Ok you have BPO, ODC, KPO - But do you have BCM?

Terrorist attacks in Mumbai Financial District - Taj Hotel (2008). All of the Fortune 500 and many of the midmarket companies (companies with $50M to $500M in revenues) now outsource their IT operations to countries like India and the Phillipines. This IT outsourcing business has spawned a host of new terms including BPO (business process outsourcing), ODC (Offshore Development Center), KPO (knowledge process outsourcing), and many others. BPO today includes all the Call Centers, now referred to as Contact Centers since they include all forms of contact (phone calls, emails, chat messaging, even social media messages like Facebook and Twitter). BPO even includes outsourcing of most "back office functions". An example of this is Office Tiger, based in Chennai, a firm that processes SEC reports for Wall Street firms among other things. The BPO and KPOmodel provides mission-critical services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to US and European clients. Many BPO's are set up to accomodate the mission critical needs of dozens of clients. Many of the Indian BPO's have acquired ISO-9002 certification to establish a competitive edge. But many of them don't appear to have a business continuity plan in place, according to media sources in India. According to a study by the META Group, 79 percent of the respondents do not have a documented and tested BCM (Business Continuity Management) plan. India is part of the BRIC emerging market which includes Brazil, Russia, India and China. It has been well known that emerging markets present greater opportunty, but they are also accompanied by greater risks. Recent events in India have proved that India is more vulnerable to risks from business interruptions more than other countries. These higher risks are due to various types of volatility: violence, terrorism, disruptions (eg. strikes in India), natural disasters, religious and communal and unrest, infrastructure, communications and utility interrruptions, etc. US and other companies are now becoming a lot more concerned about business continuity and disaster recovery management for their Indian operations. BCM itself is a discipline that

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Ok you have BPO, ODC, KPO - But do you have BCM?

requires highly specialized, expert advisors who can assess, plan, implement and manage business continuity.

Infosys, the second largest Indian IT outsourcing firm has developed a disaster recovery plan to ensure that its large global customers continue to get round-the-clock support, even if the subcontinent goes to war. It has set up disaster recovery sites in Singapore and Canada. The plan is to move employees to these sites and resume operations in the advent of an emergency.

Most Indian organizations are not fully equipped to develop a comprehensive business continuity plans. A company like TAMP Systems, which is one of the first pioneers in the field of business continuity since the early 80's has indepth experience in advising, developing, implementing and managing continuity plans for companies across the globe. TAMP has experience in dealing with risks and uncertainties due to the various kinds of disasters that companies are increasingly facing in these turbulent times.

Do you have a comprehensive business continuity plan? Has it been updated and tested? Do you have a plan to deal with incidents of terrorism, regional strikes or communal riots? Do you have backup and replication facilities for your Data Centers and Contact Centers? Do you have a comprehensive resiliency plan for your offshore development centers (ODC)?

These are questions to ask so that you will not be caught flat footed. How will you explain to your customers and stakeholders? If you are not sure, then it may be catastrophic when disaster strikes. As Tom Abruzzo, CEO of TAMP Systems says, "It's much easier to plan for a disaster incident than to try explaining why you didn't."

For more information, please contact us via our website at www.tampsystems.com.

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