‘The solution has to be easy to use’. ‘Our end-users log in once, maybe twice, a year to update their business continuity plans and their BIAs’. These are statements we often hear, during preliminary discussions, from BCM managers who reach out to us to explore our software solution. One forthright Business Resiliency Manager defined ease-of-use thus: “we would like your solution to be used by our users who are not even familiar with Microsoft Office”.
Having been around for a while, having played the roles of a Disaster Recovery Planner, BCP consultant, BCM software architect and evangelist for a BCM solution, I understand this desire for easy use syndrome – it’s an appeal to preserve the status quo, without rocking the boat, or breaking the comfort zone cocoon – in the face of technology. It’s more of a plea for mercy than a request for help.
Most BCM programs have champions – some seen & heard, some invisible yet viable – but the common theme is that they are personality driven. At the ‘kick-off’ of the BCM program, they engage representatives of the various businesses to help create a BCM policy. This half-day ‘kick-off’ meeting is often a monologue designed to get the business continuity relationship (BCR) representatives to agree to a previously conceived BCM policy framework. Everyone enjoys a boxed lunch and retreats to their cubicles.
Compliance-driven BCM programs have policies, governance models, frameworks and defined workflows. These programs typically involve a representative or two from each business unit. They are tasked to complete fill-in-the-blanks surveys once or twice a year, and maybe participate in an annual test or exercise. This operates much like a traditional circus, with its ring-master, clowns, artists and a few animals in cages outside. Everyone has a fixed role, an act of fixed content and duration – whether it putting lions through their paces, jumping through hoops or walking the high wire. At the end of the show the ringmaster gets the applause and takes the bow. The traditional circus never changes. It goes from city to city performing exactly the same show. It is the same way with BCM programs created by industry ‘personalities’ – as they go from one organization to another setting up the same “circus” over and over.
A progressive BCM program is more like the modern iteration of the circus – the Cirque du Soleil; an orchestration of action, color, costume, music and lights. It engages & empowers the participants. It creates excitement as participants interact with the audience. And it creates more than sheer amusement. The orchestration is complex, split into many interconnected piece parts – but there is an underlying blueprint, a traditional story being told. The entire crew is on the stage when it comes time for the applause. The show changes frequently and appeals to audience tastes.
An organization with a progressive BCM mindset engages, empowers and excites all its stakeholders. In such an organization there is often no single ‘ringmaster’. The program is a cooperative effort – of Business Continuity Planners, Disaster Recovery Coordinators, Crisis Managers, Supply Chain Incident Managers, Incident Commanders, Resiliency Managers and more – each working in their own sphere of influence but unified in an enterprise blueprint. They are not looking for a simple, easy-to-use solution. They understand that their organization is complex. The solution must also be complex, but needn’t be complicated. When the goal is to repeat the same thing over and over – with improved efficiency – then ‘easy-to-use’ becomes a necessity. When the goal is improving the program, then ‘easy-to-use is a nice to have – but not at the expense of denying the complexity of the organization.
Have you ever seen a vendor advertise hard-to-use software? BCM software vendors do NOT live in a bubble, unaware of customer needs and oblivious to fundamental requirements. Those vendors fund a large portion of the BCM industry trade shows and associations that provide forums for information exchange. Most vendors feature development roadmaps that are based on suggestions from customers, industry consultants and feedback from trade shows and prospects. BCM software vendors don’t think there’s ‘a sucker born every minute’; the competition is stiff, so those who don’t adapt to changing needs don’t succeed.
Yet the demand by some BCM managers for easy-to-use software is not rooted in their concern for end-users. Today’s BCM software tools have made giant leaps, and evolved into forces that may threaten those manager’s perception of how BCM programs should be run (hint: the same way they’ve been run for the past 20 years!).
Demanding that BCM software suppliers ‘dumb-down’ their products is self-serving self-preservation which can only result in an ineffective BCM program. We are not buying their arguments.
