Business Continuity Planning

Business continuity planning helps organizations prepare for and recover from disruptive events - from a power outage to a tornado to a terrorist attack. It's important to recognize, however, that BCP also can provide great value to the organization -- other than helping to ensure its survivability. This week's articles shed some light on both the planning process and its ability to add value.

Before you reject business continuity planning, consider the value to your business. (Item #1)   Remember that human capital is a critical aspect of business continuity. (Item #2)   If you have more than one office, do you need more than one plan? (Item #3)  

Don't stereotype your employees; the least likely seeming of them could be the key to some BC need. (Item #4)   Don't forget the importance of telecommunications continuity. (Item #5)   What can we learn from the volcanic dust cloud? (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. We Don't Need No Stinking Business Continuity Plan

The author is a western buff whose favorite movie line is "We don't need no badges. I don't have to show you any stinking badges!" He heard a similar line just the other day when he suggested to a company that it would be a value-added business step for them to implement a business continuity plan. The response was, "We don't need no business continuity plan! We've been in business 30 years and we never had a disaster."
http://www.corpmagazine.com/Features/BusinessVeteranAdvice
/tabid/76/itemid/1446/Default.aspx

2. The personal side of business continuity

Organizations that build resiliency into their human capital are more likely to protect their most valuable resources and maintain continuous operations in the event of a crisis. Forward-thinking companies are already considering the impact of both short-term interruptions and long-term issues on normal business activities and identifying appropriate actions to sustain vital business processes in the event of a crisis.
http://www.continuitycentral.com/thepersonalsideofbusinesscontinuity.pdf

3. How Many Business Continuity Plans Do You Need?

Many organizations consist of a central office, along with several smaller branch offices. A question that we are often asked by such an organization is this: should we have one large plan, or should we have a separate plan for each branch office? As with so many good questions, the answer depends a lot on the situation in which it is asked.
http://www.riskythinking.com/articles/article30.php

4. Beware of stereotypes�

Business continuity planners must possess a natural inquisitiveness, a native curiosity about their environment and the people who work in that environment. They need the same curiosity and willingness to poke a nose into other people's business that good journalists count as a valuable asset for their jobs. But it needs to be sincere inquisitiveness; most people can spot phony curiosity and they react accordingly - they keep things to themselves which may be critical to the business continuity plan.
http://www.continuitycentral.com/feature0316.htm

5. Essentials for Telecom Business Continuity

Telecommunication plays a significant role in the success of a business and its interruption or failure will be disastrous and cause irredeemable loss to the business no matter what the reason is for the failure. It affects not only the internal but also the external functioning, especially customer relationships, which no business can afford to risk.
http://www.articlesbase.com/finance-articles
/essentials-for-telecom-business-continuity-1409861.html

6. The volcanic dust cloud: some business continuity lessons

Businesses that focus on implementing redundancy and resiliency into business because it is good for business anyway and achieve business continuity, disaster recovery and crisis management capabilities as a bonus, are likely to get more from these activities than those that just use consultant to develop business continuity, disaster recovery and crisis management capabilities in isolation. The recent events surrounding the Icelandic volcanic dust cloud provide some insights for business continuity managers in general.
http://www.continuitycentral.com/feature0770.html