Business impact analysis (BIA) is a logical process that aids in evaluating the probable effects of either a failure or a disruption of serious business operations due to disasters, emergency or accidents. Therefore, the BIA is a business continuance plan that reduces vulnerabilities and promotes strategic development to minimize risks within the business organization (Government of Western Australia, 2015). For example, for a manufacturing company to meet its mission, it focuses on specific critical processes and systems including: facilities and security, finance, human resources, information technology, legal/compliance, manufacturing (assembly), marketing and sales, operations, research and development, and warehousing.
Critical business processes and systems
The organization must understand the key processes that the facilities and securities departments perform to ensure successful operations of the whole business. In case of a disruption of the business process, the facilities and security must adopt the correct processes and procedures immediately to restore the normal operations. For instance, a physical destruction of the building would ultimately compromise the security. Hence, having business facilities and proper access to security are critical business components and should encompass constant addition of security personnel to enhance safety.
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Additionally, finance is a critical business function in terms of commercial expenditures. For instance, tracking payables and receivables are mission-critical functions of finance to make the management know the financial position of the business. Hence, the management will have immense knowledge on how to develop a proper employee payroll that would consequently aid in analyzing withholding taxes and other related deductions to ensure smooth organizational operations. Again, finance is critical since it enhances repayment of bank loan and such actions are directly related to diverse reports written for investment decisions.
Furthermore, the human resources form a critical part business processes and functions that are greatly affected in case of occurrence of natural disasters. This is because they provide crucial information regarding the status of the business facilities and even takes a keen role of ensuring better health and well-being of other employees. Still, the human resources accomplish mission-critical functions of the business through the application of the most appropriate IT systems. For instance, phone calls and emails enhance effective communication in the workplace though this is possible through the support of both hardware and software components.
Components of a BIA tool
Recovery time is an important component of BIA since it determines the maximum time period that a business would take to recover its critical processes using available resources. Again, IT requirements are components of the BIA that exist in terms of electronic data (Gelinas, Sutton & Federowicz, 2008). They are helpful in data recovery processes to restore the initial processes with the least costs possible (Snedaker, 2008). Still, the data backup history is another component of the BIA tool that helps in identifying data sources to hence accurate linkage of previous data and the recovery process (Government of Western Australia, 2015). Therefore, tool can be programmed to automatically back up data on weekly, monthly or quarterly basis to enhance effective restoration of business operations upon disruption. It is crucial to include a review of alternate location options that enhance off-site back up processes in the recovery process (Snedaker, 2008). The company must also include staffing minimums as a vital component of the crisis management tool. Such minimums help in realizing the levels of needs as part of the objectives in optimizing recovery processes. Impact level is also a component that helps in determining how the process will be affected based on available mitigation measures (Gelinas, Sutton & Federowicz, 2008). Hence, the components explained herein are vital in anticipating the likelihood levels of occurrence of disruptions in question in consideration to available capabilities and mitigation strategies.
References
Gelinas, U., Sutton, S. & Federowicz, J. (2008). Global Text: Business Processes and Information Technology. Zurich. Retrieved from https://www.saylor.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/BusinessProcesses.pdf
Government of Western Australia. (2015). Business Impact Analysis Handbook. Retrieved from http://www.health.wa.gov.au/circularsnew/attachments/1146.pdf
Snedaker, S. (2008). Business impact analysis for business continuity: Identifying business functions. Web. Retrieved from https://searchitchannel.techtarget.com/feature/Business-impact-analysis-for-business-continuity-Identifying-business-functions
