2007 TechNO Expo

Our panel discusses what's needed for a sound business continuity plan.

Nita Singh
President and CEO, American Business Communication, Inc., Maple Grove

Business continuity is the new spin added to disaster recovery. Usually auditors, regulators, or insurance representatives will ask if you have a plan and if you have trained to it and practiced it. It focuses on how you deploy systems and staff to continue operations during and after a disaster. It should include customer service, sales, financial transactions, and payroll.

Building the business so it can survive in the event of a disaster can be as simple as expanding to multiple sites. And don’t allow a process or procedure to be locked in one key employee’s head!

A business continuity plan is an objective demonstration that a company has examined their operations for critical business elements, and has taken action to address them. The plan may include day-to-day security processes and procedures as well as technological infrastructure.

It is important to gain executive sponsorship of the initiative, and acknowledge that the process is not just to “get a plan.” It’s a new awareness of business functionality and survivability.

The most important priorities for business continuity planning are:

* Executive sponsorship   

* Good long-term vision and culture

* Supporting corporate responsibilities   

* Team engagement, both internal and external

Andrew Hunkins
Chief Technology Officer
Unimax, Minneapolis

To maintain business continuity, planners should consider the following equation:

Business Workflow = People + Information + Systems

People include employees, customers, and suppliers. Information is the state of your business in a snapshot. Systems are all the tools needed to support the people, the information, and the infrastructure that supports the tools.

New innovations in voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) technology have afforded much more flexibility in business continuity planning. For example, if you had to relocate your office, there are two general causes that trigger the relocation:

An incident, such as long-term loss of power or structural damage from a hurricane, prevents you from using your existing location as usual. You need a quarantine location when you need to keep employees away from each other, such as in a pandemic disease situation.

Many plans account for a backup location, but few take into consideration the quarantine problem. VOIP technology helps with both situations. An Internet protocol phone allows users to take their phone and their phone calls with them. If the physical phones are damaged or unreachable, a soft phone—where an employee uses a computer application with a headset to make and take calls—can be used in its place. In most cases, callers can’t tell the difference, and the employee has access to the same features as if they were sitting at their desk.