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Business Continuity Planning and Disaster Recovery Planning
Successful businesses are built to withstand change -- internal and external; loss of a major client,
loss of experienced staff, regulatory changes, and increased competition.
These situations are analyzed, prioritized, and addressed in the respective operating or marketing plans.
It is an unfortunate and alarming fact that Business Continuity Planning (BCP) and Disaster Recovery Planning (DRP)
do not receive the same attention and priority.
BC and DR are two distinct plans -- DR being a subset of the overall BCP.
Instinctually, businesses set out to first develop a Disaster Recovery Plan for their Information Systems.
When considering the extended loss of use of the facility one of the first questions asked is
“how fast can the computer systems be up and running again?” It is critical to get the staff working again.
But, that is NOT a DRP question; it is actually a BCP element.
The Business Continuity Plan asks and answers; the priority and return to operation timeline for recovery of your business processes and the systems.
Simple but critical questions such as:
Who has the responsibility and authority to declare a disaster and initiate execution of the plan?
Where is your Command Center and does it have all of the facilities, equipment, and amenities to support your command center personnel?
Which systems come up first and what is the RTO?
Where will the employees located? How are they notified to report to the temporary facility? Who should report and when?
How will your USPS mail be delivered to the temporary facility and when?
Where is your check stock?
How do your telephone lines get redirected?
Did your ACD scripts get loaded to your recovery facility phone switch?
Who is your public relations spokesperson and how do they respond to media inquiries?
Then the Disaster Recovery Plan is created to support the BCP and it:
Allows for a recovery facility, for available servers, and data restoration capabilities.
Assures the off-site storage of system backups and emergency access.
Allows for remote connectivity for your workers and for your internet applications.
Requires that the DR Hot-Box is assembled. It contains copies of all the documentation and software required to restore the systems.
It is stored at an off-site facility.
Is tested – internal drills, table-top tests and actual exercises at the recovery site.
There are thousands of questions that must be asked and answered in building Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plans.
This sounds like a lot of expense and that is why some businesses have inadequate or non-existent plans.
But “do the math”; determine the cost to be out of business for a day, a week or a month.
Consider just a short list:
salary and benefits costs
add immediate revenue lost
add other continuing expenses
estimate and add the long term value of real customers lost
guage and add the value of lost sales opportunities
add possible fines and penalties from regulatory organizations
insurance deductibles and uncovered losses
Can you afford to NOT have these plans in-place, complete, and tested?
Consilium Resources knows BCP and DRP.
We can:
Review existing BCP and DRP and make recommendations for improvement
Review open DRP and BCP Audit Points and execute strategic and tactical efforts to meet any “Improvements Required”
Conduct the Business Impact Analysis and document our findings as the starting point for the formal BC and DR Plans
Develop complete BC and DR Plans
Evaluate Recovery Facilities Options
Construct the vendor contract to meet your requirements and assure the best cost for the services.
Conduct or observe and evaluate actual Recovery Exercises
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Audits
Internal and External Auditors typically giving ratings of Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory.
We have never received anything but “Satisfactory” on any internal or external audit of our World Class BC and DR Planning.
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