CTC Commences Operation Consulting Service for IT-BCP Systems

ITOCHU Techno-Solutions Corporation (headquartered in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Satoshi Kikuchi, President & CEO; hereinafter “CTC”) today commences offering of a consulting service for IT-BCP operation. The service is for system operation involving a business continuity plan (BCP) for a company's IT system.

Since the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011, awareness about anti-disaster measures is growing and many companies formulate BCPs for addressing risk in their business activities and review their existing plans. This has led to greater importance placed on IT-BCPs ? BCP for IT systems, which are the bedrock of corporations. In addition to preparations for a system, many companies are working on making their system operations more detailed based on greater assumption that a disaster will actually occur. The many examples of this include determination of IT-BCP activation conditions and the scope of restoration, finding the length of time needed for restoration of service, and ensuring that the staff members normally and thoroughly understand the IT-BCP.

CTC previously offers a consulting service on IT-BCP operation on a separate basis. Based on inquiries from clients and their requests for transforming the service into menu form, the service is systematized into the new consulting service on IT-BCP operation. This allows clients to clarify criteria for judgment on system switching and restoration from a backup in the event of a disaster, and the action taken by departments concerning the IT system. The menu includes training in normal hours, which allows one to verify the IT-BCP and make it more concrete and realistic.

The consulting service on IT-BCP operation decides optimal operation procedures for companywide BCPs and BCP systems of clients, based on CTC's long history of offering the service on operation of IT systems and consulting on operational issues, and of developing numerous different systems for BCPs and offering related services. The consulting service consists of five steps: (1) confirmation of the business environment (step of confirming and defining assumptions), (2) definition of an IT-BCP policy (step of defining a policy for IT-BCP continuity), (3) formulation of an operational plan for activation of the IT-BCP in the event of a disaster (step of creating a plan implemented when a disaster occurred), (4) formulation of a plan for education, training and other activities performed in normal hours (step of creating a plan implemented in normal hours) and (5) formulation of a plan for operation of an activated IT-BCP in the event of a disaster (step of creating an emergency plan). CTC will also formulate measures for IT-BCP operation that are optimal for each client by combining many different guidelines such as ISO 22301, the international standard of business continuity management systems (BCMS), and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry guidelines for formulating a BCP.

Focusing on companies that have already built a BCP system, CTC will develop the consulting service on IT-BCP operation as it pursues expansion of many types of operational services designed for ensuring consistent operation of clients' systems including anti-disaster measures.