Why are Business Impact Assessments Important?

Failing to perform a BIA in your Business Continuity Planning process can be detrimental to your business’ efforts to maintain operational capability in the event of a crisis. BIAs make it clear to everyone involved in responding to the interruption what the priorities are, and where resources should be directed to first, ensuring that the key operations that cannot be unavailable for long are reinstated as a priority. A BIA can also be illuminating for many businesses as BIAs can highlight gaps in capability within the business, and can highlight other issues which are easier to manage before a crisis occurs, as opposed to them only coming to light once a crisis plan must be activated. BIAs also highlight the many department interdependencies many businesses will have. During a crisis event, it may appear that only one area or department of a business is affected, but without a BIA, some department interdependencies may be missed, meaning that the impact of a disruption may extend just past what was initially thought. This lack of clarity during a crisis event can make an already stressful situation increasingly difficult.