The Hindu Business Line : A 3-level proactive business continuity plan

Recently Satyam Computer Services staged a mock outage, to test its disaster-preparedness. A dramatic drill that was, involving the upping of systems in less than 24 hours by flying a commando group of engineers to a different country.

Satyam's exercise has attracted much media attention, especially for the focus it brought to the need for chalking out a business continuity plan (BCP).

Though practices may vary among companies, what is essential is that the plan takes into account all contingencies.

For instance, Mr Vijaya Shanker, Senior Director IT, Symphony Services (www.symphonysv.com) speaks of a three-level proactive BCP, to ensure that client data and deliveries are not affected. The company, headquartered in Palo Alto, California, has delivery centres in Bangalore, Mumbai and Pune.

Business model

"Our business model is built around high value, R&D work for the clients. We deal with the core IP (intellectual property) of our clients' software products and, therefore, we have stringent measures to face emergency situations," explains Mr Shanker.

"The BCP is put in place after discussions with the client."

At the first level is the short-term plan, which addresses disruption in the city or areas around the company's offices, he elaborates.

"We have tie-ups with several cyber cafés around the city so that our employees can work seamlessly out of these outlets without having to commute to the company's office," says Mr Shanker.

"We have also provided laptops to our employees and hence they can work from home as well. Symphony has over 3,000 employees, of whom more than 1,600 have laptops." But how far is it safe to work from cyber cafés? Completely safe and secure, he assures. "We have Symphony VPN (virtual private network), which is a secure gateway to access the network," points out Mr Shanker.

"Along with the VPN, we have firewalls, anti-spyware, anti-virus and other security products that have been enabled to ensure IP security and confidentiality."

In the event of the company's Bangalore facilities becoming inaccessible for some reason, Symphony has in place measures to ferry employees to the nearest metro, viz Chennai, he says.

"Adequate tie-ups with third-party facilities have been laid out to enable employees to operate from Chennai too."

The second level is the medium-term plan. "We have third-party site tie-up. If needed, we can occupy their premises for a short period.

The company has implemented Microsoft Live Communication Server to enable employees to collaborate efficiently on video, voice and chat on the corporate network," he elaborates.

Long-term plan

The final level addresses the long term.

Mr Shanker draws attention to the fact that the company's employees can work seamlessly out of the centres in India.

As a further measure to ensure business continuity, "Critical project data are stored in Symphony's various offshore development centres and customer locations."

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