Module 5

IT BPO1

I. Title of the Module Chapter VI: Business Continuity Management

II. Introduction

This chapter deals with discussions on the critical process of Business Continuity management, steps,
engagement and management method wherein ensures your company maintains normal business
operations during a disaster with minimal disruption.

BCM works on the principle that good response systems mitigate damages from theoretical events.

III. Learning Outcome by the end of this chapter the students are expected to:

1. Define continuity management

2. Enumerate and discuss the Six (6) steps of continuity management
3. Explain what an interruption event is
4. Enumerate and discuss the “tell tale” signs of a critical situation
5. Describe the critical situation management method
6. Enumerate the eight (8) disciplines of the 8D Approach

IV. Learning Content

The challenge to business continuity management is to plan for seemingly “uncontrollable”

circumstances so as to provide for consistent excellent service.

Therefore, the goal of continuity is maintaining the uninterrupted availability of all key business
resources required to support essential business activities.

 Goal of Business Continuity Management is most evident in the following:

 Uninterrupted Availability- continued operations
 Key business resources – ensuring business capability
 Essential Business Activities – Key business goals
 Business Continuity Management Interruption Events
 Each process has a period within which interruptions will not affect achievement of key
business goal
 Beyond that period, business goal will be impacted – and interruptions becomes
extraordinary
 Business Interruptions event is triggered when the interruptions on a key business
process exceeds the maximum allowable time
 Business Continuity Management Triggering Event
1. Extraordinary Event
 Beyond normal downtimes of equipment or input process errors
2. High impact
 Resulting in risk of significant loss
 ANAO uses the term “outage”
 In this course, we use risk and risk event interchangeably with “business
interruption event”
 Business Continuity Management reduce Probability of occurrence
 Develop to prevent risk occurring
 If within the control of the organization
 If cost effective
 Shifting of factory to an underground bunker to protect from tornado damage
may be cost prohibitive
 Reduce likelihood of the risk if prevention is impossible or not cost effective
 Extensive smoke alarms to catch possible fire starts
 Good quality circuit breakers, periodic inspection and replacement, use of
standard wires/tapes reduce of electrical fire
 Multiple generator sets reduce risk of interruption from power failure

IV.1 Business Continuity Management Process Steps

1. Initiate Project
 Document Objectives, scope, boundaries
 Establish management committee
 Establish budget and timetable
2. Identify Key Business Processes
 Identify key business objectives
 Identify key business processes
 Align with business processes with key outputs
 Understand key activities, resources and inter dependencies
3. Undertake Business Impact Analysis
 Identify key personnel
 Schedule and conduct interviews
 Document concerns, priorities and expectations
 Determine Maximum Acceptable Outage for each process
4. Design Continuity Treatments
 Review existing controls
 Identify and evaluate options
 Select alternative activities and resources
 Implements treatments
5. Implements Continuity treatments
 Formulate measures to mitigate adverse effect shorten interruption, if risk occurs
 Planning for redundant resources, alternative process
6. Test and Maintain Plan
 Paper test
 Manual verification
 Supply Validation
 Supply, Service and equipment availability
  Structured walkthrough
 Unannounced team assembly

IV.2. Critical Situations in the IT-BPM Industry

Critical situation (Critsit) in the IT-BPM is when your ability to render consistent excellent services
has been compromised

An organizational state where symptoms of service quality and operations management

degradation is becoming apparent in the delivery of services.

Critical Situations in the IT-BPM industry: Symptoms

“Tale Tale” Sign of a CritSit:

1. Prolonged period of non-achievement of key SLA’s or Contractual Obligations.

2. Business Controls and/or Financial posture of a contract /account is assessed as high risk.
3. Lingering IT infrastructure issues causing problems in operations, e.g delay in processing of
clients’ payroll.
4. Data Privacy Incidents/Fraudulent activities involving client’s information are recurring in
the workplace.
5. Customer satisfaction ratings is on a downward trend, Customer escalation is spiraling
upwards.
6. Increase in cost (additional resources )

Entering a CritSit:

 A state of being on the verge of a crisis or emergency that if not addressed could lead to
an elevated risk level
 A CritSit is no ordinary exercise and it should only be declared once a defined set of
criteria has been determined by the senior management.

Declaring a CritSit:

The CritSit should be jointly declared by the following

 Delivery Center Leader or General Manager

 Competency Leader or Delivery Process Leader
 Delivery Center or Competency/Process Quality Leader

SITUATION 1

Situation: Heavy Flooding caused by the Habagat phenomenon in August 2012

Situation in the IT-BPM : Massive absenteeism as employees were not able to leave their houses due to
the heavy flooding

Impact to Business:

 Non-attainment of SLA(service level agreement) due to lack of agents to take the calls or do the
work.
  Long call queues as only a handful of agents taking the calls
 Other centers/countries who are receiver of Manila work output cannot do the next processes
as work is delayed from Manila end,

Mitigating Actions done by the IT-BPM:

 Declared an emergency situation for Manila and asked for assistance/support from other
centers located in India, China, Singapore and other centers in Asia
 Requested employees who are already in the center to render overtime work to cover for
agents who are absent
 Employees who can work from home (with technical connectivity) were asked to work from
home
 Team Leaders, all management and support teams who can do actual operations work, were
asked to do operations work
 Shuttle service provided to ferry employees from house to work and vice versa (where passable)
 Reimbursement of transportation expense

Support provided to Employees who were at the Center:

 Free food
 Provided pillows, blankets provided for employees especially those working for extended days
 Provided clothes (t-shirts) and toiletries
 Shuttle service
 Higher premium pay and extra off days

Over-all Support to Employees Heavily Affected by Habagat:

 Financial assistance for those whose houses, personal properties were damaged
 Paid absences
 Counseling for those who were emotionally affected
 Fund drives organized by the employees as well assistance from other centers/affiliate
companies to support affected employees

Support to the Community:

 Fund drives organized by the employees as well assistance from other centers/affiliate
companies to support communities is affected areas
 Amount from the fund drive doubled by the company or a certain amount donated by the
company
 Support in kind also provided especially in evacuation centers

SITUATION 2:

Situation: Metro manila Blackout and to compound the situation building generator is broken/not
functioning due to mechanical trouble

Situation in the IT-BPM: No power means downtime as there is no technology support (no computers),
no light and no air-conditioning
Impact to Business:

 Non-attainment of SLA(Service level agreement) as employees cannot work due to the lack of
power.
 Long call queues
 Other centers/countries who are receiver of Manila work output cannot do the next process as
work is delayed from Manila end

Mitigating Actions done by the IT-BPM:

 Declared as emergency situation for Manila as asked for assistance/ support from other center
located in India, China, Singapore and other centers in Asia
 Required employees to go down the building using the fire exit stairs and wait for the
instructions as to when work will resume
 Employees who can work from home (Places where there is power and with technical capability
and connectivity) were requested to work from home

Disaster Recovery Plan/Business Continuity plan to minimize risk in the future:

 Meeting with building admin to review situation (What went wrong) and identify Action Plans
to increase prepared in the future
 Schedule monthly meeting with building Admin to ensure actions are being done as per agreed
timeliness
 Monthly/quarterly audit/testing to ensure generator and other power systems/ tools are in
good condition

SITUATION 3

Situation in the IT-BPM: High Absenteeism due to widespread influenza and colds

Impact to Business:

 Delay in response time as there is not enough agents to take calls

 Long call queues
 Turn Around Time of work/calls is longer than required time as there is not enough
agents/employees to do the volume of work
 Other centers/countries who are receiver of Manila work output cannot do the next process as
work is delayed from Manila end

Mitigating Actions done by the IT-BPM:

 Required employees to work overtime (work extension and work on day-off) to cover for
colleagues who are absent
 Request for vacation leaves are revoked
 Employees who can work from home (place where there is power and with technical
connectivity) were asked to work from home
Disaster Recovery Plan/Business Continuity Plan to minimize risk in the future:

 Review workforce planning to ensure FTE allocation in case of high absenteeism

 Multi-Skilling of agents to allow for flexibility to transfer agents from 1 program to another in
case of high absenteeism in certain accounts/ programs
 Develop health programs to educate employees on how to live healthy and avoid illness

Example: First Call Resolution (FCR) which is Key Service Level Measure in a Call Center operation with a
target of 85% is consistently missed for three months. Should management call for a Critsit?

SUMMARY

 A state of being on the verge of a crisis or emergency that if not addressed could lead to an
elevated risk level
 A Critsit is no ordinary exercise and it should only be declared once a defined set of criteria has
been determined by the senior management.
 A Critsit should be declared for the following reasons:
- non-achievement of the Service Level Agreement(SLA);
- non-implied client dissatisfaction; and ,
- penalty paid for every month of SLA miss.
IV.3. CRITICAL SITUATION MANAGEMENT METHOD

A simple and straight-forward manner to manage a critical situation is presented below:

PREPARE

 Identify the project manager or Team Leader of the Critsit team. A good option to lead this
team is either a certified Project Manager of 6 Sigma Black Belt.
 Identify the team members of the Critsit and assemble the team.
 Identify the stakeholders/governance board of the Crisit process
 Ensure all administrative requisites of the Critsit are ready, e.g. meeting schedules
 Established a dedicated “war room” that will be used by the Crisit team.

ASSESS

 Develop glide-paths for improvement on key metrics that will be monitored for the duration
of the Critsit.
 Define and communicate to Critsit team members the entry and exit criteria of the Critsit.
  Conduct an in-depth analysis of the problems by scrutinizing thoroughly historical
data/measurs of the problem(s).
 Use root cause analysis methods such as the fishbone diagram, why-why analysis or 8D
problem solving techniques

DEVELOP RECOVERY PLAN

 Prioritize the problems and /or root causes as a result of the assessment.
 Brainstorm with the team and develop detailed action plans to address the problems and/or
root causes.
 Assign individuals/teams to implement solutions as defined in the over-all action plan. Make
sure that each action step has defined timeliness in synch with the target exit from Critsit.
 Ensure that there will be consistent executive status presentation and regular core team
project review schedule.

GAIN COMMITMENT

 Get clients’ buy-in and/or vote of confidence on the recovery plan if they are aware of the
Critsit in their contract /account
 Be sure that all stakeholders and team members involved in the process have signed-off on
the following:
- over-all recovery plan
- Assignments and timeliness
- Resource allocation / requirement
- Cost associated with the recovery plan

EXECUTE THE PLAN

 Execute a pilot or go for a full-implementation of the recovery plan.
 Conduct frequent checkpoints and tollgates per the established metrics glide path.
 Document the changes in the process as it gets implemented and standardize accordingly.
 Establish regular stakeholders and customer feedback sessions during the implementation of
the recovery plan.

CLOSE THE RECOVERY

 Present to the stakeholders and client the improvement of the metrics per the glide path
 Get the sign-off the stakeholders and client to approve the exit from Critsit and return to
business as usual mode.
 After implementation of the action plans and full recovery from Critsit, conduct an evaluation
of lessons learned and collate this for future reference.
 Ensure to develop next steps that will prevent the Critsit from happening again. This could be
done by conducting another round of brainstorming session.
 Celebrate with the team
IV.4. THE 8D APPROACH – PROBLEM SOLVING/ISSUE RESOLUTION

The Eight Disciplines of 8Ds is a ford Motor Company method to resolve when the cause of the problem
is unknown

The 8D is at one time three different things that work together, these are:

- A problem-solving process
- A standard
- A reporting format

THE 8D APPROACH

DISCIPLINE 0 – BECOME AWARE OF THE PROBLEM

 Understand the complaint of customer or the problem raised

 A Problem is the gap between “what is “ or current results and “what should be” or
desired/promised results
 Clarify if the concern is not clear

DISCIPLINE 1 – USE TEAM APPROACH

 Establish a small group of people with the process/product knowledge, allocated time,
authority, and skill in the required technical disciplines to solve the problem and
implement corrective actions.
 The group must have a designated champion – team leader, for command responsibility
purposes.
- Champion/Team Leader
 Set the stage and ensures that the team activities are in the right
direction
 Assist the team and provides leadership when required
 Has ownership; support the final decision, and has the authority to
implement the corrective action and system repair when necessary
  Responsible for facilitating and directing the 8D team
 Ensures the group performs its duties and responsibilities.

DISCIPLINE 2 – DESCRIBE THE PROBLEM

 Specify the internal/external customer problem by identifying in quantifiable terms the ;

who-what-when-where-why-how-how many (5W2H) of the problem
 Use an “operational Definition”. The definition should have a common meaning to
everyone who reads it.
 Gather relevant data/info/facts.

-5W2H
 Who: identify customer/s complaining
 What: describe the problem adequately
 Where: locate the problem
 When: identify the start of the problem
 Why: identify known explanations
 How: in what mode or situation did the problem occur
 How many: Quantify the problem

DISCIPLINE 3 – IMPLEMENT AND VERIFY AN INTERIM CONTAINMENT ACTION

 Define and verify Interim Containment Action(ICA) to isolate the effects of the problem
from any internal/ external customer until Permanent Corrective Action is implemented
 Temporary short-term (Band aid) fix taken until a permanent corrective action is defined,
implemented and verified.

- Verify the effectiveness of the Interim Containment Action (ICA)

 Perform test to evaluate
 State the results
 State the procedures for ongoing evaluation of effectiveness (control
charts, check sheets, etc.)
 Prioritize goods nearest to the customers gate
 Define inspection/checking method that is certain to detect the defect

DISCIPLINE 4 – DEFINE AND VERIFY ROOT CAUSES

 Identify all possible causes, which could explain why the problem occurred
- Ask “Why” as many times as necessary to drive the process to root cause
- Review FA report, dimensional measurement data, illustration, photo.
- Use Cause and Effect Diagram, FMEA to list previously defined causes.
 Isolate and verify the root cause/s by testing each possible cause against the problem
description and test data
DISCIPLINE 5 – CHOOSE AND VERIFY CORRECTIVE ACTIONS

 Through pre-production test programs quantitatively confirm that the selected

corrective actions will resolve the problem for the customer and will not cause
undesirable side effects
 Define contingency actions, if necessary based on risk assessments.
 Verify corrective actions before the actions are implemented.
- Corrective action should be a poka-yoke solution and should address
root cause
- Notify all affected personnel and formalize change action
- Run Pilot Test
- Artificially simulate the solution to allow the actual process or field
evaluation
- Monitor results

DISCIPLINE 6 – IMPLEMENT PERMANENT CORRECTIVE ACTIONS

 Implement the best permanent corrective action. Choose on going controls to ensure
the root cause are eliminated

Once in production, monitor the long term effects and implement contingency actions,
if necessary.

 Establish an action plan on all permanent actions

 Establish on going controls on the process
 Correct defective parts already produced
 Identify contingency actions

DISCIPLINE 7 – PREVENT RECURRENCE

 Modify the necessary systems, practices, and procedures to prevent recurrence of this
and all similar problems
 Identify opportunities for improvement and establish a process improvement initiative
 Revise systems, procedures, and practices, if necessary
 Document new standard procedures, streamline to remove obsolete procedures and
revise previous standard
 Release specs o document plan
 Fan-out to other equipment or areas
 Process Control Plan, if necessary

DISCIPLINE 8 – CONGRATULATE TEAM

 Recognize the collective efforts of the team in solving the problem

 Write case study reports.
 Acknowledge the significance and value of the problem/solution
 SUMMARY

4.5. MANAGING ISSUES AND CHANGES

INTERACTION LEVELS
ISSUE MANAGEMENT PROCESS

1. Facilitated Communication and tracking

2. Root-cause Analysis
3. Escalation
4. Process Improvement or One-Off

COMMUNICATION AND TRACKING

 Communication of issues, particularly time sensitive matters, can be done verbally or by email
 BUT proper documentation by way of an issue management systems is key to: structured
resolution and recurrence prevention
 Clear documentation of issues is key to effective escalation

ISSUE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

Good Issue Management System Facilities

1. Clear Documentation
Clear statement of the following; issue (including cost of the issue if unresolved) scope affected,
root cause , proposed solution, financial impact of the proposed solution and timetable.
2. Accountability for issue resolution
Clear assignment of responsible persons
3. Approval
Facilities approval by right authority in service provider and onshore/client organization
4. Process Improvement
Can identify changes in people skill/training, staffing level, technology , or policy/processes

Analysis of trends across multiple issues can highlight areas for process changes that will
prevent future issues

V. Teaching and Learning Activities

Using their respective business groups. We will now raise our understanding of what it takes to
consistently provide excellent service. For this activity, these are the suggested scenarios that
group may choose from:
 Power outage
 Fire
 Earthquake
 Flooding
 Civil unrest (riot, transportation strike)
Select two (2) scenarios from the list above. All the groups will continue through this activity
with two (2) of these common stimulus – power outage, fire, earthquake, flooding, or civil
unrest
 Group Activity
- Each of the groups will have one (1) hour to develop a plan to safeguard the hardware,
software, and people-ware of their service provider business from both scenarios if they do
happen.
-Pay attention to the business’ ability to fulfill on the activity-task-process that was outsourced
by the company.
- Another sixty (60) minutes for the groups to present their plans for both scenarios.
-Once a group finishes with their presentation, the floor is open for questions, reactions, or
suggestions before moving to the next group.

Clearly, the amount of thought and work needed to be prepared for the unexpected is
considerable and is very important for the business to remain as a preferred partner by the
client.

VI. RECOMMENDED LEARNING MATERIALS AND RESOURCES FOR SUPPLEMENTARY READING

Please click/ copy-paste the following links listed below in a web browser like Google
Chrome or Mozilla Firefox for supplementary readings.
1. https://www.deloitte.co.uk/makeconnections/assets/pdf/the-outsourcing-handbook-
a-guide-to-outsourcing.pdf
2. https://www.outsourceaccelerator.com/whitepaper/strong-future-of-outsourcing-
white-paper/
3.https://www.xerox.com/downloads/usa/en/t/TL_whitepaper_records_management_
Rich_Baily.pdf

VII. FLEXIBLE TEACHING LEARNING MODALITY (FTLM) ADOPTED

In this module, the online and remote FTLM is adapted using Edmodo, Zoom and google meet
application. For the online modality, the Zoom or Google Meet video conferencing application shall be
used for the purpose of delivering a lecture and allowing a synchronous discussion with the students.
For the remote modality, Edmodo shall be used to upload and download the module, and to allow
asynchronous discussion with the students. This will also be used as a platform for the submission of the
requirements.

VIII. ASSESSMENT TASK

Quiz No. 1

1. What is business continuity management? (Define)

2. What are the seven (7) steps of continuity management? (Enumerate and Explain)
3. What is an interruption event? (Define and Provide three examples)
4. What is a critical situation? (Explain)
5. What are the tell-tale signs of a critical situation? (Enumerate and Explain)
 6. Recreate and explain the critical situation management method. (Draw and Explain)
7. What are the eight (8) disciplines of the 8D? Method? (Enumerate)

Quiz No. 2

Multiple Choices: Encircle the letter of the correct answer

1. The step where the manager or the management committee approves a business continuity
plan
a. Formulate a Business Continuity Plan
b. Initiate Project
c. Design Treatments

2. Its purpose is to identify those systems that when absent would create danger to the
business’ survival
a. Business Continuity Management Process
b. Maximum Allowable Outage
c. Business Impact Analysis

3. The step where we rank the business processes that on how it achieves goals and use
resources. a. Identify Key Business Processes
b. Test and Maintain BCP
c. Undertake Business Impact Analysis

4. After listing down the treatments, this is the step where we put them to work to mitigate the
consequences of business interruptions.
a. Implement Continuity Treatments
b. Identify Key Business Processes
c. Initiate Project

5. The last step of the Business Continuity Management Process

a. Test and maintain BCP
b. Design Treatments
c. Implement Continuity Treatments

IX. REFERENCES

http://www.anao.gov.au/uploads/documents/Business_Continuity_Management.pdf

Critical Situation “Crit Sit” Management White Paper, by Steve Moore, IBM Global Services

Eight Disciplines (8D) - A Team Approach to Problem Solving by Alvin Villegas, Lecture organized by ECCI
at Bridgestone Precision Molding Phils., Inc.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximum_Allowable_Outage

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downtime

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/interim

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poka-yoke

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/recurrence