provides global leadership to the entire set of industry practices and horizontal capabilities within MHA. Under his leadership, MHA has become a leading provider of Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery services to organizations on a global level. He is also the founder of BCMMETRICS, a leading cloud based tool designed to assess business continuity compliance and residual risk. Michael is a well-known and sought after speaker on Business Continuity issues at local and national contingency planner chapter meetings and conferences. Prior to founding MHA, he was a Regional VP for Bank of America, where he was responsible for Business Continuity across the southwest region.
