Cost Benefit Analysis

Definition

Cost Benefit Analysis is a process that facilitates the financial evaluation of different strategic Business Continuity Management options and balances the cost of each option against the perceived savings. It is the financial technique for measuring the cost of implementing a particular solution and compares that with the benefit delivered by that solution.

Issues and Challenges

• The benefits of improved systemic resilience accrue to all participants in a system, but in most cases such improvements are the result of investments in Business Continuity by individual participants. Because participants typically consider only their direct benefits and costs whereas authorities are expected to consider the broader public interest dimension, a natural tension exists between the levels of resilience that participants might consider reasonable for their own business purposes and the objectives of authorities for the resilience of the system as a whole.