Specialist Areas:
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are answers to the most commonly asked questions about OpsCentre.. If you have a question that is not listed here, please contact us and we’ll be delighted to answer you.
- What does OpsCentre do?
- What do clients say about OpsCentre?
- How is OpsCentre different?
- What is the engagement model, how do we get started working with OpsCentre?
- What consulting methodologies do you use?
- Do you adhere to a formal project management methodology for projects you run?
- Why do you focus on risk, continuity and recovery leads?
- What kind of companies do you work with?
- What size of companies do you work with?
- Where are your clients based?
- What's your philosophy when it comes to working with us?
- How will you minimise the impact on our staff who are already fully occupied day-to-day ?
- How much do your services cost?
- Your solution costs $X. I know someone who can do it for half $X.
- Will your consulting methods interfere with what I'm currently doing?
- What kinds of businesses do you work with?
- Do you provide ongoing managed services?
- Do you prepare business continuity plans?
- Do you help select recovery sites, or review existing arrangements with recovery site providers?
- How are you different from the large charter/advistory firms?
- I have a very limited budget to spend on business continuity within my business. Can you still help me?
- Who's behind OpsCentre?
- How long have you been established?
- Does OpsCentre provide alternate site hosting for my DR server infrastructure?
- How long will my project take?
- Won’t my insurance cover me in a disaster?
- What are other companies doing about BCP/DR?
- Is my business regulated to complete a BCP or DR plan?
- How much detail should be in my plan?
- What Business Continuity services does OpsCentre provide?
- What Disaster Recovery services does OpsCentre provide?
- What Crisis Management services does OpsCentre provide?
- What other services does OpsCentre provide?
- Who has OpsCentre worked within in the past? What services were provided?
- Which industry standards does OpsCentre align its solutions to?
- Where is OpsCentre we located?
- What is OpsCentre’s Vision/Mission/Core Values?
- What does OpsCentre do?
OpsCentre is a boutique consultancy that specialises in Business Continuity, Emergency and Crisis Management, IT Disaster Recovery, Information Security Management and Service Management consultancy services.
Back to Top | Enquire Now - What do clients say about OpsCentre?
OpsCentre is seen as pragmatic and practical with the ability to provide cost-effective solutions. We have been described in the past as “practitioners, not just strategists” with the ability to work as a team with our clients to ensure knowledge transfer and delivery against agreed project plans.
Back to Top | Enquire Now - How is OpsCentre different?
Business Continuity is our business, it’s all we do. OpsCentre is not an IT company offering continuity consultancy as a related service, nor are we are chartered firm involved in accounting, taxation and advisory work. We are specialists in business continuity solutions and have serviced over 70 clients here in Australia for business continuity, crisis and emergency management and IT disaster recovery solutions.
Back to Top | Enquire Now - What is the engagement model, how do we get started working with OpsCentre?
Simply call us on 1300-BCPLAN or send us an email to arrange a coffee with our founding Director or one of our principal consultants to discuss your planning requirements.
Back to Top | Enquire Now - What consulting methodologies do you use?
OpsCentre’s methodologies have been developed over several years and comply with relevant local and international standards including BS25999, HB292/3, AS4360, AS/NZS7799 and ISO27001, BCI, DRII, APRA and Sarbanes Oxley.
Back to Top | Enquire Now - Do you adhere to a formal project management methodology for projects you run?
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Back to Top | Enquire Now - Why do you focus on risk, continuity and recovery leads?
Business Continuity is our business, it’s all we do. We are not an IT company offering continuity consultancy as a related service or a chartered firm involved in accounting, taxation and advisory work. We specialise in business continuity and disaster recovery and are passionate about providing risk, continuity and recovery based solutions.
Back to Top | Enquire Now - What kind of companies do you work with?
Within Government, our past and current clients include Queensland Health, Department of Health, Department of Education and Training, Department of Corrective Services, Central Corporate Services Unit, Department of State and Regional Development, Office of the Department of Public Prosecutions, Department of Energy, Utilities and Sustainability, Office of the Children’s Guardian, Commission of Children and Young People, Sydney Cricket Ground Trust and Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority, just to name a few.
In the corporate/commercial sector we have worked across many industries and for various local and international based clients including Lend Lease, Thomson Legal and Regulatory, Macquarie Group, Nestle, DCA Group, Telstra, Hewlett Packard, Optus, Coates Hire, AAPT, Ninemsn, Manpower and others.
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- What size of companies do you work with?
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Back to Top | Enquire Now - Where are your clients based?
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Back to Top | Enquire Now - What's your philosophy when it comes to working with us?
Our philosophy is to work as a team with our clients and to facilitate knowledge transfer. This is critical to ensure that the risk reduction benefits of the project can be sustained over time and that in the event of an incident occurring, recovery and business continuity will be rapid and complete.
Back to Top | Enquire Now - How will you minimise the impact on our staff who are already fully occupied day-to-day ?
OpsCentre has successfully overcome this issue with previous clients via an approach that minimises direct involvement and effort of business unit staff, whilst still obtaining the required project outcome. We do this by a combination of:
• Pre-populating workshop material as far as possible. In this way, workshop sessions take on more of a review/validate approach than of lengthy information collection
• Ensuring that all critical discussions are held on a face-to face basis. For example we do not use web-based questionnaires for collection of impact analysis continuity strategy information as this can result in painful rework and follow up since staff have no context on which to respond appropriately
• Keeping face-to-face meeting time with business unit staff to a practical minimum. Where appropriate, we group staff who perform similar functions where continuity strategies may be similar
Back to Top | Enquire Now - How much do your services cost?
We work on either a fixed project fee or time and materials basis. The project approach and length of time we spend is agreed and finalised prior to project commencement and are dependant on the exact service to be provided and number of business units to be covered.
- Your solution costs $X. I know someone who can do it for half $X.
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Back to Top | Enquire Now - Will your consulting methods interfere with what I'm currently doing?
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Back to Top | Enquire Now - What kinds of businesses do you work with?
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Back to Top | Enquire Now - Do you provide ongoing managed services?
Most definitely! This is our key service. OpsCentre’s managed service comprises of a number of individual components, tailored depending on your specific requirements.
- Business Impact Assessment Review and Update
- Existing BC Plan Review and Update
- Recent Incident Reviews
- Audit Support Services
- Staff Training
- Plan Exercising and Testing
- IT DR Infrastructure Management
- Plan Hosting
- Emergency Plan Management
- BCM Reporting
Business Continuity Management is rarely a front-of-mind process however it is critical to know that when it comes to invoking your plan in a real disaster, it is up-to-date and has been regularly tested. By engaging OpsCentre to provide managed services, you are assured that your plan is maintained and managed, one less headache to be concerned about in the hectic pace of day-to-day business.
- Do you prepare business continuity plans?
Yes. OpsCentre can develop overarching (Executive) business continuity plans as well as underlying business unit continuity plans for your organisation consisting of:
- Invocation procedures and an overview of the recovery process
- Contact lists and methods of emergency communication
- Prioritised activities, checklists and tasks to recover critical business processes and return to normal operations.
Our key consideration whilst developing your plan will be ease of use and maintenance. We have developed a simple format which includes the use of credit-card sized plans (wallet packs) customised for each business unit and support team. This is supplemented with overview documentation and detailed technical recovery procedures which can be stored at the recovery site.
- Do you help select recovery sites, or review existing arrangements with recovery site providers?
Definitely, this is one key service we provide. OpsCentre can review the effectiveness of your current recovery site arrangement by assessing whether this is the most commercially viable for your organisation and if it fits best with your business continuity, office recovery space and technical (IT) requirements.
OpsCentre can also confirm that costs for the above services are in line with current market offerings, provide an assessment of recovery site vendor invoices for services provided over the last 24 months and issue and manage responses to selected recovery site vendors.
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- How are you different from the large charter/advistory firms?
OpsCentre is not an IT company offering continuity consultancy as a related service nor are we are chartered firm involved in accounting, taxation and advisory work. We are specialists in business continuity solutions and have serviced over 70 clients here in Australia for business continuity, crisis and emergency management and IT disaster recovery solutions. B
Additionally, we have a methodology that focuses on the delivery of practical solutions that are easy to comprehend and implement, rather than large quantities of theoretical paperwork of little real value to the organisation.
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- I have a very limited budget to spend on business continuity within my business. Can you still help me?
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Back to Top | Enquire Now - Who's behind OpsCentre?
Rod Crowder is founder and managing director of OpsCentre. Over the last 12 years, Rod has assisted numerous public and private sector organisations to plan and manage their BC and IT DR tests, in both a consultancy and hands-on operational capacity. Rod’s management qualifications in the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and Project Management lead to his strong understanding of Service Level and Availability Management and how these disciplines are underpinned by good-practice BC and IT DR solutions.
Back to Top | Enquire Now - How long have you been established?
OpsCentre was established in Australia in 1997 and in Canada in 1998.
Back to Top | Enquire Now - Does OpsCentre provide alternate site hosting for my Business Continuity or IT Disaster Recovery infrastructure?
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Back to Top | Enquire Now - How long will my project take?
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Back to Top | Enquire Now - Won’t my insurance cover me in a disaster?
TBA TBA
Back to Top | Enquire Now - What are other companies doing about BCP/DR?
TBA TBA
Back to Top | Enquire Now - Is my business regulated to complete a BCP or DR plan?
TBA TBA
Back to Top | Enquire Now - How much detail should be in my plan?
TBA TBA
Back to Top | Enquire Now - What Business Continuity services does OpsCentre provide?
TBA TBA
Back to Top | Enquire Now - What Disaster Recovery services does OpsCentre provide?
TBA TBA
Back to Top | Enquire Now - What Crisis Management services does OpsCentre provide?
TBA TBA
Back to Top | Enquire Now - What other services does OpsCentre provide?
TBA TBA
Back to Top | Enquire Now - Who has OpsCentre worked within in the past? What services were provided?
TBA TBA
Back to Top | Enquire Now - Which industry standards does OpsCentre align its solutions to?
TBA TBA
Back to Top | Enquire Now - Where is OpsCentre located?
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Back to Top | Enquire Now - What is OpsCentre’s Vision, Mission and Core Values?
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