FAQ

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.

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.

Simply call us on 1300 237 526 or send us an Email to arrange a coffee with our founding Director or one of our principal consultants to discuss your business planning requirements.

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.

OpsCentre’s Project Management (PM) methodology approach uses various PM models to suit the type and time-frame of the project milestones and deliverables, these include PRINCE2, Process-Based Management and Agile Project Management (SCRUM).

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.

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.

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.

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.

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 is dependent on the exact service to be provided and number of business units to be covered.

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 professionally managed, one less headache to be concerned about in the hectic pace of running a day-to-day business.

Yes. OpsCentre can develop overarching (Executive) business continuity plans as well as underlying business unit continuity plans for your organisation consisting of:

1. Invocation procedures and an overview of the recovery process.
2. Contact lists and methods of emergency communication.
3. 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.

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.

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. 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.

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.

OpsCentre was established in Australia in 1997 and in Canada in 1998.