Business Continuity Management (BCM) is an elaborate exercise which ensures the continuance of mission critical business processes in spite of interruptions. It also helps in initiating and organizing recovery activities. In line with BCM, BS 25999 is a formal standard released by the British Standards Institute. BS 25999-1 is the (code of practice). It provides guidelines on the planning, response strategies, maintenance, improvements, and implementation of business continuity plans. BS 25999-2 provides the specification for implementing and manintaining a Business Continuity Management System (BCMS) based on BCM best practice.

NII Consulting provides services to plan, design, implement, and test business continuity plans. NII follows a phased approach to design a Business Continuity Management System (BCMS) as per BS 25999 for an organization.

Benefits of Implementing Business Continuity Management
Some of the benefits of implementing the BS 25999 standard are as follows:

• Provides stakeholders with assurance that risks from potential disasters have been reasonably mitigated
• Provides company personnel with proper procedures and awareness training in case of disaster
• Ensures a faster and more effective recovery of business operations
• Reduces risk of business and infrastructure loss
• Provides insurance underwriters evidence that the company has properly assessed the risks of conducting business
• Attain the BS 25999 certification
• Ensure compliance with standards such as ISO 27001

NII Approach

NII follows a phased approach to design a Business Continuity Management System (BCMS) as per BS 25999 for an organization. The phases are outlined below.

• We begin with understanding the business and mission critical activities and single point of failures along with known continuity requirements
• Next we carry out a Business Impact Analysis (BIA) wherein we will identify the Maximum Tolerable Period of Disruption (MTPoD) for each activity and the organization as a whole based on the critical activities and their Recovery Time Objectives (RTO) in different time bands or scenarios, and minimum level of recovery required.
• We then carry out a Risk/Threat Analysis to identify single point of failures and critical dependencies
• Next comes identifying a suitable BCM strategy which can be implemented at various levels in the organization
• An integral part of the approach is the Response phase. Here, the NII team will help develop and implement a business continuity management response which includes the development and documentation of the Business Continuity (BCP) and Incident Management Plans (IMP)
• Next comes the BCM Training and Awareness session which will help all the employees to get aquainted to the BCM
• Finally, the whole BCP is put to test and different types of walkthroughs and simulations are conducted. The BCM is evaluated and improved upon on the basis of the results from these tests/audits.