Published Article / This study investigated the different business continuity risks organisations face and the existence of business continuity plans to address and manage these risks. The study found that although the majority of organisations are aware of the business continuity risks that they are faced with, not all fully understand the impact thereof on their organisations, and accordingly do not have effective and adequate business continuity plans in place to address and manage these risks. Also, not all organisations are placing enough emphasis on the establishment of a business continuity culture within their organisations to support their business continuity philosophy and plan.

Thesis (MTech (Business Administration))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2020 / The research was focused on business continuity management as a key discipline towards building a resilient Western Cape Government. It provided an opportunity to identify existing business continuity processes to determine the level of preparedness of the Western Cape Government to ensure continued business due to a disruption. The inability of the public sector to manage and facilitate sound business continuity processes in anticipation of disruptive events have placed it in a position where it would be unable to deliver services to citizens and stakeholders. As the current business environment was continuously evolving, Government as an organization was therefore not immune to change and disruption, whether generated internally or externally. For government to be resilient it required the holistic management of risk but also the ability to adapt and respond to change with a limited impact on the delivery of services. Business Continuity was the core to building and improving organizational resilience. It had been a proven methodology that organizations should embrace as part of a holistic approach to the management of risks and threats. Legislation and/or policies have been drafted for the public sector to guide with the management of risks. As an organ of state and part of the public sector the Western Cape Government was therefore obliged to manage risks in a way that ensured that government was able to continue to render a service both internally and externally with as little impact as possible. Business continuity management identified the priorities of an organization as well as prepared solutions to address disruptive threats. The aim of the study was the exploration of the state of business continuity within the Western Cape Government. The objectives of the study were to: Identify current business continuity processes; Evaluate current business continuity processes; Critically analyse existing business continuity documentation; and Identify the links between business continuity and resilience. The research questions were focused on getting departments to express how business continuity was facilitated; clarity in respect of processes; input source of business continuity documentation; as well as determining whether departments acknowledged the benefits of having business continuity management towards building a resilient Western Cape Government. Previous work reinforced the importance of having sound business continuity processes in place. From the literature it would appear that business continuity in the public sector was fairly new and developmental in nature. Previous work also recognized that each and every organization was unique and as such the process should be aligned with the core functions and/or mandates afforded by legislation and/or policies. The research approach deemed most appropriate for this particular study was the Interpretivist approach. Not only was this approach value laden but it allowed for the exploration of the theory and obtaining of rich in-depth data from the participants. It also allowed for the contextualization of the problem as it related to the business continuity processes within the Western Cape Government. The research method was qualitative using interviews and document analysis as the most suited research instruments to elicit qualitative data required to render the research process as valid. It was concluded that having sound business continuity processes in place would greatly support organizations with the management of disruptions. Business continuity should be a proactive plan to avoid and mitigate risk associated with disruption of operations and needed to be managed in a way that objectives were met. Further to this it should be noted that the resilience maturity of the Western Cape Government remained reactive and concerted efforts towards becoming proactive should be considered.

This research is an investigation into Succession planning initiatives in government agencies in Botswana, a case of the Botswana National Archives and Records Services. The Botswana National Archives and Records Services has been experiencing a significant loss of employees over the years. When people leave the organisation in most cases the vacant position will take too long to fill, especially for those positions that require the technical qualification and experience in Archives and Records Management. This state of affairs according to the researcher may be addressed by implementing a succession planning strategy. Succession planning has the potential to uplift government agencies in terms of increased productivity, motivation, efficiency and retention of staff. Succession planning can help organisations to invest more on developing their staff for future key positions to ensure business continuity. It is important for organisations to have a strong pipeline so that key positions are easily filled as they become vacant. This study sought to establish if the Botswana National Archives and Records Services has any initiatives on succession planning and how well the employees understand the concept of succession planning. A questionnaire was designed and administered to the staff of the National Archives. The findings from the study reveal that most of the employees do not understand the concept of succession planning and the organisation has no initiative on succession planning. These findings led to the conclusion that the National Archives should include succession planning in its business strategy and teach its employees about it to ensure business continuity. / Thesis (MBA) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2013

Cílem práce je podat ucelený přehled o aktuálních technologiích sloužících k zajištění dostupnosti IT infrastruktury v podniku. Autor má zkušenosti nejen s konkrétními technologiemi a přístupy k zajištění vyšší odolnosti jednotlivých komponent serveru vůči výpadku (ukládání dat, napájení, řízení toku vzduchu, ochrana paměti, ?) , ale i se softwarovými produkty, které zajistí redundanci celého serveru. Tento přístup byl otestován i v případové studii, kde proběhla analýza stávající situace ve vybrané společnosti a nalezeny funkce poskytované jednotlivými komponentami infrastruktury. Kromě detailního zmapování situace byla nalezena i slabá místa a doporučeno řešení.

In the current era of globalization in supply chain, business continuity planning should play an even more important role than previously. Business continuity planning provides company with an analysis of potential business threatening situations, everything from natural disasters to supply shortages, and ensures that actions are taken in order to mitigate the probability that those risks will become reality. Business continuity planning does not come without a cost, since companies will in some cases have to spend money in actions like redundancies (e.g. supplier). In the Semiconductor industry, supply chains might are extremely complex and globalized. These supply chains can go from having suppliers in the United States, to front-end manufacturing in Europe, to back-end manufacturing and packaging in Asia. Raw materials for semiconductor manufacturing, for example raw wafers, can be found for above $500 per wafer. It is due to not only the complexity of the supply chain in semiconductors, but also due to the high costs of raw materials and manufacturing, that it is crucial for companies in this particular industry to ensure business continuity planning is taken seriously, and adequate measures are taken to mitigate as many risks to their supply chain as possible. / text

Disasters such as the recent parliament shooting in Ottawa, Superstorm Sandy, and the Great Japan Sea Earthquake and tsunami are reminders of the roles essential service organizations have in maintaining public health. On a daily basis, organizations are expected to operate under normal conditions, providing goods, services, and community supports. In crisis situations, it is critical that these organizations continue to operate and contribute to adaptive response and recovery in a community. Business continuity planning focuses on ensuring continued functioning of core operations during a disruption. Inherent to the business continuity field is a prevent-and-protect approach to preparedness activities. Asset-mapping exercises have the potential to balance the predominantly risk-based field by focusing on the strengths and capabilities already present within an organization. To understand the value of asset-mapping activities in business continuity plans (BCPs), indicators for organizational resilience are needed. Indicators have the potential to provide essential service organizations with a way to gauge the value of their BCP activities. In addition, this information can help guide decision-makers when developing BCPs. This research is part of a larger project at the University of Ottawa focused on building the empirical evidence base for BCPs and organizational resilience. This thesis, as a sub-study within the larger project, explores assets and indicators for organizational resilience to contribute to the effective evaluation and engagement of organizations in business continuity planning efforts. Emergent themes highlight the importance of assets and their contribution to the adaptive capacity of an organization in the event of a disaster. This study also provides an example list of 28 SMARTT organizational resilience indicators directly derived from organizational assets, providing information that researchers and essential service organizations can use to evaluate business continuity planning activities in relation to organizational resilience.

Bakgrund: Med anledning av att externa risker är oundvikligt för företag krävs det en beredskap för mitigera och mildra dess effekter. Likväl om en risk realiseras leder det till en kris som också måste besvaras av organisationen. Detta innebär att företag måste ha utvecklade styrverktyg för att hantera detta. Ett sätt är med hjälp av risk och krishantering likväl Business Continuity Management BCM.  Syfte: Syftet med studien är att få djupare förståelse för hur IKEA som organisation arbetar med risk och krishantering utifrån faserna före, under och efter krisen samt hur organisationen har agerat och anpassat sig under pandemin specifikt på den svenska marknaden. Studien avser även att analysera om IKEA:s tillvägagångssätt efterliknar BCM-strategier genom att jämföra teori med praktik. Metod: Genom att bruka en kvalitativ forskningsmetod har materialinsamlingen till empirin möjliggjorts via semistrukturerade intervjuer. En abduktiv forskningsansats har nyttjats likväl en fallstudie som forskningsdesign som möjliggjort att få djupare förståelse över IKEA:s risk- och krishantering. Slutsats: Studien visar på att IKEA har en välutvecklad risk- och krishantering inom organisationen utifrån krisens tre faser. Vidare kan det konstateras att IKEA inte har tillämpat BCM enhetligt inom organisationen. Däremot dras slutsatser om att organisationen mer under pandemin har tillämpat strategier som går i linje med BCM. Ytterligare kan slutsatser dras om vilka åtgärder för att anpassa varuhusen mot verksamhetsstörningar, där social distansering och utökad e-handel har varit väsentliga åtgärder. / Background: Due to the fact that external risks are inevitable for companies, a readiness is required to mitigate its effects. Nevertheless, if a risk is realized, it leads to a crisis which must be answered by the organization. This means companies must develop control tools to handle the effect. One way is with the help of risk and crisis management, also, Business Continuity Management. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to gain a deeper understanding of how IKEA as an organization works with risk and crisis management based on the phases before, during and after the crisis and how the organization has acted and adapted during the pandemic specifically in the Swedish market. The study also intends to analyze whether IKEA's approach mimics BCM strategies by comparing theory with practice. Method: By using a qualitative research method, the collection of material for the empirical data has been made possible via semi-structured interviews. An abductive research approach has been used as well as a case study as research design which made it possible to gain a deeper understanding of IKEA's risk and crisis management. Conclusion: The study shows that IKEA has a well-developed risk and crisis management within the organization based on the crisis three phases. Furthermore, it can be stated that IKEA has not applied BCM uniformly within the organization. On the other hand, conclusions are drawn the organization has during the pandemic applied strategies which are in line with BCM. Furthermore, conclusions can be drawn about which measures to adapt the department stores to operational disruptions, where social distancing and increased e-commerce have been significant measures.

Companies are during their operation impacted many risks from inside or outside. Business Continuity Management is a managerial discipline that deals with providing resistance against operation company risks and was developed due to the increasing requirement to save against unforseen incidents. The goal of this thesis is to optimize the Business Continuity Plan of particular company in accordance with a system of crisis management in Czech Republic.

Magister Commercii (Information Management) - MCom(IM) / This thesis examines what a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) should comprise off, as well as the difference between a BCP and a Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) and the key elements of an effective BCP as well as the different types of disasters. It also investigates why companies that have BCP in place and conducts testing of their plan on a regular basis, either quarterly or bi-annually, still experience prolonged downtime during a disaster resulting in Service Level Agreements (SLA) not being met or major financial loses. It also inspects acceptable processes within a BCP to determine whether there are ways of improving these processes to prevent companies from experiencing prolonged downtime. The objective of this research is to determine and understand: • Why organisations within the Western Cape experience prolonged downtimes during a disaster event • The potential deficiencies in a BCP and how they can be amended.

This thesis deals with the aspects of managing the business continuity by the methodologies of ITIL and Cobit. The main thesis objective is to find out if there exists one general aplicable solution of the business continuity managment process based on the relative approach comparison and integration of both methodologies and afterwards to define this general solution. The secondary thesis objective is to try to specify the problem issue, which is not covered neither one of those methodologies and then integrate it into this general solution. The purpose of first chapter is to analyze and generally describe the business continuity managment area, its relation with IT Service Managment, to define all key issue terms and to give a best practice review dealing with this field. In the following chapters there is a detailed look at the concrete individual approaches of metodics ITIL and Cobit to the area of business continuity managment. The final chapter deals with approach comparison of both methodologies based on by author defined key fields as target group, enterprise type, terminology, mature models, metrics, concept and relative mapping of relevant points. The chapter provides the general complex solution guideline of this issue by simultaneous implementation of both methodologies as well. This is the main contribution of this work. The next contribution consists in the definition of irrational employee behaviour problem during disaster and its integration to this general guidelines.