Business Continuity Management at universities

With the approach to an "Integrated Information Management" and the introduction of integrated IT systems, e.g. for campus management, the strict separation in the data processing sector between pure administration and science is increasingly dissolving up to the "Digital University".  With the increasing dependence of processes on information technology, the risks naturally increase if the technology is not available. IT organizations generally protect themselves against risks by investing as much effort as possible in high availability and redundancy. On the one hand, these measures are cost-intensive and often increase complexity to such an extent that availability suffers in case of doubt. On the other hand, university management and users want trouble-free operation; however, it should be as inexpensive and convenient as possible. A precise assessment and evaluation of the risks of information technology failures in terms of economic damage and damage to the university's reputation is currently hardly available in an overall view.

This is where the project comes in and aims to provide a blueprint for universities with the help of so-called Business Continuity Management (BCM). Business Continuity Management is a management process with the aim of identifying serious risks for an institution that threaten its survival at an early stage and establishing measures to counteract them. BCM thus includes both the ability to transparently represent the dependencies of business processes and their resources in normal and emergency operations, and the ability of an institution to identify crisis situations early, to promptly provide a qualified assessment by specialists and to enable targeted management. In order to ensure the functionality and thus the survival of an institution, appropriate preventive measures must be taken which, on the one hand, increase the robustness and reliability of the business processes and, on the other hand, enable a rapid and targeted reaction in an emergency or crisis situation.

The aim of the project outlined above is to introduce a strategic Business Continuity Management (BCM) in this sense at the two participating universities. In the course of the project, the existing risks of the universities are to be evaluated in a structured process with all necessary stakeholders and, in the further course of the project, adequate strategies and concrete measures for risk minimization are to be introduced in order to establish a continuous BCM at the universities.
The methods and experience gained in the project will be made available to other universities for the introduction of BCM as "best practice".

Project duration: 1.7.2014 - 31.8.2015