It is hardly possible to be fully prepared for all crises. The Corona pandemic clearly demonstrated this. Nevertheless, it is important to deal with these and other, mostly unforeseeable dangers. Even as an SME. Risks lurk everywhere – just look at the current situation with a war in Europe, the energy crisis, or natural disasters. Threats are also steadily increasing in the area of cybersecurity.
How does the business prevail during a crisis? CEOs in particular must deal with this at an early stage, because in the worst case it can lead to bankruptcy or personal liability. To counteract this, organizations should implement a system of business continuity management (BCM). Below you will learn exactly what this means and how to implement it.
Business continuity is a plan of action or strategy that includes processes to maintain IT operations in crisis situations or to ensure all necessary processes after a system failure. In this context, protection is needed above all, but also the establishment of alternative processes, thus ensuring that companies continue to exist economically even in the face of threats and that economic activity is safeguarded. To some extent, it is similar to risk management and emergency response. We have already reported on these topics in previous blog articles. A business continuity management system goes beyond these concepts: it is a long-term development of strategies, actions, and plans designed primarily to ensure the smooth continuity of business operations. The German term Betriebliches Kontinuitätsmanagement (business continuity management) also makes this clear.
As already explained in the introduction, there are many unpredictable risks and catastrophes. Nevertheless, there are common aspects that SMEs and large organizations can and should prepare for. These are for example:
Several of these scenarios can coincide – a natural disaster can cause a power outage, for example. You also prepare for unforeseen risks by thinking about these aspects: in many companies, for example, the pandemic led to staff absences, the loss of partners and service providers, or the closure of buildings.
Business continuity management (BCM) is a holistic process. During development, it is particularly necessary to have both a disaster recovery plan (i.e., concepts for disaster recovery) and to take preventive measures. Any approach should always encompass the entire company so that the important business processes can continue. It is especially important to set priorities and allocate the resources needed.
The procedure shows that your organization is prepared for various scenarios with a business continuity management system. Condition: detailed testing and analysis of individual weaknesses for possible attacks and failures. This minimizes the likelihood of your company becoming incapable of acting or doing business due to unforeseen events. BCM is thus a kind of insurance against the worst case and also creates better risk awareness internally.
In the event of an emergency, the management, and the board of directors of a company can be held liable for incapacity, bankruptcy or insolvency, the prevention of this is also the responsibility of the upper management level. Accordingly, the initial introduction takes place there. It is then worth appointing a suitable person in the company as Business Continuity Manager, who then takes over the organization. A team of BCM experts and risk managers is also helpful to set up the concrete action plans and to control and constantly adjust the implementation.
In recent years, it has become abundantly clear how necessary business continuity management is: first came the Corona pandemic in 2020, and now we find ourselves in the midst of an energy crisis. Many companies now fear sharply rising costs and, in extreme cases, even power shortages due to a shortage situation.
Within the framework of business continuity management, one should prepare accordingly for some uncertainties in this context – the biggest risk factors here are rising energy prices, as well as the danger that not all systems (e.g., cloud, production machines, plants and others) can be operated continuously, so that economic damage occurs in the company.
The approaches to solving this problem are many and varied. It is important, in the spirit of business continuity, to conduct an analysis of the current situation. For example, with regard to rising energy costs, it is important to know where power is effectively flowing into devices and systems and where a correspondingly large savings effect can be achieved. Energy optimization is the keyword here! With the reduction of your operating costs and further energy savings, you already gain much.
Information and concepts for your company can now also be found in our latest whitepaper. Among other things, we used this as an example to illustrate energy consumption and corporate costs, as well as the associated savings potential and ideas for energy optimization. You will also find technical options for enabling continued cloud-based operation of the infrastructure, as well as other considerations of a general nature on the subject of “green IT” – options that can make your IT more sustainable and thus also more crisis-proof, for example through the use of renewable energies.
The last few years have shown us abundantly clear that the next crisis can come at any time, whether you expect it or not. Pandemic, war, inflation and who knows what comes next. With the help of business continuity management, it is also possible to prepare for unforeseeable risks so that uninterrupted business operations can be maintained immediately after a crisis. All necessary organizational, personnel and technical steps are formulated in a business continuity plan and continuously reviewed to minimize damage. Since disasters can lead to companies becoming incapacitated, having to file for bankruptcy and managing directors even being liable themselves in the event of an emergency, you should look into BCM at an early stage. As is so often the case, prevention is cheaper than repairing the damage.