In the property business, the three most important things are (so they say) location, location and location. You can hear the wisdom of the ages in those words when it comes to buying, selling and renting – as long as the estate agent’s systems are in working order. And that according to a survey recently done by Travelers, a property insurance company in the US, is where the problem is. In a survey of 200 real estate (property) professionals, the company found that a whopping 57 per cent were operating without any plan for business continuity. But if you think that’s shocking, wait till you hear the other statistic that the survey revealed.
News
The Agile Approach to Implementing Business Continuity
May 20th, 2013The Agile approach is currently in vogue in a number of business areas, one of the better-known examples being software development. The same principles that can help keep software applications aligned with business needs and available on a timely basis can also be applied to business continuity. The name “Agile” refers to the notion that the plan being followed can be modified relatively often if certain key principles are observed. It’s a concept that can offer a couple of advantages in getting business continuity both implemented and appreciated…
What Would You Like to Win a Business Continuity Award For?
May 17th, 2013It’s that time of the year again, and surveys are running to see who will win the title of Business Continuity Person of the Year. Common criteria include the most effective, most innovative, most promising newcomer, and best lifetime achievement. There are even a couple of new categories being offered: best crisis communications and best business continuity through partnership. While there may well have been exceptional performances in these areas, it’s a fact that unsung heroes of business continuity also exist in other domains. Do any of the following “alternative awards” sound like ones you feel you deserve? Read the rest of this entry »
Disaster Recovery and IT Systems with Minds of their own
May 15th, 2013The bigger IT systems get, the more complex they get, the more chance there is a failure somewhere inside and a need for disaster recovery. It’s mathematical – as you multiply the number of components or the number of computer procedures called, you multiply the possibilities for something to go wrong. Even the biggest guns in computing experience this. Google has experienced problems recently with its Google Drive data storage, and also with its mail and application services. American Airlines suffered a technology failure in April that forced it to ground all its planes in the US for several hours on end. Does this mean that failure will eventually become a certainty as systems get even more complex? Read the rest of this entry »
HaaS and the Business Continuity Challenge
May 13th, 2013When a global IT distributor like Ingram Micro gets on board the HaaS (Hardware as a Service) bandwagon, you know it’s really on the move. The concept behind Hardware as a Service is that organisations no longer have to own, support or in general worry about the IT hardware that is present on site. Instead, for a monthly fee, they offload all of these aspects onto a managed server provider and can thus redeploy IT staff on strategic business projects and avoid tying up capital. All of which begs the question – how reliable is that? Read the rest of this entry »
What Business Continuity Management and Zero-based Budgeting have in Common
May 10th, 2013Every so often (business continuity plan updates, for example), figuratively speaking it’s time to get the crystal ball out and see what the future holds. This is an ambitious undertaking given how difficult it is to know what the weather will be like next week, let alone business in six months’ time. Modern science has also crushed lingering hopes that any certainty might exist anywhere in the universe. This means BC planners have to bite the bullet and accept that figuring out what might be coming down the line means building on uncertainties instead. But then which are the right uncertainties to consider? Read the rest of this entry »
Isn’t a Threat Landscape More than just Worms and Viruses?
May 8th, 2013By a quirk of language, the term “threat landscape” is currently used to refer specifically to cyber-threats. These threats alone already keep business continuity professionals on their toes, even if the nitty-gritty of protecting a company in this area is often the direct responsibility of the IT department. However, considering that threats were confined to the web would be short-sighted to say the least. BC practitioners may find themselves having to do educate their colleagues if they want their organisation to think beyond worms and viruses. Read the rest of this entry »
Have You Got Your Global Risk Analysis Kit?
May 6th, 2013Want to know what’s on the radar screen for economic and technological risks? Or is your interest more in societal and environmental threats? The Global Risks 2012 report from the World Economic Forum has something for everything. It breaks risks out into five global categories – the four we’ve just mentioned, plus a fifth, geopolitical risks. While some of this is beyond the sphere of influence of most individual companies or associations (for example, the militarisation of space), other categories list risks over which they may have more control. Read the rest of this entry »
Disaster Recovery can be a “Free” Consequence of Cloud Computing
May 3rd, 2013In the world of disaster recovery, one of the challenges is getting people to approve budget for having the right DR capabilities in place. Unless you are dealing with enlightened senior management, it’s not always easy to get people to sign off for events that may or may not come about, at some indeterminate time in the future. While it’s important to continue the process of education and to keep passing the message about the need to properly prepared, cloud computing offers a parallel “get it for free” approach. Read the rest of this entry »
ASIC BC Guidance as an Alternative to Putting Your Money under the Mattress
May 1st, 2013There was a time when the safest place for your money was reckoned to be under your mattress. Paper money didn’t exist. The gold and silver coins in use were resistant against flood and a certain degree of fire, as well as theft if you were lying on the mattress at the time: in other words, there was a certain degree of business continuity built in. Nowadays, things are rather different. The gold standard is no more. Many people’s or businesses’ wealth is locked up in digital investments, regulated by organisations like ASIC, the Australian Securities & Investments Commission. So what about business continuity now? Read the rest of this entry »
To Share or Not to Share Business Continuity in a Shared Supply Chain
April 29th, 2013One of the challenges to business continuity planning in 2013 will be the trend to share supply chain facilities between two or more companies. The logic is that to keep logistics and distribution running smoothly but at acceptable cost, the overhead of facilities such as distribution centres or delivery can be shared. It is even possible for two companies sharing part of the same supply chain to be competitors with each other. However, although this may work for supply chain operations, what about business continuity? Can it be shared or must business continuity be an individual activity for each company concerned? Read the rest of this entry »
Embedding Business Continuity Management Into A Company’s Culture
April 26th, 2013One of the challenges for the business continuity manager is to get his or her colleagues to think about BCM too. People who remain unaware of business continuity plans and requirements, even in their simplest form, may be unable to continue their work when an incident or a problem arises. So getting a minimum of mindshare from everyone is essential; getting staff to contribute constructively to improving business continuity is even better. How then might you set about making that happen, both effectively and inexpensively? Read the rest of this entry »
NFPA1500 or how the Fire Department Does Business Continuity
April 24th, 2013With emergencies as the very basis of its existence, a fire department still needs to think out its own business continuity. The NFPA (National Fire Protection Association in the United States) 1500 standard details the procedures that a fire department should or must follow in order to continually remain operational. Instructions in NFPA 1500 start off with the Fire Department Organizational Statement, before moving to the Risk Management Plan: both documents are mandatory. In that case, is there anything in the standard that is optional or are all the instructions compulsory? Read the rest of this entry »
Never a Dull Day with Business Continuity
April 22nd, 2013Business continuity principles may span industries and continents, but their application can turn out to be very different. Organisations in different professional sectors have varying methods and priorities in organising their daily activities. What may be sufficient as business continuity planning in one enterprise may be inadequate for another. Try this as a thought experiment – which has the more extensive needs for business continuity, a bank or a manufacturing company? Read the rest of this entry »
What the SS540 Business Continuity Standard is Designed to Do
April 19th, 2013Is a population of around five million people enough to justify bringing out a separate business continuity standard for that country? After all, with other internationally applied standards already available, such as BS 25999 and now ISO 22301, making your own version might be described as reinventing the wheel. However, when that country is Singapore with one of the five busiest ports in the world and the only Asian country to be rated “AAA” by the world’s three top credit rating agencies, then Singapore’s own standard for business continuity practices, SS540, takes on a new light. Read the rest of this entry »