survey on the financial crisis effect on business continuity a year later

8/14/2019 SURVEY ON THE FINANCIAL CRISIS EFFECT ON BUSINESS CONTINUITY a year later.

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Copyright BCCManagement and BusinessContinuityIndex.com - B 2010 Page | 1SURVEY ON FINANCIAL CRISIS EFFECTON BUSINESS CONTINUITY a year later

SURVEY ON F

SURVEY ON THE

FINANCIAL CRISIS EFFECT

ON BUSINESS CONTINUITY a year later.

February 2010


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Foreword

We are pleased to present the results of the Financial Crisis Effect on Business Continuity survey

conducted by Business Continuity Consultancy & Management (B.C.C.Management) North America

and Midlle East with the support of BusinessContinuityindex.com.

The survey was designed to identify and highlight the financial effect of the financial crisis on the

Business Continuity sector.

From March 2009 to December 2009, BCC Management and Business Continuity Index were engaged

to survey small, mid-sized and big-sized businesses internationally about the effect of the financial

crisis on their business continuity plans.

The survey seeked to understand how companies addressed and faced the financial crisis reflecting

their abilities and readiness to resume business as usual after potential disturbances caused by this

crisis.

Over 335 respondents participated in the online survey from all four parts of the Globe, encompassing

a cross section of industries and company sizes. The questionnaire was posted on our partners

QuestionPro website secured with SSL encryption. Participation was hunted through targeted e-mail,

invitations, professional groups, WCDM for business owners, executives, managers and directors

gauging their perceptions and views on issues related to the financial crisis and business continuity.

The overall results of the survey are positive, showing that most firms have not been greatly affected by

the financial crisis when it comes to the Business Continuity sector. The Majority of businesses budgets

were not affected in fact, new trends and endeavors such as remote conferencing and virtualization,

were reutilized even more.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who participated in the survey and provided

their feedback.


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Executive Summary

Business Continuity Management (BCM) is a holistic management process that identifies potentialimpacts that threaten an organization and provides a framework for building resilience and thecapability for an effective response that safeguards the interests of its key stakeholders, reputation,

brand and value creating activities.

BCM aims to improve an organizations resilience. By identifying, in advance, the potential impacts ofa wide variety of sudden disruptions to the organizations ability to succeed it is able to prioritize theefforts of various other specialists aiming to achieve resilience in their areas of expertise such assecurity, facilities and IT.

The financial crisis of 2008present is a global financial crisis triggered by a liquidity shortfall in theUnited States banking system. It has resulted in the collapse of large financial institutions, the "bailout" of banks by national governments and downturns in stock markets around the world. It isconsidered by many economists to be the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the1930s. It contributed to the failure of key businesses, declines in consumer wealth estimated in thetrillions of U.S. dollars, substantial financial commitments incurred by governments, and a significantdecline in economic activity.

What started out as a Global Financial Crisis has now turned into a Global Economic Crisis.Whereas last year the crisis was all about access to funds and liquidity, the next phaseof the crisis will be all about withstanding the slowdown in economic activity.

The survey was undertaken from the different four regions of the world, the responders weredistributed as follows;

- 30% from Asia,- 26% from North America,- 18% from Europe,- 16% from Middle East- 6% from Africa.

- 4% from Australia


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Key Findings

This chapter presents the quantitative findings of the survey conducted throughout the period March December 2009 by the BCC Management with the support of BusinessContinuityIndex.com.

In the Business sectors, the survey showed that most responders (26%) are from banking sector

followed closely by I.T service sector (23%) then Insurance (22%) and Government (9%).

In the BCM responsibility, (24%) of Business Continuity responsibility resides with I.T Security

followed by (20%) CIOs or IT Managers, then (14%) Board of Directors and (13%) Risk Management.


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Majority of responders, (70%) answered that there is a big relationship between financial crisis and

Business Continuity; this shows that there is a direct link, and that Business Continuity is highly

dependent on the financial aspect of the organization.

When asked about the threat of the financial crisis on the I.T Security, (65%) responded that the

financial crisis does cause a threat on the I.T security, and (35%) said there is no threat to I.TSecurity from the financial crisis.

What we have seen here is that, (84%) of the responders agree that insurance companies should

force Business continuity practice on insured organizations.

There will be a new shift in the insurance sector once things are stabilized, to include/force Business

Continuity Management (BCM) as part of the deal to insure the Business.


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The survey showed that (65%) only reduced their budget by only a small margin, and Business

Continuity Management continues to operate on a normal scale. (35%) had a drastic change in

budget, mostly noticebale in North America.

(52%) responded that the Business Continuity Management has two dedicated employees,

and (41%) have less than ten dedicated employees.

When asked about the I.T Budget for 2009, (76%) responded that no significant reduction had been

done on the I.T budget and (23%) responded that they had up to 40% reduction on their I.T budget.


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Seeking the opinion, if there will be a change in the future in the practice and standards of BCM,

(86%) responded that there will be no change/minor change, whereas (14%) believes that there will

be a drastic change.

Regarding the potential cuts on travel expenses, (85%) of the responses showed that there is a

no/minor change and (15%) responded that a 30% cut and up occurred on the travel expenses.

In 2009, many companies started to look into virtualization from different perspectives:

1- High availability2- Return on investment ROI /Cost saving, an impressive (50%) responded yes for venturing intoVirtualization solution. Whereas, only (16%) claimed already having the solution implemented.


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Also a new trend in Remote conferencing is seeing more light. 53 % of the responders are investing in

remote conferencing and 23% are currently evaluating the technology and only 19 % are not investing

in the technology. For example it can be seen that the percentage of SKYPE customers has risen

73% from Q1-2008 to Q3-2009; from 300 million to 521 million customers.

There is one thing

stronger than all the

armies in the world: and

that is an idea

whose time has come.

-Victor Hugo


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Some of the respondents comments on the survey:

"I have seen a large number of layoffs of BC staff in both the financial and insurance industries in the NYC area.

Cannot speak for the rest of the country. The BC consulting market is nearly flat, with lots of folks contending for

few assignments. This is anecdotally true in the US and outside of the US, with a few brighter spots. I have not

seen any surveys or statistical analysis, but the number of jobs being offered in the US is certainly way down on

the usual job sites, and the number of candidates is much higher than usual, according to the placement people

that I know. It may be that we need to become "transformers." K .L, FBCI

"Companies are operating more leanly and experience high turnover organizational resiliency is reduced, thus

BC planning becomes even more important. It is important to stress that a lot of planning can be done for little or

no cost such as making sure desk procedures are in place for all time-sensitive processes before personnel

cuts are made." P.J

"Operational costs and resources are being squeezed everywhere and BCM is no different in that respect. Will

this amount to a degradation of the services we supply? I am sure in a lot of cases this will be true, however as

with most recessions (admittedly not many of us have seen one this severe) the slack is usually picked up by

the remaining resources and as usual this means longer working hours; etc. It does also offer an opportunity to

evaluate your own delivery processes. Can you deliver this smarter? "C.J

"Those who have a BCP are planning to continue to have a BCP but are looking at ways to reduce the cost. We

have noticed two particular trends; a) outsourcing of the infrastructure (h/w and space) to third parties and b) a

move to virtualization. The move to virtualization facilitates both a reduction in capital required and a faster

RTO. Those who don't have a BCP and who feel vulnerable, perhaps because they are one of several

"subsidiaries" under review, are considering implementing a BCP so that a disaster (large or small) does not

push them over the edge ."G.J

"I see no problems this moment and for the next 10 months. This crisis was set by the market crisis of

confidence, therefore, controls risk and business continuity plans are essential to guarantee the rights of

shareholders, investors and customers. Companies increasingly will be charged by ratings therefore take

control as the Information Security and comprise BCPs minimum Risk Management Strategy."

J.D, CBCP

2009 is a year of exceptions, hopefully 2010 will be a better year and we can continue to promote the BusinessContinuity and push more forward to be implemented in all organization R.S AMBCI


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Copyright BCCManagement and BusinessContinuityIndex.com - B 2010 Page | 10SURVEY ON FINANCIAL CRISIS EFFECT

About BCCManagement:

Business Continuity Consultancy & Management (BCCManagement) has been in business since

2006, we specialize mainly in Business Continuity Planning and Management, IT Disaster Recovery

Planning, strategic review of conceptual plans and IT security.

Website: www.BCCManagement.com

Email: [email protected]

Tel: 1-800 961 7592

About BUSINESSCONTINUITYINDEX.COM:

An Online Business Continuity directory.

Website: www.BusinessContinuityIndex.com

Email: [email protected]

Survey Reviewed By:

Redmond Worldwide, Inc. develops full contingency plans for organizations that will help

them to mitigate risks and to plan for recovery from even a major disaster.

We assist clients by providing a plan that meets best practices methods that have been

demonstrated to be highly effective.

We also offer training and education through seminars, teleconferences, webinars

and our Audio CD Learn While You Commute Series.

Website: www.redmondworldwide.com

Tel: 1-917 884 - 5453

Copyright BCCManagementBusinesscontinuityindex.com

First published 2010BCCManagement

Canada

No part of this publication may be reproduced, or copiedin any form or by any means without prior permission

of the publisher.

[email protected] all rights reserved

The information contained in this survey is based on replies to an online questionnaire.

Our efforts has been made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this document.

BCCManagement and BusinessContinuityIndex.com cannot accept any liability for errors or omissions however caused.
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