Building an Enterprise-Wide Business Continuity Program
Features
Summary
If you had to evacuate from your building right now and were told you couldn’t get back in for two weeks, would you know what to do to ensure your business continues to operate? Would your staff? Would every person who works for your organization?
Increasing threats to business operations, both natural and man-made, mean a disaster could occur at any time. It is essential that corporations and institutions develop plans to ensure the preservation of business operations and the technology that supports them should risks become reality.
Building an Enterprise-Wide Business Continuity Program goes beyond theory to provide planners with actual tools needed to build a continuity program in any enterprise. Drawing on over two decades of experience creating continuity plans and exercising them in real recoveries, including 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, Master Business Continuity Planner, Kelley Okolita, provides guidance on each step of the process. She details how to validate the plan and supplies time-tested tips for keeping the plan action-ready over the course of time.
Disasters can happen anywhere, anytime, and for any number of reasons. However, by proactively planning for such events, smart leaders can prepare their organizations to minimize tragic consequences and readily restore order with confidence in the face of such adversity.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Where It All Began From Someone Who Was There
A History of Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery
Business Continuity vs. Disaster Recovery – What’s the Difference?
Data Center Driven to Business Driven
Selling the Program
Why It Matters
Why No One Believes In the "Big" One
Finding the One They Can’t Say "So What" or "It Will Never Happen" to
Project Initiation and Management – Who, What, When
Your Planning Team and How to Find Them
Key Deliverables
The Project Plan
Risk Evaluation and Control
Risk Management 101 – Elements of Risk
Most Common Risks and Controls for Them
Industry Risks
Natural Hazard Risks
Don’t Forget the Neighbors
Where to Spend Your Mitigating Dollars
What Risks You Should be Building Plans For
Business Impact Analysis
What is It?
Why It’s About Time Sensitivity, Not Criticality
Assessing Impacts – Dollars, Customers and Regulators
How to Do This and Get it Right
Sample BIA Survey
A Sample Simple BIA Form
Resource Requirements
How Many, What Type, and Where
Interdependencies—Who Else Needs to Know/Who Else Needs to Help
Technology Reviews—Business People and Technology People Speak Different Languages
Vital Records Program
The End Product—The Business Function Index
Recovery Strategies
What Are the Options and What’s good and Bad about Them?
Selecting a Recovery Strategy
Performing a Cost/Benefit Analysis
Selling the Solution to Management
Implementing the Recovery Strategies
Documenting the Plan
What Are the Components of the Plan?
The Sample Plan
How to Use the Sample Plan
Distribution of the Plan
Plan Maintenance Strategies
Training and Awareness
The Question
Different Training for Different People
Training Methods
Testing the Recovery Plans
The First Rule of Testing
Types of Tests and When to Use Them
Test Planning
Test Execution
Why You Cannot Fail
Test Reporting
Test Schedules
Technology Testing Questions
Business Testing Questions
Sample Test Plan
Sample Test Report
Coordinating with Public Agencies
What You Can Expect From Them
Who You Should Have a Relationship With Before There is a Crisis
How to Engage Them in Your Program
Who Are the Regulators in Your Industry?
Crisis Management
What Happens When It Happens for Real
Crisis Management as Part of Your Program
Event Management Process- How to Build a Process to Handle All Events that Impact Your Company so You Can Practice the Process Every Day
Crisis Management Exercises
Crisis Leadership Training for Your Senior Team
Crisis Communications
Handling the Media
Communicating to Customers
Communicating to Vendors
Communicating to Employees
Basic Dos and Don’ts of Media Communications
Prepared Messages
Methods and Tools of Effective Communications
Pandemic Planning
Why is it Different?
What is a Pandemic?
Pandemics in the Last Century
What is "Bird Flu" and Why are We Worried
Pandemic Planning Assumptions from the CDC
What a Pandemic Could Mean to Your Business
What You Should Do Now To Be Prepared
Pandemic Planning Checklist
Life Safety
Floor Wardens
Evacuation Drills
Assembly Areas
Workplace Violence Programs
Industry Certifications
Business Continuity at Home
Be Ready When a Disaster Strikes You Personally
The Regulatory Environment
Other Areas of Risk Management that Matter to Business Continuity
Physical Security
Information Security
Records Management
Privacy
Vendor Management
Operational Risk Management
Internal/External Audit
The Future of Business Continuity
Summary
Step 1 …
Where to Get Additional Information
Suggested Websites Suggested Reading
Industry Conferences
Vendors
Editorial Reviews
Okolita offers strategies for selling a business continuity plan to management, then provides the steps needed to get one in place that actually works. Considering how specialized much of the material is, the book is surprisingly easy to read as Okolita spices up the program with anecdotes from her own experience in corporate disaster planning.
—Natural Hazards Observer
Chapter by chapter, the author lays out a practical foundation for constructing a program, and she does it in a way that even seasoned professionals will find illuminating. … Another valuable component of the book is the variety of templates and other tools found in the appendix.
— Brian Strong, CPP CBCP, in Security Management
