Articles
Fight The BCM Shopping Addiction
June 14, 2012 10:39 am | by Iris Chung, Lootok | CommentsThe act of buying tangible items is reassuring, quelling our fears with a temporary, albeit false, sense of safety. This coping mechanism for uncertainty makes us feel like we’re taking proactive measures. We might perceive owning cutting-edge products as a reflection of our BCM sophistication, or as physical proof of our resiliency. BCM shopping therapy becomes a pitfall when we rely on products to determine our level of preparedness. Soon, we start believing the more tools we own, the better prepared we are.
A Look At ISO 22301 & The Need For A Management System
June 11, 2012 4:15 pm | by Lynnda Nelson, President, ICOR | CommentsUsing a management system approach for your BCM program is more efficient than a siloed approach and ties it to other management systems in place in the organization. It can eliminate waste and duplication of services. It embeds BCS into the culture of the organization versus maintaining ownership with a few individuals.
A City Underwater, Sharks In The Streets
June 4, 2012 12:57 pm | by Luke Simpson, Editor | CommentsIn January 2011, Australia's third-largest city came to a standstill when torrential rains caused the Brisbane River to burst its banks and flood much of the CBD and surrounding suburbs. Bryn Orr and Alem Saric, Emergency Management Consultants at Trimevac, speak with Continuity Insights about the level of preparedness prior to the floods, recovery efforts, lessons learned and the shark that was spotted on a suburban street.
Does Preparedness Have An ROI? | Part 2: Implications
May 29, 2012 12:02 pm | by David Lindstedt, PhD | CommentsRecoverability ought to be about one thing: Preparing an organization to recover services.This scope focuses on increasing the ability of an organization to recover its services following a significant incident. Should it provide an ROI along the way, so much the better, but such added benefits are based on the individual practitioner and the culture of the organization.
Does Preparedness Have An ROI? | Part 1: An Answer
May 21, 2012 4:19 am | by David Lindstedt, PhD | CommentsEfforts to prepare to recover from physical or staffing losses will be focused on ensuring that: resources are available at time of incident, people are immediately aware of proper response and recovery procedures, and critical competencies have been internalized. If these preparations benefit existing, front-line, operational services, then they will have a return on investment. If they are of benefit only at time of incident, then they are a “sunk cost,” like insurance, with no proper ROI.
Lessons Learned From The Social Media Tabletop Exercise
May 10, 2012 4:33 pm | by John Orlando, PhD, Vertek Corporation | CommentsThe goal was to give the response community a taste of public response to disasters using Facebook as a tool to coordinate response. We fed “injects” to the event via Twitter, with people downloading Twitter monitoring software before the exercise. Needless to say, the experience was new to all participants and we learned a lot.
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.
