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Unlike other OCP modules like risk management, disaster recovery
and contingency planning, the importance of putting standard
operating procedures ( SOP ) in place is often overlooked and
neglected. While developing the SOP is not an integral part
of the OCP process, it definitely compliments the OCP process
and the effort put in to enhance the completeness of OCP documentation.
Absence of proper SOP documentation or incomplete information
of the Company's infrastructure, business systems, processes
and procedures increases the reliance on certain key individuals
in the Company and that can impose a certain level of risk to
its operational continuity capability, e.g. risk of knowledge
loss and potential major disruptions to the critical functions
in the Company when these key individuals becomes unavailable.
In recognition of this risk, the SOP is designed to ensure such
risk is well mitigated or contained, as the document will be
used as an Operating and Training Manual for the new or temporal
personnel.
The SOP is designed to document all information pertaining to
the IT infrastructure, personal & business computing environment
in the company, which include standard IT processes and procedures
used in the company. It is used to govern the day-to-day operations
and service delivery in the company so as to ensure the delivery
of high quality, consistent and reliable IT services to the
business.
While some companies understand the need and the importance
of putting in place a comprehensive SOP, they are confronted
with three key challenges with regards to documentation are:
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Operational personnel needs to focus
on their demanding day-to-day operational work; |
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Operational personnel may not have
the necessary documentation expertise; |
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Updating documentation on a periodic
basis just to keep the validity and usefulness of the
documentation could be too time-consuming. |
As a strategic partner, ACROSS Consulting helps the client to
overcome the above challenges by working together with the client’s
operational personnel to develop the documentation frameworks
specific to the client’s operating environment, write
the documentation and lastly maintain the documentation on behalf
of the client.
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2005 All rights reserved.