Business Impact Analysis

Identify Critical Business Products and Services

The next step in the process is for each department to list the critical product(s) and/or service(s) it provides customers inside and outside the company. Each product or service is broken down into the following categories below.

Business Products & Services Categories

• Critical Activities
• Working Patterns
• Seasonal Variations
• Existing Service Level Agreements
• Departments depended upon to deliver the product or service
• Departments who depend upon this department for products or services
• IT Applications used
• Hardware used
• Suppliers used
• Key telephone numbers (Customer contacts, key suppliers, etc.)

This step uncovers the interdependencies that exist between each department and other departments, IT applications, and suppliers. It’s not unusual for a department to have an “Aha” moment (or several) as they go through this part of the exercise, either with help from a risk analysis firm or on their own. When working to improve your business resiliency, there are a variety of testing exercises that can be quite eye-opening about gaps in your plan.

Assess the Business Impact of Lost Suppliers

The next step is to examine the impact of the loss of suppliers to the business. This is done using the same definitions developed for the products and services of the business. The goal is to determine when the loss of a Supplier would critically impact the business, so a Recovery Time Objective can be developed.

In this step, the impact of the loss of IT applications is assessed. As with the Suppliers, the goal is to determine when the loss of a Supplier would critically impact the business, so a Recovery Time Objective can be developed. If the company has a Disaster Recovery Plan in place, this information may already exist and should be used.

Determine Resources Needed to Recover

The final step in completing the BIA is to determine the amount of resources that will be needed to recover operations. This includes workspace, staff, IT applications, PCs, and everything else needed to restore operations to normal.

Create Plan for Recovery of Business Operations

Once all this data is collected, the business risk assessment firm will review it and come up with a preliminary plan for recovery of business operations. This will include the order in which products and services are recovered, the IT applications that must be available, the Suppliers needed, and the resources required to support the effort.

While you can go through this process on your own, working with a business impact analysis consultant can prove to be invaluable. Trained professionals associated with a business risk assessment consulting firm have experience in a wide range of business situations and are prepared to show you where your BIA falls short. If you’re looking for a business continuity consultant or business risk assessment firm, contact us today.