PgM 6: Stage 3 – BCM Maintenance Support Tools

Determine BC Tools Selection Process

Many organizations use the basic word processing tools to manage the overall BC Plan maintenance activities. Some use the most advanced electronic tools to manage schedule, resources, document change and document distribution.

A specialized suite of BC related software will provide greater enhancement to the BC Plan maintenance process. Thus, a good selection process is the key factor in getting the most suitable support tools to maintain and update the BC Plan.

A good BCM maintenance software selection process depends on how detailed one is in gathering and formulating the requirements, tabulating the selection criteria, comparing the available tools and differentiating basic features against those that are good to have. All these decisions have to be made by the Organization BCM Coordinator who will lead the selection process.

In the process for BC software selection, the Organization BCM Coordinator should at least provide the leadership to:

• Gather the operational needs from users, the daily BC tasks and activities, the BC test results, the management requirements and the market trends
• Assemble a list of software features from all the available BC software in the markets via exchanges with vendors, survey reports, websites, peers and business partners
• Translate the BC technical requirements into software acquisition requirements
• Establish selection criteria for selecting the suitable BC software for the organization
  
  

Once the process is completed, recommendations should be made to the BCM Steering Committee on acquiring the software for the organization, the deployment plan to roll out the software and the training plan to equip all the BC personnel with the necessary skillsets to use the BC software.

Identify Maintenance Tools Classifications

Different tools cater to different organizational needs. An organization that has international presence will need more extensive features as compared to a localized organization.
Generally, BC maintenance tools can be classified into the following 3 major categories: word processing, database and BC planning software.

Word Processing Package

These are usually in the form of simple templates written in Microsoft Word, Excel or PowerPoint format. Users of such software packages are allowed to change the templates to suit their needs. The workflow and change processes will have to be manually administered and managed by the user.

Database Product

This software usually comes in formatted templates, customized user interfaces and has its own databases. As users of such software products generally are not able to perform any customization on their own, they have to follow the data structure, the maintenance workflow and change processes that are provided by the BC software product.

BC Planning Software

This BC planning software comes with a well equipped suite of templates, workflows, processes, procedures and management controls. The BC planning software usually provides customization program languages that allow the user to customize the workflows to suit the organization needs or allow the user to interface the BC planning software with any other business applications or external software packages that are used extensively by the users.
BC planning software is generally more costly than word processing packages but will equip the users with a lot of flexibilities.

Understand Organizational Requirements

Before starting the selection and adoption of a BC planning software for an organization, the BCM Steering Committee should carefully consider the following parameters:

Readiness of BC Practices

• Is the organization well equipped with the fundamental BC knowledge and experience?
• Is there sufficient time to acquire the tools and train staff to use them to enhance the productivity and effectiveness of the BC activities?

Complexity of the BC Processes

• Are there too many BC processes to be manually managed?
• Will a software tool help to shorten the response time?

Legal / Regulatory Requirement

• Is there a regulatory requirement to consolidate the organizational information into a secured environment?

Geographical Locations

• Is there a requirement for the software to be used in more than one location or country?

Languages

• Is there a need to consider the indigenous languages of different countries in which an organization operates?

Budget

• Does the organization have sufficient budget to acquire BC tools?
• If the BC planning tools are not available, will it limit the scope of BC planning processes?

Supporting Resources

• Does the organization have the resources to support the operation and execution of the BC planning software packages?
  
  • Is the IT support available?
  • Is the vendor service support available?

Timeliness

• Is the time right for the deployment of the BC planning software?
• Are the Business Unit BC Coordinators ready to learn and use the BC planning software?

Needs

• Is there a real need or just merely keeping up with other competitors who are also acquiring the BC planning software?

Define Software Selection Criteria

The main software selection criteria should at least cover the following:

Support

• Is there any on-going maintenance from the software vendor?

Ease of Use

• How easily can a user pick up the usage of the software?
• How much time does a user need to spend using the software as compared to the manual way?

Functionality

• How does the software manage the document creation, updates, approval, editing, distribution, archival and recovery processes?

Reports

• What are the various standard reports available?
• What is the degree of ease to create new reports?

Interfaces

• How easily can the software integrate its output data (such as reports, charts, data) into other word processing software like Word, Excel and PowerPoint?
• How easily can the software interface with external systems to gather data from the finance system, Word and Excel documents?

Security

• How does the BC planning software manage the access control of the BC Plan documentation via the BC roles, named users, BC workgroup?

Maintenance

• How are the software bugs / fixes / version releases given to the user?
• How easily can these be applied to the software package without causing user disruptions?

Support

• Are 24-hour support and locations support available?
  
  • What are the organization’s consideration for the following:
  • Licensing
  • Price
  • Performance

Software Selection Team

In order to select the most appropriate software tool for the organization, a software selection team comprising representatives from different business units should be formed to work closely with the Organization BCM Coordinator to undertake a detailed evaluation of each of the products. This initiative should be led by an IT expert.

In addition, a proper evaluation methodology, such as the System Development Methodology, may be adopted and applied across the evaluation process to ensure the selection process is well coordinated and managed.

Develop Software Acquisition & Deployment Methodology

The Software Acquisition & Deployment Methodology should dictate how to assess, select and implement the appropriate BC planning software for the organization.

Software Assessment Document

The Organization BCM Coordinator should prepare a BC planning software requirement document which illustrates in detail:

• What are mandatory and “good-to-have” functions of the BC planning software in order of priority?
• Is the hardware and software architecture in line with the organization’s overall IT framework, policy and standard?
• Do the operation system, network protocol, databases and application services comply with the IT standards?
• Do the security features comply with the organization’s IT Security Policy?
• Does the BC planning software comply with the organization’s installation, testing and implementation requirements?

Selection Process

The Organization BCM Coordinator has to match the mandatory and “good-to-have” requirements with those offered by the BC planning software packages and eliminate those BC planning software packages which do not meet the requirements. This process will reduce the time spent on evaluating BC planning software packages that do not meet the requirements.

A good selection process will require the testing of the proposed BC planning software for a short period of time to ensure that the features and usage requirements can be verified. However the Organization BCM Coordinator has to manage the occasion where the vendor may refuse the testing of their BC planning software.

Acceptance or Rejection

The Organization BCM Coordinator should document the details for acceptance or rejection of each BC planning software package in a summarized form. This documentation will be useful for the purpose of auditing or in case vendors want to challenge the grounds of the award.

Deployment Strategy

The Organization BCM Coordinator will also need to understand and develop the deployment strategy and follow-up training and maintenance plan for the BC planning software. This will ensure a smooth BC planning software roll-out to the users who are already trained to use them and provide a proper help channel that the users can seek help from.

After the award and successful implementation of the BC planning software package, the Organization BCM Coordinator needs to review the software tool/s on a regular basis. This is especially important in an environment where there are frequent changes in organizational standards in hardware and software architecture.

As the BCM Program continues to grow in size and complexity, the BC planning software tool will have to constantly be upgraded to meet the BC Plan maintenance requirements.

Reference

Goh, M. H. (2021). Managing & Sustaining Your Business Continuity Management Program. Business Continuity Management Planning Series (3rd ed.). Singapore: GMH Pte Ltd.

Extracted from "Chapter 6: Stage 3 – Maintenance Support Tools"

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