‘Business continuity has a long way to go’

As many as 79 per cent of the Indian companies do not have tested and documented business continuity plans (BCP). This was revealed by Val Souza, editor of Hi-Tech Group at a discussion on Tuesday. Quoting from a KPMG study, Souza said that even within the IT dependent industry 64 per cent of the Indian companies have no corporate wide BCP.

Speaking on the topic of ‘Changing economics of business continuity’ at a discussion organised by Network Magazine in association with EMC, Souza said that BCP means a risk based approach to develope proactive measures for ensuring continuity. Stating that while some Indian companies like HDFC, ICICI, IOC, BPCL and the NSE have implemented BCP, it has a long way to go in India.

The total BCP market was worth $30 million in India in 2002, Souza said. Speaking on the occassion, T Srinivasan, country manager, EMC India said that most data is critical for the companies and hence the need for BCP.

According to Dr Kevin McIssac, programme director, Infrastructure Strategies, Meta Group, IT is no longer an internal thing for the corporates but it is the core object for business and its externalisation.