How to Reap a Return on Your BCP Investment

ROI for BCP can be improved by looking beyond the simple “insurance” view. Companies that build multi-functional elements into their BC programs will not have to wait for a catastrophe to see a return on their investment.

Business continuity programs are frequently viewed as a cost in terms of time, people, and money that companies hope and often believe will never be used. Many therefore assume that BCP has no return on investment. But what happens when a problem does disrupt a critical system, application, or process? If the plan works well, one can generally calculate how much money was saved. In some catastrophic cases, the entire business could have been saved, and thus the ROI can be incalculably high.

The way to dispel the “all or nothing” view of ROI on business continuity lies in the formula for ROI. By using “multipurposing” in the formula, planners can lower some costs and/or gain additional incremental returns and functionality, and be better able to measure ROI for BCP while justifying the protection needed.

Multipurpose Existing Resilient Infrastructure
One way to improve ROI for BCP is to use existing resilient infrastructure for other purposes. For example, ROI is improved when one communications connection is used for multiple purposes such as communications with clients, affiliates, business partners, data vendors, service bureaus, ECNs, and more. The solution saves money by reducing the cost of new connectivity while eliminating existing connectivity costs through consolidation.

Transport High Speed Backup Data
Another valuable multipurposing opportunity is to use existing connectivity for the additional purpose of transporting high-speed backup data to a disaster recovery site, using it as a purpose-built business continuity network. This functionality can be used to back up data to locations such as data centers, third parties, and/or partners.

Build BCP into Every Application
ROI is improved when resiliency and reliability are included throughout the design of a system or process instead of adding BCP as an afterthought. Multipurpose solutions increase both reliability and functionality and further justify the BCP investment. Every time a system or business process is changed, it’s an opportunity to take a fresh look at the entire process from the standpoint of reliability.

Consider a Service Provider to Achieve BCP
A service provider sometimes can provide the most cost-effective solution with business continuity inherent. Planners may be able to better manage data center costs, improve availability and reliability, consolidate applications, reduce capital costs, and deploy systems much faster. The physical environment and infrastructure used should protect against network, power, and central office failure. Planners should look for SAS 70/Level 2-certified data centers, redundant power grids, diverse Telco risers, backup generators and batteries, and 24/7 monitoring with continuous backup.

Identify Regulatory Requirements for Contingency Plans
Solutions are needed that respond to new regulatory requirements such as those contained in SEC Rule 17a-4 regarding email/IM as well as SEC rulings regarding NASD 3510 and 3520 and NYSE Rule 446 regarding business continuity. There are solutions that can improve business continuity while addressing these regulatory requirements. For example, some hosted data centers can provide a lower cost profile, a high availability design, and improved ROI on BCP while satisfying compliance requirements all in one solution.

Share BCP Costs Across Several Departments

When several internal departments share costs, ROI is improved. For example, compliance, operations, and the business continuity groups could all share the costs for an SEC-mandated email archival solution. By performing appropriate assessments, changes can be made that reduce costs and resolve issues across multiple departments.

Use Geographic Load Balancing
When considering shifting an application from an old platform to a new one, planners should consider geographically load balancing the application across several data centers over a secure network. This can improve operational resiliency, response time, and system latency by moving system components closer to the sources of data and spreading the risk of component and environmental failure over several sites. If the application does not support this type of dispersed architecture, many of the same benefits can be gained by using an already cost justified secure network or by using a service provider to mirror critical data to a highly available infrastructure.