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 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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
Before starting the selection and adoption of a BC planning software for an organization, the BCM Steering Committee should carefully consider the following parameters:
The main software selection criteria should at least cover the following:
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.
The Software Acquisition & Deployment Methodology should dictate how to assess, select and implement the appropriate BC planning software for the organization.
The Organization BCM Coordinator should prepare a BC planning software requirement document which illustrates in detail:
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.
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.
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.
Extracted from "Chapter 6: Stage 3 – Maintenance Support Tools"
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