In a world characterized by frequent and varied crises, organizational resilience is no longer an option but a necessity. However, too often, business continuity planning is reduced to purely technological considerations: backups, server redundancy, and disaster recovery. This siloed vision can prove dangerous as it is too limited.
To ensure genuine business continuity, it is essential to include all key functions of the organization:
• Operations
• Supply chains
• Human resources
• Finances
• Information technology
• Etc.
During the 2020 pandemic, many organizations faced blind spots for which they had no prepared solutions. They were forced to improvise to limit the damage; many unfortunately could not survive, while others emerged with significant scars.
Why plan for business continuity?
A comprehensive business continuity plan enables a company to:
• Maintain essential and critical operations despite the crisis;
• Reduce financial losses and impacts on reputation;
• Reassure employees, customers, and partners;
• Comply with certain contractual or regulatory obligations.
It must be understood that proactive planning is an investment and a strategic advantage for an organization, rather than merely a defensive measure taken in response to a threat.
A four-phase approach to ensuring business continuity
1. Understanding the business
Any business continuity approach begins with a detailed understanding of the organization. The objective here is to identify what must be absolutely protected to ensure the survival and resilience of the company. This starts with a business impact analysis, which helps identify critical products, services, and activities, then assess their tolerance to disruption (RTO/RPO).
The RPO (Recovery Point Objective) defines the maximum amount of data a company can afford to lose, while the RTO (Recovery Time Objective) indicates the maximum acceptable time to restore systems after an incident. The RPO influences the frequency of backups, whereas the RTO determines the timeline for resuming operations.
Next, the essential resources for their functioning are determined. Key personnel, relevant IT systems, strategic suppliers, and physical infrastructure are identified. This mapping helps prioritize continuity needs.
The evaluation of threats completes this diagnosis. Cyberattacks, outages, disasters, supply chain disruptions, health crises, and others will make up this list. At this stage, a structured risk analysis, supported by tools such as dashboards or specialized platforms, helps identify high-impact scenarios and their probabilities. It is important not to limit yourself and to identify as many risks as possible, even the most unlikely ones. Your goal here is to minimize blind spots.
Finally, strategic choices must be made: What can be tolerated? What must absolutely be maintained? This reflection helps identify alternative solutions and contingency plans, as well as the investments and organizational measures to be anticipated. It is on this basis that a realistic, effective, and tailored continuity plan is built.
2. Define your business continuity strategy
Once the organization is well understood, its critical activities identified, and the risks assessed, the next step is to define continuity strategies. This phase aims to establish the best options to ensure the ongoing operation or rapid recovery of essential activities, based on operational priorities and the company’s capabilities.
The choice of strategies depends on several factors. The key indicator here is the maximum acceptable interruption period (RTO) for each critical activity. The shorter this period, the more robust the measures and the greater the resources that must be mobilized. Implementation costs must also be considered. This includes:
• System redundancy
• Cloud computing solutions
• Secure remote work
• Alternative suppliers
• Relocation of operations
• Etc.
All these scenarios involve investments that need to be assessed. An often underestimated aspect is the time required to understand the root cause of the problem, especially in the case of a cyberattack. This investigative phase, known as forensics, can be long and complex, potentially delaying the resumption of activities if it hasn’t been anticipated in continuity scenarios. This is where a partner like ITI comes in, capable of accounting for these realities to strike a balance between business imperatives, tangible risks, and the technological resources needed.
You will understand that this is the stage where technology becomes a strategic lever. When well chosen, it supports a continuity strategy that is pragmatic, realistic, and, above all, sustainable. Finally, the consequences and impacts of inaction must also be evaluated: loss of revenue, damage to reputation, contractual or regulatory penalties. Doing nothing is also an option, but its impact must be measured.
3. Deploy and operationalize the strategy
This phase marks the transition from reflection to action. It involves developing clear and tailored intervention plans that will enable the organization to address an incident while ensuring the continuity of its essential activities. The process begins by revisiting the already identified critical activities and evaluating the specific threats to each one, based on the organization’s tolerance thresholds.
From this point, two strategic axes are deployed: on the one hand, preventive measures to limit the probability and impact of incidents; on the other hand, concrete solutions for continuity and recovery. This includes, among other things, IT redundancy, recovery plans, telecommuting solutions, etc. This intervention heavily relies on technology as a catalyst, with the ultimate goal of staying on course, even in the face of extreme crises.
4. Test, measure, and optimize
A business continuity plan, no matter how well designed, remains theoretical without proper testing. Simulation exercises allow organizations to validate its relevance, test operational reflexes, and ensure teams understand their roles in real situations. These simulations concretely demonstrate the operational capacity to sustain essential activities and effectively manage an incident, whatever it may be.
Organizations that dedicate time and resources to real-world exercises develop true organizational agility. It is through action that invisible weaknesses, such as imprecise procedures, unclear responsibilities, poorly assessed dependencies, or inadequate tools, are uncovered during the planning stage.
By integrating technological tools such as incident management platforms, intervention dashboards, or emergency communication systems, simulations become continuous improvement levers. They transform the business continuity plan from a simple document into a living, tested, and evolving framework.
For organizational resilience that goes beyond IT
In an increasingly uncertain world, business continuity planning can no longer be limited to purely technological considerations. It must rely on a comprehensive, structured, and proactive approach, integrating all critical functions of the organization.
Understanding the organization, defining the right strategies, implementing concrete plans, and regularly testing them are the foundations of sustainable resilience. This planning is not an expense but a strategic investment that safeguards your operations, employees, and the longevity of your organization. Above all, it allows you to face crises not with urgency but with preparation and confidence.
Why ITI?
ITI combines proven technological expertise with a deep understanding of business challenges. Its team is capable of designing realistic, tailored, and cross-functional continuity strategies. ITI helps you build organizational resilience that goes far beyond IT.
