1.1. Executive Summary
The focus of a business impact analysis (BIA) is to determine the impact to a cable operator’s operations in the event that a functional area or facility is unavailable for business operations and to identify the recovery time objective for returning the functional area or facility to operational effectiveness following a crisis, incident, or disaster.
1.2. Scope
Cable operators depend on 1. facilities, 2. technology, and 3. people to maintain day to day or business as usual operations. This document can be used to prepare a business impact analysis study for any of the three. When a cable operator is considering a full business continuity plan, the business impact analysis will work in conjunction with location risk assessments to identify both risk and mitigation strategies.
1.3. Benefits
Without a properly documented BIA, the cable provider is at risk for extended downtime and ultimately damage to the company brand in the eyes of the customers and/or shareholders if publicly traded. Assembling a BIA has many benefits for a cable operator (and ultimately entire cable industry) including:
- company agreed upon downtime tolerance thresholds and recovery time objectives (RTO)
- bridging communications cross department/function in clarity for recovery assignments
- optimization of limited human resources during time of heightened stress and pressure to restore thus preventing possible further human induced error.
1.4. Intended Audience
Business continuity professionals will often be the lead in the construction of the BIA however, executive leadership, facility mangers, communications, and line technicians will often be involved in the formation of the documentation and ultimately execution of recovery in time of need.