Better Banking with Exceptional BCP

Challenge

Southside Bank in Tyler, Texas was struggling with their business continuity plan (BCP). They received audit feedback specifically recommending the need to implement a software tool. As growth occurred within the organization and the BCP requirements increased, the use of Word and Excel alone were no longer meeting the needs to review and consistently update the BCP at an enterprise level.

The bank wanted to implement a new BCP that would align with their business objectives and coincide with industry best practices and regulatory guidelines.

“We knew that converting to a new solution would require time, proper resources, and expertise,” said Mary McLarry, Senior Vice President and Corporate Services Administrator for Southside Bank. Recognizing these challenges, the bank began to search for a vendor to help facilitate the creation of a new business continuity plan.

Solution

Southside was already using other software solutions in the WolfPAC Integrated Risk Management® platform, so they began to explore the business continuity software within the same suite of products. They were enticed by the ability to hold all relevant resources in one repository that could be shared among all modules. The support of business continuity subject matter experts from Wolf & Company, P.C. coupled with an automated tool like WolfPAC’s Business Continuity Management Solution also seemed like a great way to achieve their risk management goals.

“The solution gave us the centralized and consistent approach we needed, and the subject matter expertise provided the methodology to get this project off the ground and see it to completion,” said McLarry. “We never would have accomplished the progress we made in our tight timeline if we didn’t have the consulting guidance from the Wolf team. Their knowledge put us in a much better state of preparedness, evidenced by how well we responded to the unprecedented weather-related disaster in Texas in February, 2021.”

Daniel Sitton, Chief Information Security Officer, Director of IT, and Senior Vice President, added, “The process was thorough and allowed the entire management team to see things from a different perspective, which allowed us to focus on what was critical to our operations. Wolf helped manage expectations, including conducting a gap analysis between department requests and our bank’s resiliency from an IT perspective.”

Result

Harnessing the trusted process developed by Wolf’s business continuity experts, Southside achieved an enterprise-wide BCP that included a completed Business Impact Analysis (BIA) and Business Continuity Risk Assessment that strengthened their program.

“Wolf greatly contributed to the success of this endeavor, and we couldn’t have done it without them,” said Sitton. “We’ve decided to engage Wolf for ongoing maintenance of our plan so we can focus our resources on progressing our business.”

Takeaway

• An agile process creates advanced resiliency and disaster recovery in the wake of inherent threats
• Comprehensive, tailored solutions address unique challenges and optimize security
• In-depth analyses and exposure of gaps ensures enhanced remediation strategies and overall preparation