Why resilience planning has moved up the agenda
While most commentators have focused on the need for financial resilience in the face of the increased risks associated with the economic downturn, the area of operational risk and resilience has been transformed dramatically as a result of the recession. Many businesses have experienced business problems not because they themselves have created a problem, but because a partner or supplier has caused a problem through unavailability of resources and/or staff.
Business continuity planning (BCP) is no longer just about keeping the business up and running in the event of incidents such as a flood or fire. Now organisations are focusing on understanding the exact flow of information through the business; identifying which information is mission critical, and ensuring that they have resilient – and streamlined – infrastructure in place to access this information at all times, from any location.
Previously considered to be firmly within the domain of the business continuity manager or the IT manager, responsibility for resilience planning is now distributed across various roles and functions, and is often now a topic for discussion within the boardroom.
Outsourcing information technology
Technology continues to play a critical part within risk management and, despite the recession and the need to strip back costs, organisations continue to spend money on technologies to support and back up their operations. Increasingly, this involves outsourcing to specialist third parties that offer a cost-effective level of resilience hard to achieve internally, leaving the IT department more able to focus on strategic innovation to help the business grow.
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