Business Continuity Consulting

Business Continuity consulting is done by many, many organizations – so what should you expect. You need a consultative organization that doesn’t see you just as a customer but more of a partner.

Business Continuity consulting - Identify All Possible Risks

Key to a successful business continuity plan is to identify all possible points of failure and to identify all types of risks. Look for an organization which has the practical experience you will need to effectively plan both preventatively and restoratively.

Consider a fully redundant storage array along with a fully redundant power supply including diesel backup generators but only one electrical circuit connecting all power sources to the storage array - shorting out the circuit will bring down the system despite the redundancy and the diesel.

Or consider a facility that was built to withstand the worst natural disasters but has limited network connections to the outside world – It is the little things that make the difference.

Business Continuity consulting – Keep things current

Keeping your business continuity plans up-to-date is as important as creating them in the first place. This is another key area where the approach and experience of some organizations distinguish themselves.

Business Continuity consulting – look for structure in the approach

These things should be provided in the approach of the organization:

• Analyze prevention and recovery measures
• Identify mission critical business processes
• Define possible scenarios
• Create plans for prevention and recovery
• Define teams and their roles and responsibilities
• Deliver extensive documentation
• Create test plans to continuously verify validity and completeness of all plans
• Maintenance schedule that will keep all plans up-to-date on a regular basis