Leading BCP Expert & Author Speaks at Az Contingency Planners Session on BCP Metrics

Aug. 8, 2009 - PRLog -- Michael Herrera, leading BCP expert and CEO of  MHA Consulting, spoke at the August 5th, 2009 meeting of the Arizona Contingency Planners on the merits of using metrics to measure the maturity of your Business Continuity Planning (BCP) program and identify its current capability as well as predict it readiness in the future.

"Without metrics, how can you know where you are today and where you need to be tomorrow?, said Michael Herrera MHA President & CEO.  Today's BCP planners have complex programs that must align the business and technology sides of the program, it is critical that the maturity of each component be determined as well as a global readiness level.  This is a critical gap in the BCP arena as Board of Directors want to know if the organization is resilient and management has limited resources and dollars to spend.  Assessing your maturity permits you to know what your current maturity level is and what maturity level must be achieved to meet corporate and client needs".

At MHA, we look at a number of components to measure the maturity of  a program:

Governance & Oversight  - Do you have effective management oversight and    direction?    Appropriate staff?

Policy- Is your policy documented, communicated, and enforced by management?

Budgeting-Is your BCP program part of the annual corporate budget?

Program Management Methodology- Do you have roadmap and process to guide your BCP initiative over the next 12 to 18 months?

Prioritization of Critical Processes and Systems – Have you identified and prioritized the most critical processes and systems you need to keep your business running in the first week of a disruption.  If you can recover what you need for the first 7 days, you will stay in business.

Identification of  relevant Threats and Risks – Have you clearly identified the relevant threats and risks to your organization via a threat and risk assessment study.  Do you have a mitigation plan to either accept, transfer or mitigate threats?

Recovery Strategy  - Based on the results of the prioritization of your processes and systems as well as identification of threats/risks, have you identified  recovery strategies that will recover your critical business processes and systems?

Recovery Plans  – Do you have documented, comprehensive and tested plans for your mission critical business processes and systems?

Data Backups & Offsite Storage -Are you meeting the Recovery Point Objectives (RPO’s) of your organization?

Exercises– Do you have regular exercises to validate the capability of the recovery strategy,  recovery plans and people?

Training- Is training held on a regular basis to educate new and existing staff members on the BCP program and its role in the culture of the organization?

Maintenance- Do you have a comprehensive maintenance schedule in place to maintain currency of the components of the BCP program?

Continuous Improvement -Do you have a process in place to look for improvements to the BCP program?  Do you know what maturity level is required to meet the needs of your business?

Our Current State Assessment (CSA) model looks at these components for each area (business and technical) to determine a programs’ level of compliance and corresponding maturity level (Non-Existent, Capable, Mature, etc.).   Remember, in the end, it comes down to execution in the face of adversity.

About MHA:  MHA Consulting, with its decade-long track record, is a proven leader in business continuity planning, disaster recovery planning, IT best practices and data center moves and relocations. Every day, MHA helps protect trillions of dollars of global-market assets and top companies around the world rely on MHA services for the continuity of their business. For more information, please visit: http://www.mha-it.com or contact Michael Herrera at herrera@mha-it.com.

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MHA Consulting is a proven leader in business continuity planning, disaster recovery planning and Information Technology optimization.