How fit is your business continuity programme? | SunGard ...

In 2012 the largest sporting event in the world is coming to the UK with the ripple effect set to be felt across the whole country, in particular London. On the whole this is a great occasion, but it might not be so great for your business if you don?t understand the full impact or assess your firms? ability to exploit its full business potential.

So is your business continuity plan out of condition? Can it stand the pace or is it tired, flabby and never seen the light of day since it was first written?

Many people make regular monthly payments to the local gym but never attend after the first few sessions. Likewise there are plenty of firms that have BC plans and even BC and Disaster Recovery contracts with suppliers but fail to test them. They are simply too busy dealing with other issues that require their immediate attention. Sound familiar?

Without having business continuity plans, processes and system administrations bang up to date with the latest systems and process changes, the chances are the business continuity plans may falter as soon as the starting pistol is fired.

In the current economic climate such a failure in real life could be fatal for your business if it is seriously disrupted. More to the point, if you have a plan, process and contracts with suppliers ? aren?t you wasting your money if they are not up to date?

So our message is a simple one. Act now or it will be too late to procure solutions, train, implement and test your plans before the big event.

Some key questions to ask your business.

1????????????? Do you have a Business Continuity/ Disaster Recovery plan? If so, how current is it?

2????????????? What will be the impact of the Olympics on your business and critical processes?

3????????????? What is your site?s proximity to the events, country training camps, travel routes to the venues and likely congested areas? Remember: These maybe in and outside London.?

4????????????? What supplies normally enter your business on a daily basis and how essential are they?

5????????????? How can you exploit the Olympic Games to maximise your business performance both during and after the event? Will you need more supplies than usual?

6????????????? What can you learn from being resilient during the Games that can apply to your future business continuity plans?

To help you on your way, we have developed a 10 Step Guide to be Games Ready that can be found here:

http://www.sungard.co.uk/Documents/10_step_guide.pdf.

Daren Howell, is Product Marketing Manager for SunGard Availability Services Operational Risk Management and 'People' Recovery Services. He is currently focused on bringing to market the latest Workplace Recovery evolution, Recover Anywhere, which offers businesses a smarter way to recover by using virtualised desktops and softphone technology to maximise the productivity in event of disaster or business disruption. He also looks after business continuity management solutions and associated tools to automate business availability strategies - including supply chain vulnerabilities, and has a watching brief on Carbon Reduction Commitment developments.

Source: http://blog.sungard.co.uk/blog/2012/02/how-fit-is-your-business-continuity-programme/

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