Why BC Mattersimage

Resilience has always mattered. Nobody wants their organization to fail at the slightest hint of trouble.

But it matters more today than it did even five years ago.

Why? For the simple reason that customers and markets are less tolerant of unavailability. As customer expectations grow, the difference between “unavailable” and “unacceptable” service blurs. If a product or service is not available at the time and with the performance they demand, customers have an increasing number of options to go elsewhere. And they do.

  

Protecting the Brand

Organizations strive to protect their brand by reducing their organizational tolerance of the amount of time between a business interruption and full recovery. Where once a day’s outage could be tolerated, today four hours is expected. Where one hour was acceptable in the past, five minutes is now deemed too long.  

At the same time, resilience is more difficult to achieve than five years ago. Today’s performance-driven organization is more fragile than in the past. Cost cuts reduce the size of the workforce; supply chains are interwoven and interdependent; outsourcing and off-shoring can create unanticipated points of vulnerability. The speed of product and organizational change reduces the ability to develop a response on-the-spot.

  

Retaining Customers

Protecting the brand is not simply related to maintaining a nebulous image in the marketplace: it is intrinsically tied to retaining existing customers and growing the client base.  Companies want to do business with stable, dependable partners who will be there for the long haul and who exhibit exemplary business practices. They often hold their vendors to a higher standard than their own company. The first hint that the vendor is vulnerable, cannot easily recover from an incident or is otherwise not 110% reliable will weaken the relationship, It is therefore imperative that an organization demonstrate to its customers that it is resilient.

  

Protecting Stakeholders

It is not just customers and brand reputation that must be considered: there are other stakeholders as well. Personnel are the lifeblood of the organization. Their safety, and that or contractors, temporary employees and others, must be protected. This calls for a solid, tested and maintained business continuity program.

This is good business. It is also mandated by regulatory bodies. The organization’s ability to prove compliance with regulatory requirements must be ensured. And often it is the managers running an organization who assume personal liability should any incident occur for which continuity plans could have, or should have, been prepared and communicated.

  

How Shadow-Planner Helps

Shadow-Planner solutions are designed to support organizations in this new, demanding environment. They assist by helping the organization to do the core of its planning before an event occurs, by:

  • anticipating the likely consequences of an exception event 
  • mitigating the consequences of such an event before it takes place
  • responding quickly and effectively if and when the event does take place
  • tracking compliance with these points across an organization

A unique combination of software, best practices and services, the Shadow-Planner approach support business continuity management in all its forms. Whether implementing an implementation based on BS25999 or one of a range of other new and emerging standards, the Office-Shadow team has a wealth of experience gained by working in concert with its partners and clients and complementing their resources and knowledge. The Shadow-Planner program offers an end-to-end solution, made up of key products and services, to deliver exactly what is required: Success by Design.