BCM – BCP AND DRP
The purpose of the business and IT continuity management module
Our services cover the entire range of BCM design and implementation. Our system integration specialists carry out IT recovery/DRP design tasks that require sounder technical knowledge. Our consultants are at the service of our clients with business-focused BCP plans, business impact analysis and risk analysis tasks. Our experience gained in the course of BCM projects is embodied in the BCM module of our SeCube GRC software, which provides a unified framework for the management of business and IT continuity.
The purpose of the BCM module is to prepare the company for unexpected situations that could cause significant damage to business. The module is intended to provide support throughout the entire lifecycle of BCM activities, in a unified system, by combining planning, preparation, testing, implementation and maintenance tasks.
BCM planning
For low-probability risks with high business impact, identified by using the list of risks resulting from risk analysis or by manual specification, risk mitigation measures or BCM plans can be implemented. SeCube is able to combine and consistently manage business and technology continuity and recovery planning within shared recovery deadlines. Although BCP and DRP activities are similar with respect to objectives and resources, they address the issues through solutions of different level and nature.
Business continuity planning (BCP)
The main focus of business continuity planning (BCP) is the continuity planning of business and production processes, taking into account their dependencies on different resources. In business continuity planning, we can create backups and bypasses for the eventuality that resources used in business and production processes, may it be
- technology,
- human resource or
- a facility,
and define alternative business and production processes. In the course of the BCP activity, the purpose is to formulate plans that can be implemented in emergency situations upon adequate preparation and using the available resources and competences and thus can ensure that business and production processes are continued at an adequate level even in case of emergencies.
Typically, the primary target group of BCP planning consists of the areas implementing business and production processes.
Disaster recovery planning (DRP)
The main areas of focus for disaster recovery planning (DRP) is the planning of service continuity and recovery of services, IT systems and major resources used by business or production processes, taking into account the affected processes. The goal is the same: restoring the functioning of business processes, with focus on ensuring the security of key resources in emergency situations (restoration, recreation etc.)
Typically, the main target group of DRP planning are the areas responsible for resources serving business and production areas, such as IT.
Integrated support for the entire BCM lifecycle
The BCM module is designed to provide support during the entire lifecycle of business continuity management (full support for the requirements under ISO 22301:2012):
- Creation of a flexible inventory and operation model
- BCM planning requires that the organization and normal operating structure of the organization, meaning its business and/or production system, are known and available. Inventory is used for defining resources, business/production processes and their dependency relations.
- The BCM module is used for recording all information needed for preparing for emergencies. We can record our stocks, our cold and warm reserves, the flexibility of human and inventory resources as well as the emergency offerings.
- Maintenance of recovery time targets
- Using business impact analyses for determining consequences and restoring time goals and compare them with schedules.
- RTO – Recovery Time Objective; MTO – Maximum Tolerable Outage
- RPO – Recovery Point Objective
- Preparation of detailed BCP and DRP plans for emergency situations
- Flexible scope and emergency scenario planning that maximizes the results of the risk analysis while meeting individual needs.
- Design supported with graphic dependency graph analysis and simulation.
- Support for the continuity and substitution planning of business processes and the design of alternative processes.
- Defining the emergency and recovery planning and recovery actions for IT resources and services.
- Support for decisions based on the usefulness of solution options and their comparison with the time targets of recovery scenarios.
- Resource management and warehouse inventory planning based on the flexibility of resources.
- Designing the PERT network used for the sequential and parallel implementation of emergency actions.
- Storage of BCM plan history (for audit purposes).
- Detailed BCP and DRP that can be exported into MS Word
- The management of preparatory tasks for rest periods
- Planning of preparatory tasks and the verification of their implementation.
- One-time capacity-building actions, such as procurement or special training, or continuous maintenance and preparatory actions.
- Support for testing
- Designing and supporting testing, storage of test result history.
- Introducing test results into plans; evaluating execution times against recovery time targets.
- Continuous maintenance
- Our goal is to support the ongoing maintenance of plans. The change tracking, validation and testing functions ensure that all created and exportable designs are always relevant.
- The status and availability of BCM plans can be monitored through preparatory tasks, test results and validation tests.
- By supporting the implementation of plans in the event of an emergency
- Simulation of incidents and emergencies; consequence and impact statements.
BCM results
- Detailed BCP and DRP plans that can be exported into Word
- Preparations and programs for rest periods
- Testing protocols
- Preparedness and readiness-for-use reports
