21st Century Technology for 21st Century Threats

The Value of Business Continuity Management Software

Business Continuity Management (BCM) has matured quite a bit since being spawned out of Disaster Recovery in the mid 90’s. It is no longer what is Business Continuity but how do we make it effective? It is no longer in the back seat, but it is now driven by the c-level/board of directors.

So knowing that you have to do it, how will you do it? Considering that BCM has so many moving interactive parts such as, BIA, Risk Assessment, Testing, etc., numerous frameworks and regulations, touches the entire enterprise, and incorporates large volumes of documents and data, there is no better way to organize, manage and execute such an evolving, complex program than software designed to do just this.

Many try with MSOffice but typically this approach does not help meet the goal of having an effective program. A few reasons are that maintaining MS documents is very labor intensive, security is an issue, accessibility is manual and just as if Sharepoint is used, you are limited to document management instead of program/data management.

We are in 2019, with extreme threats, but we also have access to sophisticated BCM software developed specifically to meet BCM and recovery needs resulting in a more effective continuity program. These products go beyond MSOffice/ Sharepoint by providing rich eatures helpful for effective BCM, such as resource mapping, weather alerting, auto-reminders/alerts, and automatically combining all types and levels of plans. For program creation and maintenance, the efficiency, collaboration, communications, standardization and guidance provided by BCM software makes BCM more effective. Then add in how it assists with recovery and continuity when actually faced with a disaster, and the benefits far surpass what MS products can provide.

Here are some examples of what BCM products can do for you:

• Single source for everything BCM –from data to plans to reporting. s
• Eliminating duplicate efforts and easily collecting data and keeping it current though integration.
• Hosting services that take the cost and resources out of managing in-house solutions.
• Automating manual tasks, such as triggering emails, approval processes, scheduling, assignment, follow-up, monitoring, approval processes.
• Being able to manage the program easier, such as being able to see status and effectiveness of the program.
• Easier maintenance by utilizing a relational database.
• Exercise and Test Management. Schedule, execute, assign follow-up and monitor progress.
• Stronger security and more control on confidential documents and data.
• Dynamically and more easily generating reports and viewing information through dashboards.
• Making audits easier by having revision trails and automatically generated documentation.
• Mapping of dependencies and interdependencies of resources, functions, etc.
• Automatic notifications and knowing who to contact and how.
• Automating Recovery Time Objective(RTO) calculations so they are objective instead of the traditional

RTO guestimates and the benefits go on and on, for more on BCM software benefits, go to https://www.recoveryplanner.com/bcm-erm-software-solutions.