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Neha Kapoor

MUMBAI, July 29

AFTER 9/11, and more recently, the border tensions between India and Pakistan, business continuity plans (BCP) and disaster recovery plans (DCP) seem to have become the buzzwords in Indian industry.

A recent survey conducted by KPMG reveals that most Indian companies remain inadequately prepared to face any major business disruption. According to the `Survey on BCM Preparedness of Indian Industry', almost 79 per cent of respondent organisations did not have a documented and test business continuity management (BCM) plan.

And, of the respondents having BCM plans, 65 per cent have never tested their plans. It adds that, though 78 per cent of respondent organisations were highly dependent on IT for their business, 64 per cent of these companies do not have a corporate wide BCM plan in place to address business disruption.

``In the past there has been minimal interest in BCM. However, India is now a global player and global businesses are not interested in getting into a customer relationship unless these are prepared for a disaster. Also, global businesses having a lurking fear of a war break-out in India, need increasing reassurance with regards to the continuity and availability of its business associations in India,'' said Mr Sanjay Dhawan, Executive Director, Information Risk Management, KPMG.

For the survey, respondents have been segregated into sectors such as - information, communication and entertainment (ICE), banking and finance (B&F) consumer and industrial markets (CIM) and infrastructure and government (I&G).

And, of these, the ICE sector's dependence on IT was highest at 92 per cent, followed by B&F at 78 per cent, CIM at 67 per cent and I&G at 57 per cent.

Forty-four per cent of respondents have faced some form of disaster in the past two years though 75 per claimed that they were able to recover within the maximum permissible downtime during these disasters, 91 per cent of these had not actually estimated the maximum permissible downtime for various processes.

Also, 21 per cent of the organisations store entire data backups at on site locations only. And, 64 per cent of the organisations have not envisaged any kind of alternative facility to ensure continuity of business in case of a major disaster.

According to Mr Dhawan, BCM needs to be seen as a strategic part of business for Indian companies. ``Even after 9/11, international companies (aspiring to do business with India) would enquire about business continuity plans as part of their business assessment exercise, but they usually never got down to checking it out themselves,'' he added.

``However, in the last three months they have escalated that further and seek independent third party assessment of the company's business continuity plans. Thus BCM has become a strategic imperative for the Indian corporates wanting to do business in the global arena,'' he said.

Even so, when asked to list the drivers for BCM initiatives, 40 per cent of the respondents listed corporate and regulatory compliance issues as the prime drivers while 39 per cent described BCM as a critical business need, essential for survival.

``A BCM initiative is like the country's defence forces, you can not start building up the army when the enemy attacks, you need to be prepared at all times,'' Mr Dhawan said.

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