Articles
Tales From The C-Suite
May 7, 2012 5:12 pm | by Luke Simpson, Editor | CommentsKelly McDonough, President/CEO of First Alliance Credit Union, talks about how to scare your C-level executives into supporting your BCM program, how credit unions do more with less, the “end point” for business continuity, and why cloud will make businesses and families more resilient.
The Crisis Management Playbook
April 24, 2012 12:42 pm | by Annie Searle, Principal, Annie Searle & Associates LLC | CommentsA good crisis management team is empowered to make the optimum set of decisions on behalf of an organization. Over time, the team can operate from a playbook that bears a strong resemblance a streamlined set of checklists. Such a playbook allows the team to handle lower level events with dispatch, and meet higher impact events with a level of knowledge and competence not otherwise possible when juggling too many new fast balls.
Choosing The Right Standard For PS-Prep Certification
April 13, 2012 12:44 pm | by Lynnda Nelson, President, ICOR | CommentsThe process for obtaining PS-Prep certification is now established and companies are working to determine their readiness for a PS-Prep third-party audit. The first step in determining readiness is to identify the standard to which your organization should become certified. ICOR's Lynnda Nelson gives a side-by-side comparison of the three standards at the ehart of PS-Prep and provides background information designed to help organizations choose the most appropriate standard.
BCM Benchmarking Study: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly
April 10, 2012 1:13 pm | by Luke Simpson, Editor | CommentsIn order to tease out the most compelling — and more subtle — results from the 2011-2012 Continuity Insights & KPMG LLP Global Business Continuity Management Program Benchmarking Study, a panel of subject-matter experts reviewed and commented on the raw data collected from 685 business continuity professionals. Reactions range from “disturbing” to “encouraging.”
ISO 22301 Approved; What It Means For The Business Continuity Industry & BS25999
April 3, 2012 1:54 pm | by Luke Simpson, Editor | CommentsBrian Zawada, member of the U.S. Technical Advisory Group to ISO Technical Committee 223, discusses the ramifications for the business continuity industry, when the standard will be available and how ISO 22301 affects those already certified to BS25999.
Evolution Of Emergency Notification — Part 2: Integration, Social Media & Mobile
April 3, 2012 10:13 am | by Pamela LaPine, President & CEO of HipLink Software | CommentsImagine having a fire alarm go off in a data center in Dallas and, without anyone having to do anything, personnel are alerted all over the country in a matter of minutes. This leaves the onsite staff more bandwidth to deal with the emergency while others launch contingency plans.
Evolution Of Emergency Notification — Part 1: Enterprise SMS, VoIP & Onsite Systems
March 26, 2012 9:47 pm | by Pamela LaPine, President & CEO of HipLink Software | CommentsThe advancement of VoIP technology, and changes in virtualization and Internet connectivity options have made onsite notification systems easy from both a deployment and capacity perspective. “Burstable” Internet connection technology can give organizations high capacity for voice call distribution without the complications or cost of phone lines.
Social Media Monitoring Tools For Effective Crisis Management
March 19, 2012 6:45 pm | by Jane Jordan-Meier, Author of The Four Stages of Highly Effective Crisis Management | CommentsSocial media monitoring is vital to protect an organization's brand and improve situational awareness during an event. With a bewildering array of social media monitoring tools and technology available, Jane Jordan-Meier gives an overview of the free and fee-based monitoring tools, and discusses how organizations like Dell embed social media monitoring into their company culture.
Crisis Communications 2012: Social Media & Notification Systems
March 13, 2012 2:13 pm | by Luke Simpson, Editor | CommentsContinuity Insights recently conducted a survey of over 250 organizations to determine how social media and notification systems are incorporated into crisis communication plans, and the perceived effectiveness of each platform. The results are compelling, clearly showing a lack of confidence in social media’s reach during a crisis. However, the use of social media as a “crowdsourcing” tool -- turning the public into sources of information -- is catching on.
Developing An Effective Enterprise Risk Management Capability
March 10, 2012 10:15 am | by Margaret Millett, Director, Marketplace Global Business Continuity, eBay, Inc. | CommentsA risk steering committee commissions an in-depth enterprise risk assessment across the entire company to assess current key business risks and control status, as well as establish recommendations for remediation.
Satellite Communications: The Myths, Costs & Capabilities
March 5, 2012 5:22 am | by Lou Altman, CEO, GlobaFone | CommentsThis past October, New England experienced an early snowstorm that incapacitated businesses when snow laden tree branches crushed power and phone lines from New York City to Maine. Many businesses were prepared for the subsequent power outages via back-up generators, which supported servers and essential services.
The Inner-Workings Of A Radiological Response Plan
February 27, 2012 1:18 pm | by Luke Simpson, Editor | CommentsLast year’s earthquake, tsunami and subsequent partial meltdown of two reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant presented numerous challenges for U.S. organizations with employees, facilities or critical suppliers in Japan. An effective incident response and recovery on foreign soil requires substantial pre-planning with local authorities and an understanding of international standards and best practices — not just those laid-out by FEMA.
Supply Chain Resilience Through Freight Providers
February 20, 2012 3:49 pm | by Joel Hans, Managing Editor, Manufacturing.net | CommentsIf nothing else, the tragedy in Japan has taught us a valuable lesson on how badly things can go wrong. Manufacturers around the globe have been awash with new thinking on how to manage a global supply chain that is, despite better technology, still remarkably delicate.
Intelligence-Based Business Continuity | Part 3: Social Media Guidelines
February 20, 2012 2:34 pm | CommentsIf social networks are determined to be too risky a medium for the initial transmission of a message, the planner should identify alternative means that are more secure. This could include corporate alerting systems, internal email or even a phone tree. The use of these more secure media, however, does not guarantee that the content of the message will not reappear within social networks.
Intelligence-Based Business Continuity | Part 2: Competitive Intelligence
February 13, 2012 11:10 am | CommentsThe information filtering methods used within the field of competitive intelligence are particularly helpful for refining a social networking strategy and using it to generate actionable information — or “intelligence” — for business continuity planning and response activities. This intelligence contributes to the risk awareness of the continuity planning team, identifies experts that can provide guidance and information, and identifies local sources of information that can provide situational awareness in an actual disaster.
