Beware of depending on Third Party Services to assure your daily business and recovery

By Howard ‘Coach’ Pierpont More organizations are outsourcing portions of their operations these days. Concentrating on the core competency for the organization makes sense in many cases. This allows for the streamlining of internal operations while maximizing the non-core section by utilizing best in class third parties. The people making the decision to go with a third party need to completely define the statement of work [SOW] and assure that whoever gets the contract follows the SOW. Let me give you an example of a system that was implemented and appeared to be working. At least there was money coming in. I went to a supplier...

Read More

Recovery: Least Understood of the Continuity Lifecycle Elements

The post-crisis recovery phase is one of the least addressed in planning, training and simulations.  This is an area that, if not properly managed, can cost financially, reputationally and operationally.  Communications, internal and external are, at best, misjudged.  Guidelines for recovery are lacking and most entities lose focus when it comes to discussing recovery operations.  It may be that recovery is one of the most complicated of the lifecycle elements and that no two recoveries are going to follow the same pattern.  However, the recovery process can be segmented into manageable bits that can be undertaken...

Read More

Tackling the Business Impact Analysis

A new business continuity analyst will need to create and/or update the organization's Business Impact Analysis (BIA). If this is a task that is new to the organization, then the analyst will need to scope the document and set out the definitions that will be used. Ideally the entire organization will be represented in one or more BIAs. The analyst should present to the sponsoring executive the plan for accomplishing the BIAs. The analyst will need to: a) describe the objectives of the BIA, b) show that the focus will be on the business processes, c) introduce the concepts and terminology such as (RTO), and d) identify the...

Read More

BS ISO 22301 in 17 Easy Steps

I normally shy away from long blog posts, but this one is critical if you are considering getting your business continuity program certified.  BS ISO 22301 seems very hard to implement at first, but if you understand the requirements of the standard, it becomes very clear, almost too easy to implement across the organization. There are only a handful of organization worldwide that have been certified in BS ISO 22301.  Right now is a great time to get on the certification calendar be one of those organizations who set the gold standard in Business Continuity. Below are the 17 steps you will need to do reach program certification. Step...

Read More

7 other Uses For The Tabletop Exercise

A few weeks ago I wrote a post on 4 other uses for the tabletop exercise.  You can read it here. Several people have added their suggestions and I wanted to gather their ideas in one post. There are certainly several other uses for the tabletop exercise.  What do you use them for? Below is a video that offers some suggestions. Mike Minzes is the Founder and CEO of INEVOLVE SB, a Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Planning and Implementation company located in Kennesaw, Georgia. Mike has over 20 years of experience in the Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Industry. For more information on INEVOLVE SB, please visit...

Read More

Do-it-yourself Business Continuity for small businesses

DIY Projects.  There are do-it-yourself projects for just about anything under the sun.  If you get the parts and materials, there are videos or walk-throughs that can show you how to build just about anything. So it isn’t any surprise to me that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has a little known DIY project designed help businesses and organizations develop and implement Business Continuity. The Business Continuity Planning Suite is a FREE toolset provided by FEMA for developing and implementing Business Continuity in any size organization or across any agency.  It can be downloaded from the FEMA website...

Read More