Making the Most of the BIA

The Business Impact Analysis (BIA) is a very critical part of the development of a Business Continuity Program (BCP) for any size company, but many companies either do not conduct a BIA or conduct an incomplete analysis.

The complete BIA process is a long time consuming and potential expensive project. There are the wages and time of the experts within each department that have to answer the BIA questionnaire and/or attend the consultant’s BIA workshops, if a consultant is used. The consultant’s fees can become an obstacle for some companies as a BIA may take many months to complete. After the data has been collected, it must be analyzed and recommendations made that will guide the company forward in the development of the BCP.

Once the BCP initiated, what do you do in the following years with the data collected from the BIA?

This is valuable information to the company and the BIA should be updated on a regular basis. In a report “Making the Most of the BIA”, by James R. Mitchell form eBRP Solutions Inc. (located at http://www.continuitycentral.com/feature0528.htm ), he gives some ideas on how to continue and update the BIA to ensure that you are protecting the critical business functions within your company.