In today’s business world, your clients expect always-on services and support. This challenge is only exacerbated by the growing risks that accompany complex hybrid IT environments, increasing regulations and cyberthreats. How do you handle this expectation? Now is the time to act, to elevate the discussion around business continuity management (BCM) and to improve executive support of the initiative. It’s time to reinvent the process from the top down. Business Continuity Awareness Week Luckily, Business Continuity Awareness Week kicks off May 15–19, sponsored by the Business Continuity Institute. The week is an annual, worldwide event focused on raising awareness around resiliency and disaster recovery. It will highlight how a strong, integrated continuity strategy can positively affect every business’s bottom line. With BCM, you can improve your company’s resiliency and reliability. BCM is much more than crisis management. This comprehensive program empowers companies to react quickly and effectively when faced with unplanned interruptions by anticipating and mitigating the impacts on revenue loss, reputation, compliance and expense management. Simply having a risk-resilient design with solid crisis response capabilities is no longer enough in today’s global operating environment. The best-prepared companies are arming themselves with a complete, validated and coordinated BCM process that covers the full crisis life cycle — from emergency response to crisis management and recovery. The impact of technology failure can be catastrophic and even life-threatening in some industries. By integrating analytical and cognitive capabilities, companies can improve resiliency. Moving from reactive responses to predictive, proactive alternatives makes it possible to avoid disasters before they occur. Comprehensive Assessments Foster Success Communication between continuity and the business itself is often limited. Thus, many business leaders don’t fully understand the direct link between key business processes and the applications and data that support them. Executives are often unaware that achieving high-level business goals depends on continuous IT operations. A comprehensive assessment of an organization’s current BCM posture can help link continuity and business risks. This comprehensive assessment engenders corporate support for improved BCM and aids business continuity operations by eliminating resiliency gaps, costly redundancies and overlaps in areas of responsibility. The drive to implement a competitive business strategy while reducing risks is a constant balancing act for organizations in every industry and of every size. Evolving your BCM program to keep up with strategic changes requires a proactive, business-centric approach that makes organizational requirements and priorities central to your success. Topics: Business Continuity, Disaster Recovery, Resiliency