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Ways to Provide Answers to Midsize Enterprise Business Continuity Questions
By James A. Browning

Current events have brought worldwide awareness among senior executives of the importance of business continuity planning, and caused many midsize enterprises to perform business impact assessments to identify gaps in coverage. In discussion with Midsize Enterprise Summit attendees, the key concerns voiced by senior IT executives at this Gartner event included: how to gain the highest return on investment, the issue of source code recovery, and the process of gaining management commitment for the implementation of a business continuity planning program.

Despite their awareness and concerns, however, only a fraction of midsize enterprises have adopted comprehensive business continuity plans. Rather, they have chosen specific areas of investment that they believe will have the highest return on investment, which have tended toward investments in disaster recovery to protect IT, and crisis management to manage the overall event and maintain confidence in the enterprise. In fact, many are focusing more on improving processes that increase preparedness and change the way business operations are normally conducted.

For vendors in this product and service category, the opportunity lies in assisting IT professionals with the identification of potential disaster scenarios and the design of a course of action regarding business recovery and resumption plans. To engage both IT and business process owners, consider the following approaches to penetrating the midsize enterprise:

•
 Walk through a crisis scenario to clearly illustrate the importance of preparedness. Demonstrate how critical business processes could be affected by a disaster and how managing the crisis and recovering the technology are critical to the survival of the enterprise.
•
 Perform a business impact assessment in conjunction with the IT and business management team to determine how various disaster scenarios that interrupt business processes for varying time periods would affect the enterprise. This may include assessing the impact of business interruptions over varying time periods on each business process such as direct costs (lost revenue and productivity), and indirect effects (customer, supplier and partner relationships). Findings can then be used to win support, commitment and funding for comprehensive business continuity planning, including investment in business recovery and resumption plans, technologies and services.
•
 Utilize case studies to illustrate incident scenarios within similar size companies and by specific vertical industries. This can be done through white papers, presentations and videotapes, then used as a springboard for discussing how business continuity tools and methodologies are advantageous to the midsize enterprise.

James A. Browning is Vice President and Research Director in Gartner Research, where he is part of the Small and Midsize Business Research organization at Gartner, Inc.

Reach Jim by e-mail at midmarket@gartner.com.

Reference
Research Note
Midsize Enterprise Summit Business Continuity Questions
Publication Date: February 6, 2003
Authors: D. Scott and F. DeSalvo



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..Q&A
Q: An escrow agreement provides for the regular, timely placement of vendors’ current source code in an agreed-on location that can be accessed by customers should certain events occur. Are they really necessary?
A: Gartner believes that it is necessary for all source code to be escrowed, and that any vendor that refuses should lose its preferred vendor status.

..Did you know?

Gartner estimates that only 35 percent of midsize enterprises have a comprehensive disaster recovery plan in place but that this will rise to 50 percent by 2007; while fewer than 10 percent have crisis management, contingency, business recovery and business resumption plans. This affords continued opportunity for vendors in this product and service category.

Take advantage of the midmarket opportunity for your IT solutions at Midsize Enterprise Summit. For details, click here now, or call toll-free 877-619-7956, x493.

Source:
Business Continuity Planning Software: Technology Overview, July 23, 2003, Gartner, Inc.

Buying Preferences among Midsize Businesses: IT Services

Midsize Companies in Better Shape for IT Spending Recovery

Midmarket Focus: Europe
Service Provider Opportunities in the European Midmarket

Selling the Value of Business Continuity Planning


Questions or comments? E-mail
midmarket@gartner.com

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