The Confederation is systematically arming itself

As early as 2009, during the strategic leadership exercise of the Confederation (SFU), it was established that there was a lack of nationwide guidelines for a BCM. The Federal Council then commissioned the Federal Chancellery, which is also responsible for organising the SFU, to draw up an elementary guideline for managing the "power shortage situation" scenario.

However, in spring 2016, the General Secretaries' Conference (GSK) had to conclude that this approach was not sufficient to ensure the resilience of critical business processes in the Federal Administration. As a result, the Swiss Federal Finance Administration (FFA) was tasked with working with the Federal Chancellery to develop a proposal for a "Federal BCM Guideline" and "Organisation of a Federal BCM Coordination Office" within the existing Federal Risk Management organisation. The federal BCM framework was adopted in spring 2017 and put into force by the departments and the Federal Chancellery in summer. This decentralised approach was deliberately chosen in order to meet the different needs and situations of the individual federal offices.

The prescribed minimum standard guarantees a comprehensive introduction of the BCM system.

Task differentiation
In the Federal Administration, BCM is considered to be part of the integrated risk management system. This approach is undisputed and already laid down in the Confederation's risk policy. It is also appropriate to locate BCM coordination within the existing Federal Risk Management Coordination Office (FFA); this not only allows synergies to be exploited in terms of knowledge and organisation, but also strengthens the integration of risk management and BCM.

Both systems are closely "meshed" from a technical point of view, they correspond to management tasks. They must always focus on the essentials.

While risk management deals with both development risks (e.g. financial crisis) and event risks (e.g. fire), BCM is concerned with the management of event risks. Risk management controls risks preventively, while BCM measures help to minimise the impact of losses in the event of an incident. BCM focuses on management - not on the causes of an operational disruption.

The BCM Guideline
In addition to the four known phases (see box), the BCM guideline regulates the functions and responsibilities. Accordingly, the individual Federal Office management bears responsibility for the entire set-up and periodic review of the BCM. If the management determines that there are no time-critical services and processes - in the sense of BCM - phases 2 to 4 are only carried out to a limited extent or not at all.

What is actually meant by critical services and processes in BCM? This criticality cannot be defined uniformly for the entire Confederation. It is much more important to assess and define the tolerable downtime for each business-critical process in relation to the employees, IT/data, suppliers, etc. individually.

In this context, potential hazards that could lead to personal injury and environmental damage or have a significant financial impact on the economy and the population must be carefully analysed. Some of this work is already well advanced. Examples are the maintenance of liquidity by the Federal Treasury or the securing of customs clearance at the national border. It is important to concentrate on the essentials so that the BCM system does not become bureaucratic.

The system is to be adapted to the given resources and implemented in a reasonable ratio of effort and return.

Decentralised implementation
Since the implementation of the BCM Confederation is decentralized, i.e. the responsibility of the individual departments, there is a certain need for coordination. This applies in particular to those areas that need to be managed from an overall perspective (i.e. top-down). Such staff tasks are the responsibility of the Federal BCM Coordination Unit. In particular, it is tasked with reporting annually to the top management of the federal administration on the status of implementation and topicality of BCM, pointing out any need for harmonisation and action, and advising the departments on the implementation of BCM.
mente with all methodological questions.

This ensures that the relevant topics reach the head of department at the appropriate level and that efficient control is possible at the strategic level. This applies not least to scenarios that can be managed more economically and effectively from a cross-departmental perspective (e.g. priorities for use in the event of a power shortage).

The decentralised solution for the comprehensive implementation of BCM corresponds to the organisational principle of federal risk management. As with all "federal" systems, this has the advantage that the special needs and circumstances of the individual departments can be better taken into account.

Conversely, certain disadvantages cannot be dismissed out of hand. For example, complete vertical integration in the federal administration, i.e. across the levels of department, federal office, department and federal government, is very difficult. Little use can be made of interdependencies and synergies, and the correct prioritization of federal resources is not ensured. In the worst case, this can lead to investment or efficiency risks.

Challenges
Further challenges arise in the areas of conception and terminology, which are essential for a common understanding. The chosen solution therefore requires particular care to ensure that the disadvantages of decentralised regulation do not lead to isolated solutions.

Despite tight resources, the Confederation is taking the step of introducing BCM across the entire Federal Administration. The current implementation status of BCM varies considerably between departments and federal offices. Some are still in the concept phase, others in the implementation phase or already in the use phase. The task now is to even out the considerable differences in BCM maturity within the federal administration.

It is important that lessons are learned from the initial experience and that synergies are exploited wherever possible. The BCM coordination office will play a central role here and support the offices. In future, any gaps will be identified through periodic reporting. This will ensure that corrective measures can be initiated quickly and that the management can actively assume its responsibility. The prerequisites must ultimately be created to ensure an efficient and effective system.
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