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Business Continuity ranks high on the agenda for organizations to ensure the stability of critical businesses and functions. This goes a long way in bolstering customer confidence
Disasters never come knocking at your door, giving you a 5 minute warning. They just happen, causing utter chaos and destruction in its wake. Still, most of us remain oblivious to it, thinking it cant possibly strike us. However, we see its manifestations continue to be featured in the newspapers and 24x7 TV channels.
This ignorance could be fatal for business operations, resulting in significant wastage of effort, time and resources. Imagine your business affected by a power outage or rather a fire, rendering every file, computer and server obsolete. How does one rebuild data, the core asset of any organization, back after such an event?
Disasters happen. They might come in the form of natural causes such as earthquakes and tsunamis or man-made including those brought about intentionally by a disgruntled employee in the form of a virus introduced to corrupt data.
A United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) study notes that developing countries are more adversely affected by disasters than found developed nations. It is estimated that India loses about 2% of its GDP due to disasters annually.
One of the main industry segments that have adopted Business Continuity strategies is Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) sector. The nature of financial services has undergone a vast change with the explosion of technology innovations in this sphere. The volume of transactions and 24x7 access to online banking services have necessitated the protection of critical aspects covering people, process and technology.
What can one do to mitigate the losses?
Smart and forward looking organizations prepare for the unexpected.
Business Continuity ranks high on the agenda for organizations to ensure the stability of critical businesses and functions. For example, Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery is a senior management agenda item for Call Centers and Outsourced Service Providers. Business Continuity protects the organization while mitigating risks, safeguarding revenues and sustaining customer confidence.
Taking this into account, IT firms are increasingly looking towards making significant investments in Business Continuity and Resiliency Services in India. Moreover, the increase in number of partnerships in this domain is a testimony of the market potential for these services.
One of the main industry segments that have adopted Business Continuity strategies is Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) sector. The nature of financial services has undergone a vast change with the explosion of technology innovations in this sphere. The volume of transactions and 24x7 access to online banking services have necessitated the protection of critical aspects covering people, process and technology.
Regulatory bodies such as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) have underscored the importance of having a strong data protection plan in place via Guidelines and Circulars time to time.
In conclusion
A well thought out and effective back up plan is essential to ensure the smooth functioning of an enterprise. It helps organizations protect its data and employees from harm, and ensures that critical business functions resume as quickly as possible with as little downtime as possible. Aside from mitigating revenue loss, having an effective business continuity measure also goes a long way to bolster customer confidence in the said organization.