Biz continuity mgt going strong in India

BANGALORE: NASSCOM, the apex industry association for software and services companies in association with KPMG conducted a preliminary survey to assess Business Continuity Management (BCM) preparedness of the Indian software and service sector.

The sample size of 70 corporates represented players from the information technology services (ITS) and IT enabled services (ITeS) industry segments, with 77 per cent of the respondents belonging to the ITS sector, 13 per cent to ITeS sector and 10 per cent were operating in both the sectors. The key aspects covered in the survey are: level of business dependence on IT and an awareness of the need for business continuity; understanding of BCM within the organization; business disruption experiences; organizational support for business continuity initiatives and current policies, procedures and mechanisms to ensure continuity of business.

Commenting on the findings of the preliminary survey, Mr. Sanjay Dhawan, Executive Director, KPMG said, "The objective of this study was to determine the extent to which an increased understanding for the need for BCM has led to tangible improvements in the BCM preparedness of the ITS and ITeS industries in India". He further emphasized, "A well-designed BCM initiative can help an organisation compete effectively and resume normal operations in the event of a disaster. In the absence of such a plan, the organisation could face long-term losses in revenue and lose customer confidence".

Mr. Kiran Karnik, President, NASSCOM said, "With increasing reliance on enterprise-wide applications and IT infrastructure, organizations cannot afford prolonged downtimes and/ or inflexible processes. The ability of business to recover from a disaster and minimize losses depends on its state of preparedness in dealing with business interruptions and restoring operations. Thus high availability, faster recovery and effective crisis management are essential for businesses. The survey will help the ITS and ITeS industry segments understand their level of preparedness and further streamline their BCM plans".

Business Continuity Management (BCM) is an enterprise-wide risk based approach to develop proactive measures for ensuring continuing availability of business support systems and mitigate disruption risks. BCM helps maximize the availability, reliability and recoverability of business systems through effective management of people, processes and technology.

The report suggests that the government can play a significant role towards BCM preparedness of the industry by providing basic infrastructure like telecommunication, transportation, power and roads and by redefining IT related legislation and regulations to match the current economic scenario.