It is highly recommended to involve a company’s purchasing, finance, and/or legal professionals in executing Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery (BC/DR) contracts but there are a few elements to consider in doing so. If a company needs to use alternate sites as part of their BC/DR plan it is important to keep your MTD, costs, and potential losses in mind. Financial analyses may need to be performed in order to determine what will make financial and business sense for your company and if certain contracts are worth entering. Also, triggers will need to be determined for when it comes to calling upon contractual arrangements so they are not prematurely triggered or avoided during needed times. Here are a few things to consider when making contractual arrangements:
- Develop clear functional and technical requirements
- Determine required service levels
- Compare vendor proposal/response requirements
- Identify requirements not met by vendor proposal
- Identify vendor options not specified in requirements
By developing and identifying the following tasks a company will be able to better fill gaps that may currently exist in a company’s BC/DR plan.