Recent research* spanning 35 countries released by the Business Continuity Institute (BCI) shows that over 70% of organisations recorded at least one supply chain disruption during 2010, with 20% admitting they had suffered reputational damage as a result.
Businesses that have shifted production to lower cost countries are most at risk with more than eight out of ten experiencing disruption, usually due to failure of transport networks and supplier insolvency. Even when suppliers were identified as being critical to their business, almost half the firms surveyed confessed they had not checked their suppliers’ business continuity plans.
As a SunGard Availability Services customer, you recognise the importance of building resilience into your own operation – but have you addressed the impact of a key supplier failure? SunGard offers a range of market-leading software tools and expert consulting services that can help you reduce your exposure to the failings of others.
Continuity Management Solutions (CMS) – Supply Chain package
This software bundle will help you to assess the impact on your business and customers in the event of supply chain disruption. It features a
Vendor Assessment module that enables you to evaluate your vendor’s BC plans and ensure their objectives match your own. Even more importantly, it helps you plan workarounds should the chain be broken.
The other products in the package are BIA Professional, a highly effective survey tool to help you understand the effect on your business when disasters strike, ensuring your continuity plans meets actual business needs. We also offer the award-winning LDRPS (living Disaster recovery Planning System), which unlike DIY Microsoft Office based plans, helps you manage the complexity and numerous changes that occur within multiple plans; across several locations within your organisation. And if you already have a mature plan in place that’s becoming unmanageable, don’t worry we can help you migrate to CMS, so you won’t loose all the hard work that you put into your original plan.
Supply Chain Consulting services
Our pragmatic and experienced consultants are skilled at quickly getting to the heart of your business, identifying critical dependencies and helping you understand your level of risk based on the critical activities identified in your business impact Analysis. Working closely with you, they will help develop a supply chain strategy covering key areas including:
- Supplier procurement – helping you draw up a vendor specification setting the minimum level of BCM provision you expect from your suppliers based on industry best practice. This will cover core components from general programme management through to overall risk and incident management. We help you collate the information you need to make informed decisions on BC strategy, ensuring a full audit trail to meet internal and external compliance requirements.
- Process mapping – matching suppliers with business-critical processes to identify any vulnerabilities.
- Supply chain incident management – drawing up action plans covering your response, escalation, management and monitoring.
- Lifecycle supply chain review – Our web-based tracking and reporting portal gives you the ability to monitor, note changes and, ultimately, improve your suppliers’ resilience.
*Business Continuity Institute: Supply Chain Resilience – October 2010