So you’ve bought into the need for a BC/DR plan, and you’ve identified and prioritized the risks your organization could face. That means it’s time for the next step—determining the impact those risks would have on your business if any of them materialized.
How would your company be affected? What business processes would be interrupted, and what would those interruptions mean? Let’s say everything was disrupted at once—what would you address first? And then what?
These and other make-or-break questions are critical to resolve in an emergency. The good news is they can be answered ahead of time—with a business impact analysis.
A business impact analysis (BIA) is a way to—wait for it—analyze the potential impact of risks on your business. By performing a thorough, methodical BIA before a crisis occurs, you’ll be better able to:
Conducting a BIA is about setting priorities; identifying which processes are most vital, gauging how long you could go without them, and determining how best to get the lights back on if things went wrong.
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