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Experience capable, consistent, and easy-to-use business continuity management software.
This top-ranked U.S. law firm had offices in over 15 cities, a presence in Europe—and a business continuity program hindered by its reliance on general-purpose software tools. A search for a more efficient approach led the firm to BCMMetrics, bringing transformative gains to its continuity program and overall resilience.
The Manual Approach to Business Continuity Shows Its Limits
The top legal firm specializing in product-liability law had come to a crossroads: For years, it had managed its business continuity and IT disaster recovery program using MS Word and Excel, a method that required every program task to be performed manually and presented significant challenges in ensuring resilience.
“It was laborious for both me and the plan owners,” recalls David P., the firm’s senior business continuity specialist. “We even lost some documentation during a file storage system change.”
The manual approach made it difficult for the firm’s BC team to identify critical business processes, determine RTOs, update BIAs and recovery plans, and provide compliance reports.
As this method’s shortcoming became apparent, the firm’s BC team began seeking a specialized BC software solution that could improve efficiency and strengthen their continuity position.
The Search for a Solution and the Choice of BCMMetrics
While researching potential solutions, the firm’s BC team learned about BCMMetrics, the business continuity software management platform developed by and for the consultants of MHA Consulting, the well-known business continuity consulting firm.
After evaluating several alternatives, the team selected BCMMetrics for its ease of use and intuitive design.
“BCMMetrics stood out as the most user-friendly solution,” David says.
MHA Consulting CEO Michael Herrera, who worked with the firm’s team, elaborates: “They liked the fact that it was made by people who do BC every day. This shows in how closely the screens in the tool match the steps of the BC lifecycle, making it easy to set up and navigate.”
The firm implemented two BCMMetrics modules, BIA OnDemand and Planner.
“Last year, we focused on getting all our plans into the tool,” David explains. “This year, we’re refreshing that information, copying over the BIA data, and ensuring everything is up to date.”
BCMMetrics Brings Gains in Efficiency, Clarity, and Resilience
The move to BCMMetrics brought the firm substantial gains in efficiency, insight, and resilience while making compliance reporting faster and easier.
One prized benefit has been BCMMetrics’ strong data-aggregation capability.
“The biggest change is that we can now aggregate all the BIA information in one place, which helps us identify our most critical applications,” David notes. “This ensures our disaster recovery exercises focus on recovering essential applications in a timely manner to support our business units.”
The platform also gives the team visibility into the different recovery time objectives (RTOs) for the same process across multiple departments. This knowledge empowers the team to create recovery plans and strategies robust enough to recover the firm’s critical processes before an outage causes an excessive impact.
“The tool helps us ensure we’re using the shortest RTO for our disaster recovery tests,” David explains.
In addition, BCMMetrics has greatly strengthened the firm’s ability to demonstrate its compliance to ISO standards and other requirements to customers, regulators, and insurers.
BCMMetrics Support: Rarely Needed But Always Responsive
The firm’s implementation of BCMMetrics’ has been smooth, but on the few occasions David has sought support, he has always received prompt assistance.
“I’ve worked with Michael and the help desk a few times, and the support has always been responsive and efficient,” he says.
Herrera adds, “David’s experience shows how easy the platform is to use. He contacts us about once a year, a fact that speaks to its intuitive design.”
Future Goals and Ongoing Improvements
Looking ahead, David anticipates using BCMMetrics’ reporting feature more for compliance tracking and would like to see even more automation.
“I think we’ll use the reporting feature more in the future,” he says. “I’d love a feature that could automatically track when our plans are due.”
Herrera reveals that BCMMetrics is actively working on adding features to enhance automated tracking and compliance reporting, giving clients a centralized snapshot of the status and upcoming due dates for all continuity plans.
The Case for BCMMetrics
Transitioning from manual tools to BCMMetrics has brought about a positive transformation in this firm’s business continuity program and all-around resilience. The platform’s robust automation, intuitive design, and critical insights have improved the firm’s ability to identify its critical processes and enhanced its exercises and recovery planning, all while saving time and effort on the part of the BC team.
“Yes, we’re very happy with the value,” David concludes.
Through BCMMetrics, the firm has transitioned from an outdated, labor-intensive program to a streamlined, automated solution that supports both day-to-day operations and long-term resilience planning, ensuring the firm is equal to the tough demands of both the legal profession and today’s turbulent environment.
