Consulting and Enterprise Solutions

Case Study

IT continuity plan for a mining company

Business Challenge
One of the largest mining companies in the Persian Gulf needed to create an IT Continuity Plan (ITCP) to provide services with minimal disruptions in the event of a disaster. The client faced myriad challenges. Its branch offices were spread across the country and were connected using a mix of network technologies such as leased lines, VSAT, and Internet Protocol Virtual Private Network (IP VPN) links. There were frequent disruptions in network connectivity to the remote mine locations, which affected production and back-end support staff heavily. In the past, the company experienced frequent service disruptions due to overdependence on a few critical servers, devices and network connections. It had a long recovery time for Server/Network/ Applications outages. Its responses to security threats were reactive, and it was highly sensitive to service downtimes. The difficulty in managing service downtimes was due, in part, to lack of clarity in roles and responsibilities. In addition, the company suffered from a lack of confidence in its ability to deliver continuous IT service because it had very few auditing procedures in place.

Mahindra Satyam Solution

Mahindra Satyams Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) group developed the Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery plans using a tailored version of its CoMBAT1TM methodology. The teams overall approach was divided into two phases. Phase I involved plan development, including risk assessment, business impact analysis and strategy selection. Phase II involved IT continuity plan testing and implementation along with training awareness creation for the clients personnel. In Phase 1, Mahindra Satyams ERM consultants performed a Business Impact Analysis (BIA) to determine the companys acceptable downtime (Recovery Time Objective) and Acceptable Loss of Data (called Recovery Point Objective). Next, Mahindra Satyam performed a Risk Assessment to identify vulnerabilities in the IT assets and threats that could exploit them. The Risk Assessment and Business Impact Analysis were carried out in conjunction with the IT department and involved all stakeholders. The reports identified risks and single points of failure and assessed the service impact of an incident affecting individual systems or entire locations. From this, the client defined and finalized the desired RTO and RPO and, in collaboration with Mahindra Satyam, examined and discussed various strategies for an ITCP.

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Case Study
also developed and distributed a BCP methodology handbook, which it distributed to employees to improve their skill set and increase their knowledge levels of BCP and Disaster Recovery (DR) procedures.

About CoMBAT
The CoMBAT (Continuity Management for Business and Technology) methodology developed by Mahindra Satyam is an integrated and phased approach for design and implementation of Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery plans. The end-objective of establishing a resilient Business Continuity Management System [BCMS] is achieved through a set of staged phases, each with its own entry and exit criteria and deliverables. In Phase 2, Mahindra Satyam inspected the companys existing IT services, devices, networks and servers. Based on this inspection, Mahindra Satyam drafted a description of the system architecture and defined a Business Continuity Plan (BCP), which included recovery strategies for all connections and devices. The detailed Continuity Plan outlined the steps to take while executing recovery procedures; the exact times they should be taken by employees; and call notification procedures for all ITCP team members during disaster times. Mahindra Satyam also ensured that most of these steps could be executed by employees with even minimal knowledge of IT. Mahindra Satyam also designed a bottom-up building block testing strategy, which helped build confidence at the component and unit levels, and involved all departments while simulating incidents scenarios such as a site or country outage. Mahindra Satyam conducted workshops for all employees involved in the BCPs and ITCPs to explain the programs to employees and ensure that the continuity procedures were clear and easy to execute. As part of these workshops, employees engaged in physical tests to increase their confidence in the plan. Mahindra Satyam

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Case Study
Benefits
Because of its work with Mahindra Satyam, the client was able to create an effective ITCP, which explained stakeholders roles and responsibilities in the event of disaster. A key aspect of the plan was a High Availability (HA) Architecture, which had been one of the clients main goals. The solutions that Mahindra Satyam proposed were also scalable; they will accommodate the clients horizontal and vertical expansion. Whats more, the solution provided flexible backup and recovery across LAN, WAN, SAN and NAS environments.

About Business Value Enhancement (BVE)

Business Value Enhancement (BVE), the Business Process and Technology Consulting group in Mahindra Satyam, has been constituted with the core mission of engaging with clients on business issues such as competitiveness of business operations and strategic leverage of information technology. BVE teams help clients make smart investments in business process and IT assets in line with the strategic objectives of the enterprise, and manage investments in these assets for optimal business value. BVE strives to make Mahindra Satyam the preferred transformation consulting partner, globally. Business Value Enhancement was established in response to requests from some of its major customers to help improve their service capabilities. From humble beginnings, the group has grown to become one of the worlds largest process consulting practices of its type, coming from an IT services company.

For further information please write to rfi@mahindrasatyam.net