Midsize
businesses have historically viewed disaster recovery
and business continuity as protection they don’t
need and can’t afford. However, external events
and pressure from customers and business partners
are catalysts today for midsize businesses to assess
business continuity, disaster recovery and security
strategies, and identify gaps in protection.
Further,
midsize businesses (MSBs) are often uncertain as to
how much they should spend on disaster recovery and
business continuity, don’t want to overspend
on protection, and yet know that they need to spend
in the right places. Savvy technology vendors can
move prospects and customers beyond the question of
“How much is enough?” through consideration
of the alternate high price of downtime from events
such as natural disasters, system outages, facility
fires or other risks. Assisting in the process of
evaluating the cost of downtime can result in vendor
opportunity for their offerings.
Source: Preparing for a Disaster: Affordable SMB Actions,
COM-15-1408, March 6, 2002
The
cost and risks associated with damages or outages
to critical business processes and resources (e.g.
people, IT services, facilities, etc) will enable
MSBs to understand the importance of business continuity
planning, and the need for external tools and services.
By aiding in the process of identifying and ranking
critical business processes and resources, vendors
can also influence the prioritization of investment
decisions accordingly.
Further,
this can extend to building scenarios and action plan
options. For example, to identify risks in safeguarding
people, intellectual capital and work, work with prospects
and customers to evaluate how the midsize business
is faring in these particular areas:
•
Has
the MSB identified critical knowledge, expertise
and roles of its employees - who knows what, where
employees are, and the risks if lost?
•
Does the MSB know where employees work, with whom,
on what and how to reach them?
•
Are they confident in the integrity of their employee
records?
•
Are they confident in the integrity of their customer
and trading partner records? Do they regularly
update and confirm data (contact names, positions,
addresses, internal account representative, revenue
level, products and services used, etc.).
•
Is progress on projects and key components kept
in a common location so other employees can complete
them?
•
Are records of leases, equipment and site details
of offices, satellite locations, teleworkers and
at-home sites well-maintained?
•
Are domestic and international itineraries of
traveling employees tracked and contact information
readily available?
•
Is there a multichannel communication program
(intranet, pagers, call-in sites, etc) in place
to share critical information?
•
Is the workplace designed to incorporate options
such as virtual conferencing, scheduling flexibility,
and teleworking? Have they invested in a virtual
workspace infrastructure to speed business recovery?
•
Do they know where contractors, outsourcing agents
and consultants work, and if they have access
to proprietary knowledge and applications?
•
Have they developed a succession plan to identify
potential leaders, and the competencies they’ll
need continually?
Initiating
a business continuity and disaster recovery plan and
managing it requires an assessment of what the midsize
business needs from the overall plan, determining
what internal resources exist and selecting external
resources to fill in the gaps. Involvement at the
initial stages of assessment can provide rewards at
the selection phase for product and service vendors.
Learn
more about the planning methods and spending patterns
of midmarket IT decision-makers firsthand at Midsize
Enterprise Summit.
References
Research Note Protecting People, Knowledge, Work: Are you Prepared?
Publication Date: August 24, 2002
Author: D. Morello
Research
Note Preparing for a Disaster: Affordable SMB Actions
Publication Date: March 6, 2002
Author: D. Scott, J. Browning
Where
Vendors Can Influence Business Continuity Plans
Midsize
businesses need a well-managed approach to crises,
and vendors can support their business continuity
planning process through tools and methodologies
in five essential areas: disaster recovery,
business recovery, business resumption, contingency
planning and crisis management.
For
a variety of ways to influence a prequalified
audience of senior IT executives from midsize
businesses, click
here.
Source:
What is Crisis Management?, Gartner, Inc., September
19, 2001
