Today’s global marketplace is super competitive. Downtime is not an option. If a business is interrupted, its clients and customers will quickly find a new provider. Thus, business continuity is critical and facility managers play a key role in their company’s business continuity planning process. As a facility management consultant, what trends do you see in the in the future of business continuity planning?

From David Reynolds

Emergency planning and business continuity can stand out like the proverbial stepchild among the eleven FM competencies — it is acknowledged, but not always warmly welcomed in day-to-day business processes.

There are so many potentials to consider: flood, fire, wind storm, earthquake, explosion, chemical spill, active shooter, loss of lease or decrepit building, lawsuits… Before we change the subject, what future considerations must be addressed when it comes to business continuity?

  • Communications for customers, patients, clients, staff and providers. Update the business and brand in people’s minds. Cloud computing can serve up a familiar work environment for critical functions, data and communications from anywhere. Staff working from home or in mobile offices can be largely unaffected and temporarily take on additional work if the electronic work environment is intact.

  • Recovery and repair-as-a-service – contracting in advance gives top priority to protecting contents and providing security. Technology can show a response team where to find and treat critical items in the affected property.

  • Major assets as a service – create plans for energy, HVAC and large-scale efforts to keep out wind and weather. Contracting in advance can reduce lead time decisively. The emerging business model of OEM equipment-as-a-service is a trend to watch.

  • Finance – create a contingency budget for severe but unlikely events. Insurance coverage may be slow to pay out. Setting aside a large amount of cash that would otherwise enable response to business opportunities is not ordinarily an option. As part of planning, CFOs should explore agreements for priority receipt of short-term funds not dependent on local sources only to enable continuity activities.

  • IoT – just as for business communications, equipment data and control functions help FMs know and control facility conditions preparatory to recovery. Remote IoT communications use mobile telephone data connections. In the event of regional disaster, developments now include efficient data carriage on older channels such as VHF radio.

  • Bodies of knowledge – commercial, public, and not-for-profit organizations provide readily accessible policy, assistance, education and information exchange for business continuity.

From Dr. Doug Aldrich

My first step is to replace my “facility” title with “process” and get new business cards. Processes are the key to business continuity, whether they’re manufactured goods, delivered services or provided information. Today, all of those may have a facility component, but the future will demand more complexity, mobility and options than ever considered presently.

My second step is to hand a mirror to executives, so they focus inward on their critical input/output process networks. Too many times firms look externally without fully understanding the ramifications internally of their operations.

My third step is to throw out all the white ring binders and challenge staff to analyze 100 percent of their goods/service/data networks. The key question is “What if?” to everything they do. The “I don’t know” answers are fertile grounds for investigation.

Business continuity can be interrupted or destroyed by inadequately thinking about supply chains, computer integrity, competitive marketing, critical people, environmental laws and the like. In a global environment, a ship that founders with chemical feedstocks, an invasive database hack, a transit strike, or union rebellion may all contribute to a short-term business upset or a multi-week or month stoppage. The surprise retirement of a key technologist brings lamentations of not mentoring properly. Production using a million bottles in inventory can be stymied when the caps don’t fit. A closet fire stops an airplane in its flight, and a surprise ruling by legal agencies can prevent market activities. This is the telescope that looks outward.

The bottom line is a process consultant will help executives and staff truly understand how their total operations can ensure business continuity or be stopped cold if circumstances have not been predicted or not planned for. And there may even be a facility solution!

From Tristan Ragusa

Risk management is an issue that is more and more important for companies. Indeed, they are facing new opportunities and threats in our globalized and connected world. However, it could appear like the “hot potato” in the organization. In other words, “a risk that I do not see is a risk that I do not have to manage and pay for.”

This is one reason we conduct business continuity planning (BCP). It is a laudable initiative (and often required by insurances) but difficult to implement because it imposes the acceptance to look at the weaknesses of your organization.

In my view, the first major trend in BCP is to become more flexible — just like the world we are living in. A few examples can be considered such as the uncertainty regarding Brexit, the yellow jacket movement in France or the Venezuelan political crisis. The common thread between them is they are all unpredictable. How can a company, which holds its BCP committee once or twice a year, effectively face it? Especially if the decision-making process takes a long time.

Yet, technology like blockchain or big data will have a role to play in the tomorrow’s BCP. With the democratization of the former (the In/Out building in Paris has been sold using blockchain, a world first) and the huge pool of information available with the latter, BCP could go from a heavy tank to an indestructible and fast Iron Man.

However, Iron Man does not work alone. He has a team. Moreover, in light of the world becoming even more competitive, he is also becoming more collaborative. So must the BCP process.

Total in-house FM delivery has started to disappear, and a few – or all – of the FM activities may be outsourced. This could have some benefits for the organization, but the fact is it adds more stakeholders in the risk management process. In addition, with service providers, there are also the local police department, fire brigades, your insurance advisor, your landlord, your neighbors (often forgotten), and so on.

Do you know who knows how to shut down the gas inlet? What if he is absent? Do you know who his back up is? Do you know how to contact your landlord after hours? These are typical questions one might ask when developing a BCP. For some organizations, BCP is like what environmental issues were a few decades ago: a secondary aim, treated if we have the time.

Today, our outsourcing contracts typically includes an environmental, or waste management, chapter. Sometimes, they are even part of the KPI. We all know that when a crisis happens, if the BCP is not prepared and if people are unaware of it or participants are not properly trained, the consequences could be disastrous for the business. So, why can’t business continuity be part of the contract to cement the collaboration?

Business continuity management is a significant benefit for companies. It even has his own standard (ISO: 22301). Maintaining a BCP is an endless process because zero shutdown is impossible to promise. If you cannot delete the risk, technology and strong partnerships could help you to anticipate it and react quickly.