Given a disaster, will you become a survivor or statistic? Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BC/DR) requires more than a back‐up of your data. It is about developing a plan to help our friends survive, regardless of the business interruption. Too often the business interruption is an event that has no impact on the building or the employees, but can be fatal to the company. Some of these situations might be a product recall, misinformation being circulated to clients, data embezzlement or a drawn out legal issue.

Understanding the difference between Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery is a key to helping an organization understand the need for a thorough Business Continuity Plan.  For future reference we offer the following definitions

Business Continuity-The need for an organization to continue to function even after a disastrous event.

Disaster Recovery-The ability to respond to an unplanned interruption and implement a technology and communications recovery plan and successfully restore an organization’s critical operational functions.

It is clear that Disaster Recovery is in fact a subset  of Business Continuity and that by themselves the recovery of communications and technology are not sufficient to bring an organization back to a state of function and normalcy.

The practice includes assistance and training in BC/DR Plan Development, DR Testing as well as GAP Analysis and implementation. Using a proven methodology and software template to build a thorough and maintainable Business Continuity Plan that incorporates Disaster Recovery can bring immediate and discernable financial benefit to your firm as well as delivering the key to Survivability.

A few of the benefits are:

• Competitive Advantage
• Client Confidence
• Insurance Savings
• Employee Attitude
• Technology Efficiencies and Savings
• Increased Stockholder Value
• Improved Processes
• Peace of Mind

Areas that are covered during the development of a qualified BC/DR Plan are:

• Disaster Prevention
• Establish Recovery Teams
• Legal Compliance
• Policies and Procedures
• A Complete Technical Inventory
• Vendor Vulnerability
• Call Trees for Notification
• Client Notification
• Telecommunications Recovery
• Using the BC/DR Plan for Profit

Have you ever seen a house that was built without a plan?  Why would you do the same with your business?  After a serious business interruption, the recovery process needs to follow a plan, the plan to survive and continued success.

We look forward to helping your firm become a more survivable one and not a statistic!

David Manion – Partner , CW Technology and Certified BCP Consultant