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7.5.1 Awareness of the need for ITSCM
7.5.2 Initial awareness
7.5.3 Ongoing awareness
In order to establish a successful ITSCM initiative within an organisation, it is imperative that there is awareness and commitment from the Board and senior management. The initiative has to be fully endorsed and sponsored in order to obtain the acceptance and commitment of key managers and staff, and ensure the quality of contribution that they are able to make.
Similarly, continuing success of ITSCM depends on a continuing commitment at all levels in the organisation and on people's awareness of their respective responsibilities. Management needs to continually monitor this and prioritise Business Continuity work against operational activities.
ITSCM can deliver other business benefits through the implementation of mechanisms that also improve Availability Management. However, in order to meet and support the true business requirements, ITSCM needs to be fully integrated into the corporate management activities for which awareness is vital.
An awareness of the need for ITSCM may be generated from:
In London, and in particular the City, a number of high profile bombings helped focus senior executives minds on the risks from terrorism and many new business and ITSCM initiatives followed. Other major events have had a similar effect in other major cities in the world, including the bombing of the World Trade Centre in New York, the power loss in Auckland, New Zealand, earthquakes in Los Angeles and South America, and so on.
Although major events and Service disruptions such as terrorism have often been the primary concern over recent years, there are many other risks that could result in serious disruption to the business and/or Services on which businesses depend. Service disruptions such as computer or telecommunications failure, failure of key third parties, localised fires and floods have, collectively, caused much greater damage than high profile terrorist bombings.
Experience has demonstrated that the best way to raise awareness of the need for ITSCM is to highlight the potential risks and business impacts facing an organisation. Wherever possible, these should be stated in relation to the failure of Business processes and key performance indicators for those processes, for example, Customer Service Levels, costs, turnover, profitability, market share, etc. If the business strategy and objectives are known, comparison of risks against these also provides a useful mechanism to identify key risks.
| Hints and tips The best and most effective way to raise senior management awareness is to highlight the potential risks and business impacts facing an organisation in terms of business failure to meet key performance indicators or corporate objectives. |
If the potential impacts and risks are unclear or if there is some resistance to the concepts of ITSCM at senior levels, then a useful first step may be to undertake a scoping study, in order to bring the risks and impacts to senior management attention. The scoping report can then be used to raise awareness of the need for ITSCM, identify some of the high-level business benefits that could be realised, generate an initial senior management commitment and act as the starting point for more detailing project plans.
Successful awareness cannot be achieved without obtaining 'buy-in' from key IT and business staff (e.g. IT Support staff and Operational Business Managements) early on during this Process. This is especially difficult as they can often be busy and sceptical.
Initial briefing sessions for the project team, stakeholders and the business areas, are always worthwhile to raise awareness, prompt support and manage expectations. Ideally these develop into an ongoing awareness campaign along with other communication methods (a section on the staff notice board, inclusion in the organisation newsletter, etc.). Regular feedback to participants also serves to demonstrate that progress is being made as a result of their contributions.
As an organisation progresses through to the final stages of the Business Continuity project, emphasis shifts from awareness of the need for ITSCM mechanisms towards the responsibilities and actions necessary to implement, test and maintain those mechanisms in an operational Environment. Involvement of people from across the IT organisation and business areas will have helped to train and educate personnel and generate a good level of awareness.
The investment made by organisations in the ITSCM deliverables, both in terms of time and money, warrants that organisations protect this investment through an ongoing Programme of awareness, education and training. Used correctly, the testing programme is an ideal way of educating and raising awareness for key individuals. For example technical and functional tests raise awareness and educate staff about potential Problems and issues to be faced. The test programme can also confirm the operation of ITSCM mechanisms that have been installed. The use of different staff during each test helps to educate and train deputies, in order to provide cover in case of absence of the primary staff.
| Hints and tips Use a business or ITSCM testing programme to help deliver the training and education to staff. |
The following aspects of education and awareness are also required:
It is important that wherever possible senior management personnel are involved, in order to demonstrate commitment from the top and so that they can see and understand how the money has been spent. The overall aim must be to get to a stage where management considers Business and ITSCM issues in relation to, and prior to, making key business decisions. This allows a balanced assessment of the risks to be considered in the decision making process.
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