Chennai Floods: Spotlight On Business Continuity

In the last few years there have been many instances of incessant rains leading to floods in many countries across the world. There have been floods in Europe which have impacted major countries like Germany, France, UK, Austria and Switzerland. India too has borne the brunt of such floods due to unprecedented rainfall. In July 2005, business activities financial capital Mumbai were badly derailed in what was then the most relentless spell of rains to hit the city leading to flooding in many areas. The recent floods in Chennai caused due to almost 17 days of continuous rains, has brought back memories of a city brought to its knees by the rain gods.

Due to heavy rains and massive flooding in Chennai and catchment areas there has been a major impact on life at large in the city. A city which prides itself being one of the IT hubs and a major automobile manufacturing centre has seen business operations coming to a grinding halt during this period. Due to water logging in many parts of the city, traffic movement was severely impacted. The city airport was also shut down travel to and from the city. Operations were suspended in some of the IT majors based out in the city and production facilities were also impacted at majority of the automobile manufacturing units in the city. Some news reports estimate the financial loss in Chennai and Tamil Naidu to be in excess of 15,000 crores.

Due to the omnipresent threat of such calamities which impact business operations, it is now imperative for organisations to consider, plan and establish business continuity and disaster recovery capabilities which help in overcoming such adversities. While some organisations may already have such plans in place others may have some way to go to implement business continuity planning and disaster recovery (BCP & DR) capabilities.

The key objectives behind establishing BCP and DR capabilities are to ensure employee safety, minimize impact on operations and recovery of mission critical services within defined timeframes. The impact of an event like flood can be minimized by taking some pre-emptive measures which help in establishing controls that reduce the impact of environmental threats like flood. These controls should be based on a well-defined and extensive threat assessment exercise which considers the geographical location of a facility, prevailing environmental conditions and other external factors to identify likely threats which may impact business operations and employee safety. An organisation should then identify, implement, monitor and improve controls to mitigate the risks arising from such threats for example to minimize impact from flooding and water logging like scenario, an organisation should avoid placing generators, battery banks or other electrical equipment in basement of buildings, for facilities located in flood prone regions, backflow valves or plugs should be installed to prevent floodwaters from entering into drains and other sewer connections, etc.

Employee safety and well-being can be achieved by preparing a site emergency/crisis management plan which covers evacuation procedures, contact details of emergency response authorities and defines the responsibilities for personnel in the event of an incident. Such plans help in providing emergency action guidelines by listing down critical steps that have to be carried in different scenarios (e.g. turning off all electrical supply during flooding of premises, arranging for transport in the event of public transportation disruption, etc.) and warrant that nothing is left to chance at the time of crisis like situation. Some innovative and effective methods like use of social media sites can also be utilised in such plans to reach out to public authorities and seek help if the need arises. Another advantage of such plans is that by clearly listing down required steps, dependency on specific individuals is reduced and panic like situation is avoided at the time of crisis by aiding in instant decision making.

After ensuring safety of personnel, an organisation has to focus on recovering its operations by resuming critical services. Depending on the needs of an organisation, business continuity plans can be developed to augment recovery of services at a location, for a specific client, for a specific department or function, for a service or product, etc.

Business continuity plans for key processes and disaster recovery capabilities of key IT applications help in recovering mission critical services. Such plans lay down the steps to be followed to recover a critical process and also assign responsibilities to identified personnel. Wherever feasible it is important considering and including measures like work from home option for employees which does away with the need of being physically present in office. Such measures reduce dependency on public transport and also ensure that employees can take care of their families and also contribute in recovery of services of their employer. Other measures include resuming of services from alternate locations by utilising employee bench strength and skills or by using additional production capabilities at other facilities.

In spite of all the efforts put in by an organisation, all business continuity plans may prove to be worthless if they are not tested periodically. It is always useful to have a business continuity exercising calendar which mandates regular testing of business continuity plans for people, processes and IT infrastructure. Such exercising and testing activities can be helpful in practical implementation of business continuity plans by assessing effectiveness of these plans in recovering services and by ensuring involvement of key teams and personnel. Testing business continuity plans can also be helpful in justifying time, effort and cost spent in building them.