Business Impact Statement (BIS)
Please answer the following questions regarding the Business Impact (BI) of your issue so a BI Statement may be compiled/saved on file by the assigned Microsoft Incident Manager.
The purpose of providing the answers to these questions is to assist the Microsoft Incident Manager with advocating on your behalf for any escalation(s) that may be required during the lifetime of your case during Business Hours, no matter what the case Severity level is; (Severity A, B 24/7, B, or C.)
(In the case of Severity A after-hours support, this will also help any assigned Critical Situation Manager(s) working your case.)
If any of these questions do not apply and/or you are unable provide any details, please leave the question blank or leave a simple "N/A." You can always provide more information later.
We also request you try to put the information in common use terms as opposed to in-depth technical terms to provide efficiency of understanding when communicating across multiple technical and non-technical roles during any assignment/escalation processes.
- Is this a production-down issue? (Please answer either “Yes” or “No”) -----(Provide Answer Here)
- Is the issue constant, or intermittent? • If “intermittent,” please provide the frequency of the issue, if able. • For example: “Every XX number of minutes, hours, days,” etc. -----(Provide Answer Here)
- How many users are affected by the issue? • If all users and/or your entire Enterprise/Company is affected, please provide a roundabout number of users and/or department(s) affected, if able. -----(Provide Answer Here)
- Are there any VIP users affected, such as C-level Executives, Management, Administrators, etc.? (Please answer either “Yes” or “No”) • If “Yes,” please specify how many of these users are impacted, and their respective roles/titles, if able. -----(Provide Answer Here)
- What critical tasks are unable to be completed because of this issue? Please be specific. • For example: Users cannot send/receive email from clients, product orders cannot be completed, purchase orders cannot be completed, new hires are unable to be added to the system, etc. These examples provide a clear picture of how the affected technology is used within your unique environment. -----(Provide Answer Here)
- If any application(s) are affected/creating negative business impact(s) due to your issue, please provide the following information:
- The specific function of any/all applications affected: • For example: “The ‘XXXXX’ application is used by internal/external users to access relevant account information such as account numbers and previously fulfilled invoices.” -----(Provide Answer Here)
- The frequency of use for the application(s) mentioned • For example: Daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually, etc. -----(Provide Answer Here)
- The respective user(s) role(s) accessing/utilizing the application(s) • For example: CEOs, Call Center/Customer Service Representatives, Finance/Human Resource Department Associates, External Customers/Clients, etc. -----(Provide Answer Here)
- Are there any workarounds in place? (Please answer either “Yes” or “No”) -----(Provide Answer Here)
- Are any project deadlines in jeopardy? (Please answer either “Yes” or “No”) • “Yes,” please specify the project(s) and their respective due dates. -----(Provide Answer Here)
- Are external business clients impacted? (Please answer either “Yes” or “No”) • If “Yes,” please specify how the external clients are impacted • For example: “Our ‘XXXXX’ clients are unable to submit product orders for ‘such and such material,’ so they are unable to complete pending project(s).” -----(Provide Answer Here)
If you feel the above questions do not cover the urgency of your issue, please provide any other Business Impact information you feel is pertinent in a note below.
(If this information is being requested for a Severity A case, please note that all Severity A cases only qualify with production-down/high-priority scenarios, and require a Business Impact statement to be saved on file.)
Such escalations that may be required can include: • Missed SLAs for Primary Case Owner/Initial Support Engineer assignment • Collaboration requests with other Support teams for other Microsoft technologies • Support team transfer(s) to other Microsoft technologies • Possible Product Group/Engineering Team involvement
Without this Business Impact information/a Business Impact statement, priority/urgency will be difficult to define on your case if any of the above listed and/or any other escalations are needed to assist you.
