Business continuity management: the art of thinking ahead

With its proprietary, web-based PACEmaker tool, Protiviti is an industry leader when it comes to proven BCM techniques. By Kathleen McGrorty

Business Continuity Management (BCM) is the development of strategies, plans and actions that provide protection or alternate modes of operation should your enterprise experience an interruption.

Protiviti creates BCM value by developing practical, cost-effective plans that can actually be executed during an interruption, and don't simply rely on mythical best practices. Our holistic approach has been proven in all industries and aligns with your investment in other pressing business, regulatory and compliance issues, including Sarbanes-Oxley.

Our approach is business-orientated and based upon the risks and impacts relevant to an organisation's key business processes. Backup strategies alone just aren't enough anymore. Our planning focuses on the evaluation of those people, processes, technology and data that are vital to your operation. Protiviti's Business Continuity Management methodology relies on the expertise of our Certified Business Continuity Professionals (CBCPs) when developing strategies and plans.

Our portfolio of BCM services includes risk assessment, business impact analysis, recovery strategy development, plan documentation, plan testing, training program development, and program audit and assessment.

Protiviti's work is supported by a proprietary, web-based tool to ensure consistent execution of BCM-related diagnostics, risk assessments, business impact analyses, and plan documentation.

The tool-set, called PACEmaker (Planning and Continuity Executed), applies a generally accepted approach and methodology to your unique situation and produces actionable results. PACEmaker also serves as the key component of our knowledge transfer process.

• Business Alignment: helps match IT disaster recovery capabilities with business expectations and integrates with regulatory and compliance programs

• Business Impact Analysis: identifies threats, risks, exposures and impacts relevant to your business

• Strategy Design: focuses on the mitigation of threats, risks, exposures and impacts to a tolerable level

• Testing and Maintenance: standardises an approach for organisations to own, maintain and test their BCM program

• Holistic Approach: business recovery, IT disaster recovery, and crisis management across the enterprise

• Plan Development: builds, maintains, and executes BCM content that produces consistent, repeatable BCM processes that can be applied across the enterprise on a recurring basis.

• Automation: PACEmaker and Protiviti-designed plan templates support effective plan development and maintenance (eg, personnel information, recovery resources)

Who we are Protiviti is a leading provider of independent internal audit and business and technology risk consulting services. We help clients identify, measure and manage operational and technology-related risks they face within their business processes and throughout their systems and processes. We offer a full spectrum of internal audit services, technologies and business risk management. Protiviti's professionals have extensive experience in a broad range of industries, including media, hospitality and communications, consumer products and retail, energy, financial services and real estate, healthcare and life sciences, government, education and not-for-profit, and manufacturing, distribution and technology. We help our clients seize new opportunities for growth and work with them to identify and manage their business risks. To learn more about our BCM lifecycle and how it can meet your needs contact: Kathleen McGrorty Director 213.327.1327 [e-mail] Protiviti is not registered or licensed as a public accounting firm and does not issue opinions on financial statements or offer attestation services.