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Business Continuity Planning

It is now generally recognized that Business continuity planning and disaster recovery planning are vital activities. However, the creation of (and maintenance of) a sound business continuity and disaster recovery plan, is a complex undertaking, involving a series of steps.

Prior to creation of the plan itself, it is essential to consider the potential impacts of disaster and to understand the underlying risks: these are the foundations upon which a sound business continuity plan or disaster recovery plan should be built. Following these activities the plan itself must be constructed - no small task. This itself must then be maintained, tested and audited to ensure that it remains appropriate to the needs of the organization. And what about the support infrastructure and services?

BUSINESS IMPACT AND RISK ANALYSIS

The first step in a sensible business continuity process is to consider the potential impacts of each type of disaster or event. This is critical - how can you properly plan for a disaster if you have little idea of the likely impacts on your business/organisation of the different scenarios?

Having determined the impacts, it is now equally important to consider the magnitude of the risks which could result in these impacts. Again, this is a critical activity - it will determine which scenarios are most likely to occur and which should attract most attention during the planning process.

A sound disaster recovery / business continuity plan is essential to protect the well being of an organization. This cannot really be over emphasized... yet many enterprises still side step the issue or hold plans which are clearly out of date or inadequate.

Part of the reason for this is the complexity of the task. This is not helped by some vendors selling planning products which are themselves extremely difficult to master.

It becomes imperative then, that plans be developed, tested, and implemented, so that ‘Due Diligence’ is addressed in your organization and does not become a further problem. In this regard, we can help you in a number of ways to understand the concepts, help educate executive management, middle management, and operations personnel, develop a planning guide to assist in keeping your project on track, focused, and budgeted. As required, our team can assist in workshops, analysis, plan development, testing, implementation, and maintenance activity. There are numerous templates, and software packages available, however, all require a significant understanding of the BCP/DRPCMP (Business Continuity Plan / Disaster Recovery Plan / Crisis Management Plan) concepts.

If your organization does not have plans addressing BCP/DRP/CMP in place, then this Due Diligence requirement will mean significant change.

September 11th, 2001 has changed forever the Business Community in North America. You need to understand what that change means for you personally, and your organization. We are pleased to help you understand, and begin to put in place the plans necessary for your business continuity.