Large scale BCM Software deployment

Introduction

The implementation of large scale Business Continuity Management (BCM) software projects is fundamentally different than with smaller installations. This article explores why these programs often fall short of their objectives. After reviewing senior management needs, three basic principles are defined to ensure effective deployment and project success.

• Design should allow for central views and controls, while allowing decentralized planning, localization and integration of live sources of data.
• Deployment methods should avoid dangerous "Big Bang" project risks, instead of planning for incremental production use as needed across the organization.
• For multi-nationals, service from vendors should be 24X7 globally, with software support for any language, currency, time zone and date convention.

We believe that large scale, even global deployments of BC software can be managed with much less risk and deliver more capabilities by insisting on these three basic principles.

Enterprise Needs

There was a time when a departmental approach to BC planning might have made sense, especially when recovery planning was IT-centric and enterprise risk was not such a hot topic. Potential disasters at one point of the operations probably wouldn't affect operations in others.

Times are changing. BC is rapidly becoming redefined as Operational Risk Mitigation, supervised by the new C-level Chief Risk Officer (CRO) in many large organizations. This position has the authority and recognition to manage all aspects of Governance, Risk and Compliance for the enterprise. A large majority of large companies have now established a formal enterprise risk management office with a CRO in charge^[1]. In many organizations, the CRO now has control of BCM. He needs to be empowered with effective software.

Software Design

Traditional Systems – Older enterprise software products centralize configuration settings in an effort to maintain consistency, continuity, and ease of use of the product. Unfortunately, this means organizations involved in large deployments across multiple regions and business units also need to centralize decision-making, a choice often too difficult for companies with decentralized operations.

Next-Generation Systems – Software design can now allow for a combination of centralized and decentralized controls. This allows maximum flexibility while still enforcing organizational standards. Standardizing basic options at the corporate level is important. So, too, is the ability to support needed variations at the region or line-of-business level. Sub-administrators can manage changes only needed by their users, while still allowing core data to be captured for roll up top-level reporting.

Localization – Beyond the need to capture different data elements at different areas of an organization, large enterprise software deployments face even greater hurdles. Language issues are the most prevalent. A complete software package should be able to display the interface in the local language, based on the region a user is accessing.

Integration – Every business has systems and databases specific to their own processes and needs. Data from these systems can be fed into the top level of a planning system to allow for automated updates to all plans. Automating maintenance is the single most significant cost savings for BC programs. This could include systems of record like HR databases for employee and contractor information, accounts payable databases for vendor information, accounts receivable records for customer lists, and real estate databases for location information.

Deployment Strategy

Old Problems – Traditionally, IT enterprise systems were deployed using a "Big Bang" methodology, a direction that required a high degree of certainty at all stages of development  However, many events now cause rapid change - geo-political, regulatory, and economical, among others - requiring quick adaptability to meet today's needs. Numerous analysts cite the high rate of failure of IT projects. For example, Forrester has stated that poorly defined applications have led to persistent miscommunication between business and IT, contributing to a 66% project failure rate for these applications and costing U.S. businesses at least $30 billion every year.

New Solutions for BCM Projects – In part due to the pattern of repeated Big Bang project failures, new approaches and methodologies have evolved to solve today's IT enterprise system implementation challenges. Today's global system implementation requirements include:

• Earlier initial release of high priority functionality.
• Better measurement and visibility of progress and risk.
• Flexibility for mid-course corrections.
• Early key wins to keep project stakeholders on-board.
• Global design with flexibility for self-provisioning regional differences.

Adopting this approach with a manageable environment before a wider scale deployment can have the following benefits:

• Proving out the design assumptions and decisions early, including scalability, data sets, and standard templates.
• Providing faster continuous feedback to focus strategic and tactical directions.

Other parts of the enterprise can start by using the resulting proven best practices and standard designs from the initial work, while still being able to add their own needed variables. These can include special data needs, reports, languages, time zones, date conventions, and currencies.

In today's environment with constrained resources, decreasing project risk for large IT systems is paramount. The old "Big Bang" approach is no longer effective. Newer, proven, Agile methodologies are proving to be successful, giving stakeholders the results, necessary confidence and return on investment.

Support Requirements

Vendor service is crucial to the long-run success of a BCM deployment, with five key components necessary for geographically disbursed clients.

• Service Level Needs by Severity
• Vendor Owned Offices
• Strategic Partners
• Local Distributors
• Automated CRM

The scope of this paper does not allow a complete review of support. For more details, click to the Resource/Content section of COOP Systems web site.

Summary

The problems of large BC projects can be addressed with the right set of design principles, deployment strategy, and product support. Design should allow for decentralized planning while maintaining central views and controls, as well as managing localization and live data integration. Deployment should avoid big-bang delivery. Support should be available 24X7 globally, in any language, currency, time zone and date convention. Again, we believe that large scale BC software projects can be managed with much less risk and more capabilities by insisting on these three basic principles.

Reference:

[1] Forrester Research "Trends 2005: Risk and Compliance Management," Michael Rasmussen, October 25, 2004.