Business Continuity Planning

""Expect the best, but prepare for the worst." We've all heard this before, but, as I look at it now, I see how appropriate it is for business continuity planning. After all, we do all the planning and preparing hoping we'll never have to use it. If your plans aren't quite up to snuff, this week's articles should help make you "better safe than sorry."

This article gives you a look at the role of HR in business continuity. (Item #1)   The most effective organizations will be able to leverage highly available services to improve service uptime, improve the organizational climate for IT staff, and better serve the organization's stakeholders. (Item #2)   Here are 10 tips to help you be a more effective business continuity planner. (Item #3)  

Business continuity planning is really a form of insurance to minimize the danger of losing your business. (Item #4)   How do you calculate the real cost of business downtime? (Item #5)   Business interruption insurance should play an important role in funding business recovery. (Item #6)  

As always, we look forward to hearing your comments & insights regarding business continuity. If you have a topic you'd like us to cover, email me at [email protected].

Bob Mellinger, President
Attainium Corp

1. Business Continuity: tales of the unexpected

How do you prepare for the totally unexpected? Lyndon Bird, technical development director at the BCI, says that broad plans are the answer. "Employers are going to be interrupted in some way by something and they are probably not going to be able to predict what will happen except for the fact that they've got to be able to deal with the consequences," he says. "In a really interconnected world with long supply chains and connections between different regions we are all going to be affected, potentially, by anything that happens anywhere in the world."
http://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/pm/articles/2012/01/business-continuity-tales-of-the-unexpected.htm

2. High Availability, Business Continuity Planning, and Disaster Recovery

High Availability, Business Continuity Planning, and Disaster Recovery Planning have become hot keywords in IT as information systems have impacted nearly all aspects of modern business. High availability is fairly isolated to IT, but Business Continuity Planning and Disaster Recovery Planning transcend far beyond just the IT function in modern businesses, governments, and non-profit organizations. This post will give a high level overview of these approaches and subsequent posts in the series will give more expansive coverage of the approaches, examples, ideas, and scenarios that are not strictly limited to the IT function.
http://mikemstech.blogspot.com/2012/02/high-availability-business-continuity.html

3. Ten Tips on How to Be a More Effective Business Continuity Planner

In business continuity, it is essential to be an effective communicator in order to effectively convey your plans and strategies to others. If you can't get your message across to those who need it, often times your planning efforts will not be taken as seriously as they should be. To be an effective communicator, you need an approach that will help you be successful in getting the involvement, support and buy-in that you need.
http://www.drj.com/2012-articles/online-exclusive/10-tips-on-how-to-be-a-more-effective-business-continuity-planner.html

4. Is Business Continuity a Necessity for Small Businesses?

OK - so your business hasn't rendered your personal wealth to the ranks of the recently despised one-percent (just yet). Does this mean you can put less than 99% effort into developing a business continuity plan for your small business? Are you so busy trying to either launch your business, grow your business, or even simply maintain your status quo in these "tough times" that developing contingencies for business continuity either hasn't occurred to you, seems premature, or you think you can afford the investment?
http://www.geekbusiness.com/2012/03/is-business-continuity-a-neccessity-for-small-businesses/

5. Real cost of business downtime

According to the "Symantec 2011 SMB Disaster Preparedness Survey - Global: January 2011" the average loss in dollars due to downtime for a small business is $3000 per day, and for a medium size business, it is $23,000 per day. This is a pretty significant number. The important point is that there is a definite dollar loss to a business when its normal business processes are disrupted. The disruption could be as short as a few minutes or could last for days.
http://www.drj.com/user-blogs/drj-blogs/real-cost-of-business-downtime.html

6. Business interruption insurance claims - getting it right

In the initial confusing aftermath of a disaster, companies need to quickly assess the damage and organize recovery efforts so they can minimize business disruption and restore operations as quickly as possible. However the insurance claim management process requires significant time resources and experience. Most businesses do not have immediate access to their records and very few are experienced in the process and calculations that are needed to properly value their losses. This can lead to the company being at a disadvantage and perhaps not getting full value from their policy.
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/opinion/Business-interruption-insurance-claims--getting-it-30178542.html