This article analyzes the findings of a Business Continuity Management audit of the Medical Research Council’s 26 UK sites, carried out over the course of 2008.

Continue reading Implementing business continuity management in a distributed organisation: a case study

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New York City’s Fire Department (FDNY) members joined more than 800 first responders from various New York City agencies for a mass-casualty drill in Long Island City, Queens, on Oct. 17, 2010.

Continue reading FDNY, NYPD take part in mass-casualty drills

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In an interview on business continuity, Al Berman, president of DRI International, discusses:

• Today’s biggest threats to organizations;
• The greatest gaps in disaster recovery planning;
• Three steps organizations can take to improve BC/DR preparedness.

See Business Continuity: Getting it Right, by Al Berman for Bank Information Security.

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When a gunman took three hostages at Discovery Communications headquarters (home of the Discovery Channel) on September 1, 2010, hundreds of news outlets reported the crisis.

Continue reading Case Study: How Twitter Helped the Discovery Channel During a Hostage Crisis

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What is the objective in any crisis? It is to maintain company credibility and reputation, and create the perception that as an organization you are doing everything humanely to act in the positive regard to all stakeholders.

Deon Binneman shares his perspective on crisis management. Continue reading Why You Should Plan for Crises Before They Happen

Tags: Binneman, crisis communication, crisis management, Repucomm, reputation management, stakeholder management

The Contingency Planning & Management Conference (CPM 2010 EAST) is coming up November 3-4, 2010 in New York City. Business Survival(tm) readers can save $100.00!

Continue reading Contingency Planning & Management Conference (CPM 2010 EAST) November 3-4, 2010 in New York City – Save $100!

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There are many names for these contracts (Emergency Response, Restoration, Rapid Response, Disaster Recovery, Business Recovery, Business Resumption, etc.), and many vendors offer them. What are they and should your organization have one?

Continue reading Business Resumption Contracts – A Must Have, but…

Tags: agreements, Business Recovery, business resumption, contracts, Disaster Recovery, Emergency Response, Rapid Response, Restoration, vendors

The Third Edition of The Definitive Handbook of Business Continuity Management by Andrew Hiles will be shipping in early December. You can now place your prepublication orders for shipment as soon as it arrives from the printer!

832 pages, Only $57.95.

With a pedigree going back over ten years, The Definitive Handbook of Business Continuity Management can rightly claim to be a classic guide to business risk management and contingency planning, with a style that makes it accessible to all business managers. Some of the original underlying principles remain the same – but much has changed. This is reflected in this radically updated third edition, with exciting and helpful new content from new and innovative contributors and new case studies bringing the book right up to the minute.

This book combines over 500 years of experience from leading Business Continuity experts of many countries. It is presented in an easy-to-follow format, explaining in detail the core BC activities incorporated in BS 25999, Business Continuity Guidelines, BS 25777 IT Disaster Recovery and other standards and in the body of knowledge common to the key business continuity institutes.

Contributors from America, Asia Pacific, Europe, China, India and the Middle East provide a truly global perspective, bringing their own insights and approaches to the subject, sharing best practice from the four corners of the world.

The book explores and summarizes the latest legislation, guidelines and standards impacting BC planning and management and explain their impact.

The structured format, with many revealing case studies, examples and checklists, provides a clear roadmap, simplifying and demystifying business continuity processes for those new to its disciplines and providing a benchmark of current best practice for those more experienced practitioners.

This book makes a massive contribution to the knowledge base of BC and risk management. It is essential reading for all business continuity, risk managers and auditors: none should be without it.

The Definitive Handbook of Business Continuity Management, 3rd Edition

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contributors

Foreword by Lyndon Bird

Preface by David Honour

Introduction to the 3rd Edition by Andrew Hiles

How to Use this Book by Andrew Hiles

Section One Achieving and Maintaining Business Continuity: an executive overview

1 Enterprise Risk Management by Andrew Hiles

2 Developing a BCM Strategy in Line with Business Strategy by Gary Hibberd

3 The Importance of Business Strategy in Business Continuity Planning by Ranjit Kovilinkal Ramakrishnan and Satish Viswanathan

4 Multilateral Continuity Planning by Dennis C. Hamilton

5 Marketing Protection: a Justification for Funding of Total Asset Protection Programmes? by Andrew Hiles

6 Operational Risk Management

6-1 Operational Risk Management: a Primer by John Robinson

6-2 Operational Risk Management: Risk and Consequences by Peter Viner

7 Crisis Management, Emergency Management, BCM, DR: What’s the Difference and How do They Fit Together? by Gregg Jacobsen and Sue Kerr

8 Business Continuity and Ethics by John Orlando

Section Two Planning for Business Continuity: a ‘how-to’ guide

9 Business Continuity Management Methodology by Malcolm Cornish

10 Project Initiation and Control by Jayne Howe

11 Risk Evaluation and Control: Practical Guidelines for Risk Assessment by Ian Charters

12 Business Impact Assessment

12-1 Business Impact Analysis by Peter Barnes

12-2 Business Impact Analysis: Building a Better Mousetrap by Andrew Hiles

13 BC Strategies for Information and Communications Technology

13-1 Strategies for Continuity and Availability for Information and Communications Technology (ICT) by Michael Smith and Piper-Anna Shields

13-2 Business Continuity for Telecommunications by Paul F. Kirvan

13-3 Planning to Recover Your Data: More Options by Thomas Carroll

13-4 Business Continuity Strategies for the Business or Work Areas by Neal Courtney

14 Strategies for Different Market Sectors

14-1 Business Continuity Strategies for the Financial Sector by Andrew Hiles

14-2 Business Continuity Strategies for Manufacturing and Logistics by Melvyn Musson

14-3 Business Continuity and the Supply Chain by Charlie Maclean-Bristol

14-4 Case Study: Implementing Business Continuity in the Upstream and Midstream Energy Sector (Petrochemicals and Refineries) by Vincent Tombros

14-5 From an Island to a Continent: Business Continuity in a Telecommunication Company by Timothe Graziani

14-6 BC Strategies in the Retail Sector by Steve Mellish

14-7 Strategies for Funding Recovery by Danny Rowland

15 Developing and Implementing the Written Plan by Andrew Hiles

16 Awareness and Training by Andrew Hiles

17 BC Plan Testing

17-1 BC Plan Testing by Tim Armit

17-2 Testing vs. Exercising: What’s the Difference? by Philip Jan Rothstein

18 BCM Audit by Rolf von Rössing

Appendix 1 Case Studies by Peter Barnes, Andrew Hiles, Allen Johnson and Lyndon Bird

A1 A Storm, Earthquake, Explosion: a General Overview

A1 B Living Nightmares

A1 C World Trade Center Explosion – February 26, 1993

A1 D Hurricane Andrew, Miami – August 24, 1992

A1 E Chicago Floods – April 13, 1992

A1 F Thirty Seconds of Terror! The California Earthquake

A1 G After the Fire: First Interstate Bank, Los Angeles

A1 H One Meridian Plaza, Philadelphia

A1 I The Mercantile Fire

A1 J How Floods Can Ruin Your Day: London College of Printing

A1 K Flood Highlights

A1 L A Cautionary Tale

A1 M It Happened to Them

A1 N Fire Highlights

A1 O Wessex Regional Health Authority

A1 P The Bishopsgate Bomb – April 25, 1993

A1 Q City Bomb Blast, St Mary Axe – April 10, 1992

A1 R Explosion Roundup

A1 S Stop Thief!

A1 T Miscellaneous Highlights

A1 U Lessons in Risk Management from the Auckland Power Crisis

A1 V Foot and Mouth: A Preventable Disaster

A1 W The Madrid Rail Bombings – March 11, 2004

A1 X Istanbul Bombings – November 2003

A1 Y London Bombings – July 7, 2005 (7/7)

A1 Z Buncefield (UK) Oil Terminal Disaster – December 11, 2005

A1 AA Intellectual Property Theft and Business Continuity

A1 AB Euroclear Bank Uses BCM Framework to Manage the Impact of the Collapse of Lehman Brothers

A1 AC The Toyota Recalls, 2009-2010

A1 AD The Icelandic Volcanic Ash Plume – April 2010

A1 AE The 2010 BP Oil Spill – Gulf of Mexico

Appendix 2 Guidance Notes by Malcolm Cornish, Lyndon Bird, Allen Johnson and Russell Price

A2 A Pandemic Planning

A2 B Selecting the Tools to Support the Process

A2 C The Role of Insurance

A2 D Five Nines: Chasing the Chimera?

A2 E Consultancy without Tears

A2 F Coping with People in Recovery

A2 G Benchmarking and Business Continuity: Exploring and Using Benchmarking to Assess and Develop Your Business Continuity Management Programme

A2 H Changing Attitudes to Business Continuity in Private and Public Sectors

Appendix 3 Professional Associations, Certification Standards and Resources for BCM Practitioners by  Mike Gifford, Lyndon Bird, Dhiraj Lal, Gary Liu, Russell Price and Dawn M. Shiley

Appendix 4 International Perspectives by  Paul F. Kirvan, Lyndon Bird, Dhiraj Lal, Louise Theunissen and Andrew Hiles

A4 A International Standards and Legislation in Business Continuity

A4 B Business Continuity Management: International Perspectives in 2010

A4 C Business Continuity Planning in the Middle East and the Indian Subcontinent

A4 D Business Continuity Management in Africa

A4 E Business Continuity in China

Glossary of General Business Continuity Terms

Index

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The Disaster Recovery Information Exchange (DRIE) in Partnership with BOMA (The Building Owners and Managers Association) and the City of Toronto, Canada conducted GTIME #1, the first Greater Toronto Incident Management Exercise, on October 29, 2009. Reports for the GTIME #1 exercise are now available.

Continue reading DRIE GTIME Exercise Reports Now Available

Tags: BOMA, Building Owners and Managers Association, Disaster Recovery Information Exchange, disaster scenarios, DRIE, exercise, scenarios, test, Toronto

Businesses – large and small – in England and Wales are being invited to test their resilience to flooding in one of the biggest national emergency exercises ever to take place.

Continue reading Businesses asked to take part in major flood exercise

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Quarter till four. Sleeping, gently dreaming. Suddenly: lights flashing, bells ringing, pagers beeping, a metallic voice barks instructions. Must respond. Duty. Comrades. Boots. Suspenders. Rollup door. Engine start, all aboard, lights, release the brakes … Continue reading Stress makes even the most well-trained emergency managers stupid

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