• 4167-mid-251.html MHA Consulting | Top Business Continuity Consulting/Services Company-2020

    MHA Consulting
    Providing Efficient Business Continuity Roadmap
    MHA Consulting

    Michael Herrera, CEO, MHA ConsultingMichael Herrera, CEO
    Enjamin Franklin quite famously said, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” As per a recent study by Small Biz Trends, almost 90 percent of new startups fail. Among the various reasons for the failure of a small business, their inability to prepare for emergencies and crises is one of their biggest oversights. However, in recent years, companies have learned from their peers’ mistakes and are now diverting some of their focus toward business continuity and disaster recovery planning. Many organizations in the market are experts at assessing customer needs, and in providing effective and efficient business continuity plans. One such organization is MHA Consulting. In an interview with CIO Applications, Michael Herrera, CEO of MHA Consulting, tells us how the company assesses its client’s business continuity needs and provides superior people and technology to chart their roadmap to success.

    What are some of the pain points that your clients have while achieving their targets? Any major difficulties that you hear time and again?

    One pain-point that we frequently face is that sometimes, clients simply don’t want to hire an in-house business continuity person or team. They just don’t see business continuity as a core competency, but know it’s critical to protect their business, so they bring us in. Clients also say that while they do have a staff of business continuity personnel, they often aren’t the right resources, don’t have the right knowledge, and so are not clear on how to properly execute their continuity program. Occasionally some clients ask us to jumpstart their continuity program and help their staff because it is either too weak or taking too long to implement, and they need the program to gain traction quickly. Lastly, many customers become clients after they have faced disruption and no longer want to be exposed.

    Could you elaborate on some of the services that you have and how those services help your clients?

    There are three key areas where we provide service. First of all, we offer traditional business continuity consulting services. In it, we come in and implement one or more continuity related components to meet the specific needs of the client and leave when completed. Secondly, the clients can outsource their entire business continuity program to us, and we can become an extended staff member to them, often for multiple years. We also provide on-demand services where we offer blocks of time to use wherever it’s needed, augmenting their program by providing strategic and/or tactical support.

    We’re flexible, adaptable, reasonably rightpriced, and we execute. In the end, it all pays for itself

    Lastly, one of our newest services is that we can now help our clients evaluate their critical third-party supplier continuity plans. They need to ensure that their suppliers have comprehensive continuity plans but don’t have the time or resources. The average client retention is five years, which speaks to our services and level of comprehensiveness.

    Can you tell our readers about the features and functionalities of BCMMETRICS?

    BCMMETRICSTM is a suite of cloud-based business continuity tools built specificallyto support clients and subscribers in the development of their continuity programs. The first tool (Compliance Confidence) allows clients to evaluate how well their continuity program is aligned to industry standards. The second tool (BIA On-Demand) enables clients to conduct an impact analysis to determine what is critical to the company and what is not. BCMMETRICSTM also has a plan development tool called Planner that allows them to build and maintain plans for their organization. Lastly, to tie it all together, our BCM One tool permits you to inventory your critical locations, categorize them using various criteria, place them on a map, and upload critical site information and plans. Since its inception, we have many customers that subscribe and manage their program, data, and information using BCMMETRICSTM.

    How does it get started when a client approaches with a particular challenge? Is there any specific methodology that you follow?

    One thing we learned in the business continuity industry is that one size doesn’t fit all. So, the first thing we do when a client comes to us is to evaluate who they are and what they are looking for. We also want to build something that’s executable for them by providing different levels of consulting services, work onsite or remotely, or by being strategic or tactical in our support. Thus, we at MHA Consulting recognize that every business is different and is therefore very flexible, co-operative, and understanding to our client’s needs.

    What are the major industries that you get the most traction from?

    In the last 12-18 months, the most traction we’ve received is from the healthcare sector (e.g., large healthcare networks and research hospitals). The healthcare industry is recognizing the importance of business continuity and is spending the time, resources, and money to implement a program that ensures uninterrupted patient care and safety and the best healthcare experience in their network.

    Could you give us a case study wherein a client where you helped a client overcome a particular challenge?

    Let’s take the case of one of our large healthcare clients. This organization has 10+ hospitals and over 150+ clinics. They asked us first to give them an assessment to understand the current status of their business continuity, crisis management, and disaster recovery program. So, we came in, looked at where they fit, aligned them with industry standards, and understood what they were looking for. In the end, we were able to provide them with a roadmap for improvement and created a program over a timeframe. Over time, we were able to help them hire somebody and become part of the existing organization. The roadmap ensured that they could get the program kicked-off quickly and ensure that they get people with the right skillset. This was one of our best cases, wherein both parties benefitted, and we helped ensure patient care safety.

    What are the key differentiating factors that set you apart from the market?

    There are a few things that make us stand out from the crowd. One is our size. We are a boutique firm (a small firm specializing in one area). Our size allows us to be very flexible to the client’s requirements. We are adaptable and also competitively-priced in providing the services required of our clients.
    Another thing that differentiates us is our vast experience. We work across many industries, which in turn bestow us with a wealth of knowledge on how people do things. Our people love what they do and are enthusiastic in every interaction with our clients.
    Lastly, as our clients have put it, ‘we get the job done.’ Our mission is to come in, do the job the way we’ve been asked to do, and get it done right the first time. To summarize, we’re flexible, adaptable, knowledgeable, enthusiastic, reasonably right-priced, and we execute. In the end, it all pays for itself.

    What are the future plans envisioned for the organization? Are there any new projects that you are coming up with?

    Next year, we aim to expand in two key areas. Firstly, we need to expand our critical supplier business continuity review service. This way, we can ensure that our clients can permit us to evaluate, score, manage, and continue the assessment of their critical supplier plans. Secondly, we need to expand BCMMETRICS fully. We have now added the ability to create plans. The full-service tool can now take the client from assessing compliance, conducting impact analyses to plan development/storage, site mapping, and the measurement of residual risk.

    - Joe Phillip
        March 04, 2020