Protiviti has updated its Guide to Business Continuity & Resilience to reflect today’s latest threats and business realities, especially in light of lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2020 guide includes answers to critical questions business leaders must ask to ensure they will be ready to respond when disaster strikes, according to a company press release.
“The disruption caused by COVID-19 weighs heavily on the minds of every business planner, but the pandemic is only one disruption threat that companies manage,” says Ron Lefferts, managing director and leader of the Technology Consulting practice at Protiviti. “Cyber threats, data breaches, natural disasters, threat actor activity, and other events can occur at any moment, causing network outages, disrupting logistics, destroying infrastructure—creating unforeseen operational bottlenecks and preventing workers from doing their jobs. Our updated Guide to Business Continuity & Resilience is designed to help businesses consider scenarios they may face and to get their response plans in place before it’s too late.”
Protiviti’s new guide to business continuity and resilience answers a variety of questions facing those responsible for developing business continuity plans (BCPs) and offers best practices for addressing challenges. The questions are grouped into the following topics:
- COVID-19 and large-scale disasters
- Business continuity management (BCM) basics
- Ownership and governance
- Program and plan development
- IT disaster recovery and other technology considerations
- Third-party risk management and BCM
- Regulations, standards, and guidance
- Testing, training, and maintenance
The guide offers advice on creating pandemic response and return-to-normalcy plans, and shares lessons learned thus far in the coronavirus crisis. It also contains alternatives to performing an exhaustive business impact analysis and risk assessment, and a reference appendix of key BCM terms, program testing options, and links to regulatory information sources. 