Automation is the name of the game in most technologies. Business continuity software is no different.
In particular, businesses, as sources of disruption accumulate, have increasing need to automate more and more business continuity management and planning processes. But what exactly should those organizations be looking for when preparing disruption in the age of automation? We delve into it in the following article.
Benefits of business continuity software
The answer is certainly business continuity software. But for those still reliant on manual processes, the leap might seem overwhelming.
It’s not. Business continuity software simply comprises the tools needed to automate business continuity planning and management processes. Those processes include but are not limited to conducting business-impact analyses, creating and updating recovery plans, and identifying gaps in BCM programs.
Although baseline automation is a key benefit, it’s not the only advantage to using business continuity software. Further business continuity software benefits include:
- Identify risks. Helps identify potential risks and their negative impacts.
- Create plans. Helps create and manage continuity and resilience plans.
- Improve efficiency. Helps streamline and automate processes to make them more efficient.
- Protect data. Helps protect critical information.
- Promote collaboration. Helps facilitate collaboration and information sharing.
- Improve response times. Helps respond to disruptions more quickly.
Trends in the business continuity software market
Those who’ve already purchased business continuity software might find this old hat. After all, these solutions have been on the market for some time now.
The experience of Covid, however, was a shock to most businesses. As a result, business continuity software providers innovated in kind.
What recent software innovations can better prepare companies for disruption? We highlight the following three:
Modernization of methodologies and tools
We’ve seen impressive modernization in the provision of resilience and business continuity services. Business continuity software providers are using new technologies in the development of resilience programs, to anticipate and identify trends or prevent situations that may generate an interruption.
Greater process automation
We’ve seen a strong uptick in the automation of consulting and advisory processes in business continuity. These are largely the tasks that were formerly carried out manually in the implementation and maintenance of business continuity management systems.
Through the generation of predefined response actions and attention to real events, automation, here, has resulted in the optimization of processes and the generation of significant savings in response, recovery, and restoration times.
Greater agility
We’ve also noticed greater agility in the implementation of programs, plans, and projects, enabling greater client self-management, self-improvement and commitment to obtaining results.
Workflows to look for in business continuity software
Amongst these trends, greater process automation is worth highlighting further. Some providers, to better prepare their customers for disruption, have automated key business continuity tasks to save time and effort.
The key workflows supported tend to be:
- Business impact analysis. Performing business impact analyses to determine the prioritized activities for each department or unit.
- Risk assessment. Conduct risk and impact assessments for critical business activities should disruptions occur.
- Critical incident management. Reporting of events, escalating based on severity or business policy, notifying essential personnel and stakeholders, and managing the resolution of the event to return to business as usual as quickly as possible.
- Dispatch management. Dispatch of teams in response to incidents, plans, and procedures.
- Post-incident reporting. Conduct after-action reviews and create improvement actions
- Testing and exercises. Scheduling exercises and reporting on recovery strategies outcomes – with notifications, monthly/yearly reports, and digests.
- Lessons learned. Reviewing procedures implementing lessons learned and improvement and corrective actions from exercises and incidents.
Further capabilities to consider in business continuity software
Workflow-powered automation is key to preparing for business continuity disruptions. But it’s not the only capability you’ll need to stay ahead of the curve.
Further business continuity software capabilities to consider include:
Business impact analysis
Simplify your business impact analysis process and drive engagement across your organization using a built-in BIA tool that guides you through the process step-by-step, ensuring your BIAs are rich with insightful data to help you truly understand how your business works.
Dependency mapping
Quickly identify dependencies between business activities and supporting assets or vendors and stay informed when one is at risk. Visualize and track dependencies to make informed decisions and take appropriate actions to mitigate risks effectively.
Recovery strategies
Use a consistent recovery strategy across your organization, that allows you to define your strategies, response plans, roles and responsibilities, and pre-assigned checklists. Deploy these in seconds when disruption hits, to ensure the best response.
Exercises and scenario testing
Don't wait for a real-world crisis to test your organization's readiness. With an advanced exercise management solution, you can be confident that teams are prepared to handle any situation that comes their way.
Business continuity planning
Replace paper-based, static business continuity plans with dynamic, digitized business continuity plans that ensure your plans are always up-to-date and quickly available for all your users, on any device.
Business continuity monitoring
Flexible dashboards and analytics capabilities ensure you always cater to your unique stakeholders, increasing visibility, transparency, and appreciation of business continuity across your organization.
Finally, automation in business continuity software helps you streamline your processes to make resilience easier for your staff. But as noted, not any solution will do.
Solutions like Noggin come equipped with the key workflows that can fully automate your business continuity management program, facilitating engagement and collaboration across all stakeholders and ensuring a unified approach to resilience.
Don’t just take our word for it, though. Request a software demonstration to see Noggin in action for yourself.
.svg)
.svg)
.svg)