Business Continuity – Page 5

What Are You Missing in Threat Intelligence for Business Continuity?

There’s no doubt that threat intelligence is a hot topic today. The debate goes on about how best to collect and analyse information to identify existing and emergent threats. Attacker techniques and capabilities are scrutinised to draw up plans for defence. Software applications allow organisations to draw up ‘attack trees’ to methodically describe the security of their systems. These methodical approaches have merit because they encourage organisations to think through different scenarios and reinforce their business continuity management appropriately. However, threat intelligence also needs to go further. It needs thinking that is ‘outside the box’ (or outside the system). Read more

2015-02-09T11:37:11+11:00By Dri-ANZ|Business Continuity|

How to ‘Sell’ Business Continuity to Four Generations of Workers

Business continuity is everybody’s business. While the principles and the planning may be better carried out by BC specialists, it’s the organisation as a whole that needs to apply them. However, a one-size-fits-all approach may not be effective when you’re trying to get the message across. It’s a fact that many organisations now have as many as four generations of employees. Each age group has its own characteristics, culture and way of doing things. As you work with colleagues to get BC in place and make it effective, knowing a little about how to ‘sell’ it to each group could help a lot. Read more

2015-02-02T09:35:23+11:00By Dri-ANZ|Business Continuity|

How to Improve Business Continuity by Doing 30% Less

In business continuity we often discuss objectives, processes, systems and technology. But of course people are also a key part of how most organisations function. While stop-gap solutions and third-party assistance may save the day and keep operations going on a short-term basis, employees provide the creativity and innovation to keep a company viable for the longer term. So for everybody’s sake and for good business continuity, it makes sense to create a work environment in which employees can react constructively to emergencies and perform optimally at other times. For this, one theory says “don’t do more, but less”. Read more

2015-01-27T12:09:06+11:00By Dri-ANZ|Business Continuity|

The Unbroken Chain from Business Continuity Assignments to Actions – and Back

Have you met the management acronym AOSTA? It’s a nice one to know, because it links assignments all the way through to actions (we’ll explain below), providing a handy checklist for business continuity practitioners in particular. It is also the name of a picturesque town in the Italian Alps, with picture postcard images that can make a handsome PC screensaver and handy daily reminder! But let’s talk about why AOSTA can help you to get business continuity right by using it both forwards and backwards. Read more

2015-01-22T12:07:29+11:00By Dri-ANZ|Business Continuity|

Making Sure the Right Procedures are Followed for Business Continuity

Procedures are there to make sure that things consistently get done the same – and the right – way. When good procedures for using technology are followed correctly, productivity and profitability can be increased. But technology used the wrong way can cause business discontinuity, where operations and productivity grind to a halt. A recent outage in a major cloud provider’s IT service was caused not by any technical problem, but by a failure to follow the correct operating procedure. So why did things go wrong and what lesson can other organisations learn from this case? Read more

2015-01-14T12:10:03+11:00By Dri-ANZ|Business Continuity|

Keeping Business and IT Connected for Better Business Continuity

For many organisations, markets change fast as customer needs develop and competitors offer new solutions. Business people under pressure to get new products and services to market may ask more of the IT department than it can deliver at that moment. This friction can cause difficulties in communication and relationships between the two groups. From there, it can lead to fragile or fractured business continuity. The answer is systematic collaboration to ensure that plans are made ahead of time and that the organisation can take advantage of opportunities while avoiding performance issues and outages. Ideally, both parties will have a proactive role to play. Read more

2014-12-19T09:27:43+11:00By Dri-ANZ|Business Continuity|

The Glo-cal Approach for Business Continuity across Multiple Locations

What is the common factor between worldwide fast-food chains and successful business continuity management in different offices of the same organisation? The answer is that both use a combination of global and local approaches, otherwise known as ‘glo-cal’. For the fast-food restaurants, global rules that must apply everywhere include safety, hygiene, accounting and branding policies. However, on a country-by-country basis, establishments may be able to offer their clientele supplements or variations to the standard menu. A similar idea can be applied to implementing business continuity planning and management across different branch or country offices. Read more

2014-12-19T09:13:02+11:00By Dri-ANZ|Business Continuity|

Internal Auditors are Business Continuity Management Friends!

If your organisation employs internal auditors, then as a business continuity manager, make sure you get acquainted – and sooner rather than later! Your auditor colleagues have a responsibility to evaluate and review the level of business continuity, as well as making recommendations for actions. They also have skills and experience to ask important questions about what is being done to prevent adverse conditions bringing operations to a halt. With the help of internal auditors, you can multiply the business continuity message and reinforce awareness top-down across the all departments via departmental/functional heads. Read more

2014-12-15T10:00:10+11:00By Dri-ANZ|Business Continuity|

Supply Chain Business Continuity and the Weakest Links

The supply chain is one of the few possibilities left for a company to be truly competitive. Technology can be copied rapidly and Internet has leveled the playing field for advertising and marketing. However, getting customer satisfaction and loyalty right through supply chain optimisation still offers considerable possibility for differentiation. That opportunity also comes with significant business continuity challenges. Supply chains are complex assemblies of many moving parts that require skill and good judgment to extract the best performance. In many cases, it also only takes one part to break for the whole chain to stop. How can better business continuity and resilience be achieved? Read more

2014-11-13T15:55:30+11:00By Dri-ANZ|Business Continuity|

Threats and Horizon Scanning Make Lateral Thinking a Must for Business Continuity

“Be prepared”, say some. “Expect the unexpected”, say others. But predicting the future is a delicate matter at the best of times. There’s a balance to be found between preparing for visible, likely and significant threats, and trying to root out business blind spots. If your enterprise is located in an area prone to bad weather, earthquakes or unrest, you’ll already have those items on your business continuity checklist. But what about the unseen, unsuspected threat, also known as the Black Swan event, of the type that has already wiped out companies and even complete industries? Read more

2014-11-13T15:36:32+11:00By Dri-ANZ|Business Continuity|