What is Business Continuity Management (BCM)?

The comprehensive process of identifying possible threats, evaluating their effects, and creating plans to guarantee that an organization can continue to function both during and after disruptions is termed Business Continuity Management, or BCM.

The BCM framework, typical problems, and how ServiceNow’s solution improves operational resilience are all explained in this guide. Disruptions can stop business operations, whether they are brought on by supply-chain failures, cyberattacks, or natural disasters.

What is Business Continuity Management?

BCM includes the policies, practices, and resources that allow organizations to continue performing essential tasks in the face of unfavorable circumstances. It entails evaluating risks, figuring out how they will affect company operations, creating recovery plans, and testing and updating continuity plans on a regular basis. Organizations can integrate crisis management, disaster recovery, and continuity planning on a single platform with the aid of ServiceNow’s Business Continuity Management solution.

Why is BCM important?

Digital systems and intricate supply chains are essential to organizations. Revenue losses, harm to one’s reputation, and even legal repercussions can arise from disruptions. Protecting vital business operations and prioritizing services that must continue in the event of an outage are two things that BCM assists you with.

Some of the significant benefits of BCM Implementation are as follows:

• Protect critical business functions: Protecting vital business operations and prioritizing services that must continue in the event of an outage are two things that BCM assists you with.
  
  
• Reduce recovery time: Create protocols that minimize downtime and satisfy recovery point objectives (RPO) and recovery time objectives (RTO).
  
  
• Comply with regulations: To safeguard stakeholders and ensure dependable service, many industries require business continuity planning.
  
  
• Maintain customer trust: Preserve client trust by reassuring partners and customers with readiness.
  
  
• Enhance operational resilience: Enhance operational resilience by combining risk management and continuity planning to enable prompt and informed decision-making.

Key framework of BCM

Risk assessment

Determine possible dangers, such as supply-chain breakdowns, cyberattacks, and natural disasters. Evaluate each event’s probability and possible consequences. The unified platform from ServiceNow aids in the collection of risk data throughout the company and offers insights to help prioritize mitigation efforts.

Business Impact Analysis (BIA)

The impact of disruptions on business processes is ascertained by BIA. It determines acceptable downtime, dependencies, and essential functions. The BCM module of ServiceNow provides tools for BIA and service prioritization according to RTO and RPO.

Business continuity planning

Develop plans to promptly resume operations following a disruption. Plans cover communication protocols, recovery techniques, and resource requirements. ServiceNow offers workflows and templates for defining continuity plans and safeguarding assets and employees.

Incident response and crisis management

In times of crisis, prompt action and unambiguous communication are crucial. With ServiceNow’s Crisis Management features, you can send emergency mass notifications through more than 25 channels, monitor recovery efforts, and activate continuity plans. Leadership has real-time visibility into response efforts through a central dashboard.

Plan development and implementation

Assign tasks, specify roles, and make sure the required materials are available. For a cohesive response, integrate plans with other procedures (risk management, incident management). For smooth implementation, ServiceNow’s platform connects continuity plans to the CMDB and other programs.

Testing and validation

Examine your plans frequently to find any gaps. Organizations can evaluate readiness and plan accuracy by practicing recovery plans during regular business operations with ServiceNow’s Exercise Management.

Plan maintenance and continuous improvement

For continuity plans to continue working, they must be reviewed and updated on a regular basis. Risks, technology, and business procedures all evolve over time. The ServiceNow platform makes sure that updates are triggered by changes in the risk environment or CMDB and automates plan maintenance.

Common challenges in implementing BCM

• Siloed information: Asset, risk, and dependency data may be dispersed throughout various systems. Silos are removed, and a consistent view is offered by a single platform with a unified data model, such as ServiceNow’s AI Platform.
  
  
• Resource constraints: It takes time and experience to create and maintain continuity plans. Workflows and templates that are automated save time and guarantee consistency.
  
  
• Testing fatigue: Plan testing may be viewed as a burden by organizations due to testing fatigue. Regular validation and improvement are encouraged when exercise management is integrated into daily operations.
  
  
• Communication during crises: Accurate and timely communication is essential during a crisis. Messages are distributed to stakeholders via a variety of channels thanks to integration with mass notification tools.
  
  

How ServiceNow’s BCM solution addresses these challenges

The AI platform that underpins ServiceNow’s GRC apps is also the foundation for its Business Continuity Management, allowing for smooth integration of risk, incident, and continuity procedures. Key capabilities include:

• Centralised data model: Integrate the ServiceNow CMDB in real-time to harmonize crisis management, disaster recovery, and continuity.
  
  
• Modular applications: Business Impact Analysis, Continuity Planning, Operational Resilience Management, Exercise Management, and Crisis Management are among the essential applications that ServiceNow bundles into modular packages that can grow with your business.
  
  
• Automated plan maintenance: When assets or business processes change, automated workflows update and maintain plans.
  
  
• Exercise and crisis management: Put continuity plans into practice during regular business hours and smoothly implement them in an emergency. To help with response coordination, the solution offers task management, dashboards, and notifications.
  
  
• Mass notifications:  In an emergency, promptly notify staff, clients, and partners via phone, SMS, or email.
  
  
• Operational resilience: Operational resilience involves prioritizing vital tasks, gaining real-time insights, and monitoring and managing evolving risks.

Conclusion

One of the most important disciplines for safeguarding operations, personnel, and reputation is business continuity management. Organizations can withstand disruptions by using a systematic approach that includes risk assessment, BIA, planning, response, testing, and maintenance. By combining risk and incident management onto a single platform and offering automation, analytics, and communication tools to improve operational resilience, ServiceNow’s BCM solution simplifies this lifecycle. Businesses can lower downtime, safeguard revenue, and preserve customer trust in the face of unanticipated events by investing in BCM and utilizing contemporary technology.

FAQs

What is the difference between business continuity planning and disaster recovery?

While disaster recovery specifically deals with restoring IT systems and data, business continuity planning concentrates on preserving vital business operations during a disruption. Both belong to BCM and ought to be combined.

How often should continuity plans be tested?

Plans should be tested on a regular basis, at least once a year, and whenever there are major changes to technologies or business processes. These tests can be scheduled and monitored with the aid of ServiceNow’s Exercise Management module.

Do I need BCM if I already have a risk management program?

Indeed. While risk management finds and eliminates possible risks, business continuity management (BCM) makes sure your company can keep running even if those threats come to pass. Comprehensive resilience is achieved by combining the two disciplines.