The importance of a Business Continuity Plan
In 2012 the need arose for FCA Capital to guarantee the continuity of the organisation in the event of a disaster. This was partly due to the transformation of the parent company from a finance company into a bank. As a result of this, it was decided that all underlying entities had to have a Business Continuity Plan at their disposal. This was also recommended by the Banca d’Italia (the Italian central bank).
The Business Impact Analysis provides insight
We then looked for a suitable party, initially for the preparation of a Business Continuity Plan (BCP). COIN’s experience, pragmatic approach and the positive testimonials on the COIN website appealed to us. One of the COIN recovery locations was also at a sufficiently safe distance yet still just a short travel time away from our head office. At the end of 2012 we requested COIN to map the critical processes of our organisation by means of a Business Impact Analysis (BIA).
The results of the BIA have provided insight into the business critical processes, together with their associated applications, hardware, infrastructure and people. As a result of this we immediately decided to take further steps to reconfigure a number of our vulnerable critical processes in order to ensure Business Continuity for FCA Capital Nederland.
COIN Back-up Service for critical business data
The first steps we wanted to take was with regard to IT. We looked for a party that was able to offer external Storage and Restore facilities. We examined a number of providers and possibilities and ultimately decided to select the COIN Back-up Service. The main reasons for this are the technology on offer, the security (encryption) and the price/quality ratio.
We started using the COIN Back-up Service following a successful test in 2013 and since then everything has been running extremely positively.
Recovery workstations, telephone accessibility and availability of data and applications
The latest Business Continuity steps were taken by also concluding a Recovery Agreement with COIN at the beginning of 2015. Due to the positive partnership that had already been developed and the geographic spread of the COIN recovery locations and their presence in Belgium, we decided to place these critical aspects of Business Continuity Management with COIN.
COIN doesn’t just provide us with recovery workstations. In the event of a disaster we have also safeguarded telephone accessibility and the availability of data and applications, thus assuring the continuity of our service and the service level that we guarantee to our customers.
In the meantime we have also started preparing a Business Continuity Plan, the basis of which are the result of the BIA and the COIN recovery facility.
Our partnership with COIN
So far, we have found our partnership with COIN to be very positive indeed. We have now completed the first Business Continuity Test, which went very well. From a party such as COIN we of course expect that it is able to respond immediately in the event of a disaster and that it will always be available, proactive and work closely with us to find solutions. So far we have been extremely satisfied with regard to all of these aspects.
By safeguarding our data, establishing a recovery facility and preparing a BCP (which we test annually) Business Continuity Management has become a reality for FCA Capital Nederland.
For more information regarding FCA Capital see: www.fcacapital.nl