Are Enterprise Business Continuity Plans “REDI” for the Next Disruption

With millions of people infected and billions confined to their homes, the COVID-19 pandemic turned out to be a global crisis of historic proportions. No business had anticipated or planned for the scope, breadth, and pace of disruption associated with such a crisis. It pushed organizational BCP programs to their limits and highlighted inefficiencies in the traditional risk mitigation approach. While virtually all organizations experienced some sort of disruption in operational continuity, companies that had invested significantly to digitally transform their operations in prior years were able to manage this disruption better than others, mitigating continuity risks more quickly. Technologies such as automation and analytics not only helped improve process efficiency but were instrumental in a smooth transition to remote service delivery models and ensured workforce productivity during this crisis.

In this viewpoint, we explore how organizations can leverage technology to reassess and redefine their existing BCP strategies using a methodological approach to better mitigate future Business Process Services (BPS) continuity risks associated with global disruptions such as COVID-19. The viewpoint also introduces the Risk Evaluation and Digital Intervention (REDI) framework that can be leveraged to assess BPS functions’/segments’ vulnerability to disruptions and the impact that digital levers can have on enhancing BCP program resilience.