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8 best business continuity software solutions
Many software providers offer BCM solutions that assist organizations in planning for and responding to disasters. The following BCM platforms are among the leading products within the category.
Agility RecoveryPlanner
The Agility RecoveryPlanner software suite provides a complete business continuity management planning package to assist organizations in maintaining compliance with BCM standards and requirements.
The scalable and customizable software assists firms of all sizes active within all industries with performing business impact analyses and risk assessments, creating and managing continuity plans and fulfilling compliance reporting requirements, among other functions.
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To assist firms in planning, Agility provides the BIA checklist as shown in Figure A to prospective customers on its website.
Figure A
RecoveryPlanner is appropriate even for organizations that have already implemented business continuity plans. Because the Agility software simplifies data collection — including by encouraging collaboration across departments — and prioritizes operations processes, firms will find it easier to maintain and update plans, manage essential vendors and more efficiently manage crises.
Multiple pricing packages are available, and a work-from-home option can be added to each. The Basic Notifications Package includes the company’s Preparis Agility Alerts and its Business Continuity Training Center, Tabletop Testing Templates, Document Storage, Self-Contained Mobile Command Center and Ship-to-Home Laptops, while the Enhanced Planning Package adds a 10-user license for the Agility Planner and the Annual Business Continuity Plan Review component. A Premier Resilience Package, which adds Expert Consulting Services and an Annual Facilitated Tabletop Testing component, is also available.
Contact the company’s sales team for pricing information, which varies based on numerous factors, including which packages a customer selects. For more information on Agility, complete the company’s Contact Us page or call Agility at 1-866-364-9696.
Archer Business Resiliency
Archer Business Resiliency offers organizations a BCM solution that aligns operations continuity planning, IT disaster recovery, crisis management and incident recovery services with an organization’s overarching business goals. The vendor’s emphasis on automation assists customers in rapidly responding to disruptions and assists coordinating recovery efforts when crises occur.
In keeping with ISO 22301 business continuity standards, Archer Business Resiliency aligns operational continuity planning and recovery efforts with internationally accepted requirements and seeks to grade and surface risks before incidents occur, as shown in Figure B. The company’s approach also supports the flexibility necessary for adapting to businesses’ changing needs and requirements as circumstances evolve and change.
Figure B
Archer pricing is dependent upon several factors, including the specific package components selected, the type of technical support selected and the number of users within the organization. For more information on Archer, complete its Contact Us page.
Castellan Business Continuity Management
Designed for integration within everyday operations and emphasizing automation, Castellan Solutions’ Castellan Business Continuity Management combines program governance and automation features with system integration and cloud-based services to deliver robust and reliable BCM functionality. Castellan’s solution also includes such security-conscious features as support for single sign-on, multi-factor authentication and data security standards.
As should be expected from a BCM solution, Castellan provides business impact and risk management assessment assistance (Figure C), planning and strategy guidance and testing expertise. Reporting and dashboard functionality is customizable and seeks to identify gaps where identification and correction will better prepare customers for crises. Mobile incident support, emergency notifications and communication and crises dashboards are other features designed to assist command and control operations when incidents occur.
Figure C
As is typical for BCM software solutions, pricing is dependent upon components selected and the number of users within a customer’s organization. For more information on Castellan, complete the organization’s Contact page or call the company at 1-800-478-7645.
CL360 Business Continuity
CLDigital’s CL360 Business Continuity Management provides forms, templates, workflows and a comprehensive application that assists organizations in collecting essential operations continuity information from users, processes, systems, applications and vendors, among other sources.
The CL360 software subsequently analyzes that information to help generate visual dependency maps, surface risks, and identify gaps in planning and coverage. Recognizing the complexity of business impact analyses and risk assessments, CL360 Business Continuity software provides customers support features — including field insights and wizards — that assist teams in efficiently completing BCM tasks.
Understanding business continuity requirements change over time, CL360 is a no-code platform that permits customization and updating via simple drag-and-drop operations and pre-prepared tools. Subsequently, maintaining currency is easier and takes less time as new vendors and technologies are added or old suppliers and platforms are terminated.
For CLDigital CL360 pricing or more information on the CLDigital CL360 Business Continuity software solution, call the company at 1-866-321-5079 or complete its Contact form.
Fusion Framework System
Featuring integration compatibility with such popular platforms as Salesforce and ServiceNow, Fusion Risk Management’s Fusion Framework System includes prebuilt connectors and two-way communications with multiple third-party applications to better permit emergency notification and response for critical workflows. Fusion’s Community Connector simplifies connecting customers, partners and employees to better manage operation disruption risks.
Like other BCM solutions, Fusion guides businesses through continuity planning, organization preparedness reviews, risk and impact assessments, tolerance configuration, and prioritization and dependency mapping. The offering also provides context mapping features, which better assist businesses in understanding how they fulfill essential workflows and processes.
For Fusion pricing or more information, call the company at 1-847-632-1002 or complete its Contact form.
NAVEX One IRM
Formerly marketed as Lockpath, following its acquisition by NAVEX, the BCM solution is now integrated within the NAVEX One Platform’s Integrated Risk Management solution. With components for surfacing and resolving third-party risks, building an automated risk assessment system and monitoring compliance requirements, the NAVEX One platform approaches BCM challenges from a broad integrated risk management perspective.
NAVEX encourages customers to begin the process by reviewing its core IRM questionnaire online, which explores an organization’s business continuity planning status and preparedness to work with a third-party risk manager. With APIs designed for organizations to select and apply as needed, NAVEX One strives to be an easily administered proactive platform that enhances continuity and risk visibility while also freeing technical employees’ time and reducing corresponding daily operational management expenses.
Pricing is dependent upon multiple factors, including which products a customer selects. Product examples from which customers can select include integrated compliance management, hotline service and incident management, policy and procedure management and third-party risk management. For more information on NAVEX One, call the company at 1-866-297-0224 or complete its Contact Us page.
ParaSolution Business Continuity Platform
Another comprehensive solution that incorporates traditional BCM components as well as an optional ISO 22301 Certification compliance module, among other features, Premier Continuum’s ParaSolution Business Continuity Program offers business continuity, crisis, supplier and IT disaster recovery management features. Whether requiring risk and business impact assessments, crisis planning or guidance structuring emergency recovery processes, ParaSolution is designed to adapt to an organization’s specific needs.
During a crisis, ParaSolution’s mobile app assists an organization’s stakeholders in obtaining the most current emergency information. The tool also offers prebuilt forms and workflows to address dependencies and assist recovery when incidents occur.
Free trials are available, and as is consistent with BCM platforms, pricing varies based on multiple factors including adopted features and user base. For more information on Premier Continuum ParaSolution, call the company at 1-877-761-6222 or complete its Contact page.
SAI360 Business Continuity Management
Noting the variety of threats to a business’ operation include cyber attacks, natural disasters and breaches introduced by third-party vendors, the SAI360 Business Continuity Management platform assists establishing accurate risk assessment and mitigation frameworks with tools that automate BCM processes to improve efficiencies and aid automated incident response. With global scalability and support for multiple languages, SAI360 provides an intuitive software solution that also supports regular recovery testing, dashboard generation and even comprehensive worksite training.
The product offers forms and reporting, as well as authorization processes, that match a business’ existing workflows. Combined with proprietary algorithms and customized reports, SAI360 can speed response actions and minimize disruption when catastrophes do occur, including using its mobile platform as shown in Figure D.
Figure D
For more information on SAI360, complete the company’s Contact Us page or call SAI360 at 1-312-546-4500.
What is business continuity management?
BCM constitutes the advanced planning and preparation organizations undertake to minimize business disruptions due to disasters and enable rapid recovery when a catastrophe occurs.
BCM includes not only the software and hardware components employed to maintain and recover business operations but also the risk and crisis management strategies, contingency planning, business recovery policies, and procedures implemented and continually updated as part of an overall comprehensive operations continuity effort.
How does BCM software work?
BCM software assists organizations by providing a complete framework by which they can review, prepare for and minimize any outages or downtime resulting from crises whether disasters occur due to human error, purposeful malicious activities or natural disasters.
BCM solutions typically help organizations navigate a complete range of essential business continuity elements, including: Performing operations impact assessments; surfacing and tracking risks; developing, monitoring and testing contingency plans; drafting and maintaining business continuity plans and procedures; generating emergency alerts; managing crisis communications; and guiding recovery actions when disasters occur.
What are the benefits of BCM software?
BCM solutions assist organizations in identifying operations and preparedness needs, spotting operational coverage gaps, establishing contingency processes, and effectively responding to disasters to minimize if not eliminate downtime and outages.
BCM software lays the groundwork for addressing all the corresponding requirements and processes, while also providing visual maps to assist with planning and mobile applications to speed recovery when incidents occur.
