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Business Continuity Planning (BCP)Business continuity and contingency planning are essential and unavoidable tasks. However, the creation of a sound business continuity and contingency plan is a complex undertaking, involving a number of stages and discrete activities. For example, initially it is necessary to understand the underlying risks and the potential impacts of disaster, these are the building blocks upon which a sensible business continuity plan or disaster recovery plan should be built. Then the plan itself must be created which of course is far from trivial. Then there are the maintenance and testing phases, to ensure that the plan remains current. Even having arranged all these matters there is audit to consider - and of course, there is the not so small matter of ISO17799! Business Impact AnalysisThe first step in a sensible business continuity process is to consider the potential impacts of each type of disaster or event. This is critical - how can you properly plan for a disaster if you have little idea of the likely impacts on your business/organization of the different scenarios? Contingency Planning SoftwareCreating the business continuity plan itself is far from a trivial undertaking. Every aspect of the plan must be carefully managed to ensure that it does not fall short when most needed. Fortunately, there are tools available to help perhaps the most impressive being the strohl products. We use strohl products for BCP and its implementation. Contingency Audit and AssuranceHaving developed the business continuity plan, it is sensible to perform an audit not just initially, but at regular intervals. This helps ensure that BCP remains current, and that it stands up to rigorous examination. Equally important are periodic checks on 'business as usual' contingency practices. We offer BCP audit, team training, and implementation. Risk AnalysisHaving determined the impacts, it is now equally important to consider the magnitude of the risks which could result in these impacts. Again, this is a critical activity - it will determine which scenarios are most likely to occur and which should attract most attention during the planning process. Service Level Agreements (SLAs)Service level agreements are an important part of business continuity. We create all required SLAs and explain their role and provide direction on SLA development. We also offer escrow services for business continuity. Key Benefits - Sustained business
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