Market Overview: Business Continuity Management Software, Q2 2011

During 2010 and the early part of 2011, we witnessed a multitude of disruptive natural disasters and extreme weather events, including earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes, and blizzards. We also witnessed several devastating accidents caused by human error, such as the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and a number of coal-mining accidents in the US, Chile, and China. As these and previous events bring attention to the potential consequences of catastrophes on businesses, industry standards for recognizing and preparing for such low-likelihood, high-impact events continue to emerge. Examples include the ISO 31000 risk management standard released in late 2009 and the soon-to-be-released ISO 22301 business continuity management (BCM) standard. For BCM and risk management professionals responding to these growing concerns and expectations, manual processes and desktop tools have never been and never will be good enough. To centralize BCM governance and enforce standards across a complex and geographically distributed organization, you need software; you've needed it for years, and it's time to invest.