So what’s the connection between business continuity and back-to-school? It’s pretty simple. Networking groups are already understaffed, and, indeed, most companies are understaffed in most areas. It’s also now clear that “Pandemic Preparedness” is a key, under-addressed component of companies’ business continuity plans.
We addressed this in an earlier column when we discussed a specific mini-report on epidemic preparedness. This was based on some preliminary research that was published in the “Business Continuity in Epidemic/Pandemic Conditions” report.
This report was precursor to the more extensive “2009 Business Continuity State-of-the-Market Report: Business Continuity Plans Critical For Today’s Enterprise.” One of the more striking results of the report was the finding that when asked about various scenarios that were covered, “Regional Medical Epidemics” were second to last and “Widespread Medical Pandemics” was last, with 32% and 28% of the business continuity plans covering these conditions.
To put this further into perspective – which is really scary – 12 other categories ranked higher. And while admittedly epidemics/pandemics accounted for only 4% of the outage to date, it is probable that the H1N1 influenza epidemic should serve as a wake-up call at the least for the probable need to operate offices on a reduced (or no) staff due to contagions within the office and/or parents needing to be away from the office to care for children.
There’s a very fine line between being alarmist and cautious. Nevertheless, this is an area that deserves increased attention.
Other findings from the report can be summarized as “As long as people have made plans, the unexpected has thwarted them, but business continuity plans and solutions exist to return operations to normal as swiftly as possible. Planning against unforeseen occurrences has always been a part of business, and is even more critical in our age of wired infrastructure, wireless services and economic turmoil. Although generally strong, the average business continuity plan doesn’t account for some very common types of outages, and its effectiveness is threatened by a lack of testing. Despite the challenges in doing so, organizations that take the necessary steps to create an effective, well-tested business continuity plan will be able to continue doing business when their competitors are fumbling in the (quite literal) dark.”
This last sentence refers to the fact that power continues to be a primary concern, as highlighted in the “Darwin Awards for Disaster Recovery.”
