Business Continuity PlanningBusiness Continuity Planning

What is it?What is it? Why do we do it?Why do we do it? How do we do it?How do we do it?

Business Continuity Planning

We already engage in several types of planning . . . Must we do more?

These are all good planning efforts . . . they help us make the college a better place and help us achieve our mission.

But what about the not-so-good things that could happen to us?

Business Continuity Planning

We already have an emergency response plan. This is wise, but probably not enough. It will carry us through the initial phase of an

incident . . . through the evacuation of our students and the acquisition of outside assistance as appropriate.

But then what?

Business Continuity Planning

Media news is full of disastrous events wreaking havoc within our country and overseas.

We haven’t heard so much about the impact these events have had on the daily operation of affected colleges just like us.

But just think about that for a minute . . .

Business Continuity Planning

What if something bad happened right here? Would you be ready to continue to do the things

that you need to do to accomplish the critical functions and services of your individual division?

How?

Business Continuity Planning

These thoughts are not meant to frighten. We may not be able to stop a tornado or a fire,

but we can surely create a plan of action that can mitigate the impact of the devastation on our ability to carry out our mission.

This is business continuity planning.

Business Continuity Planning

It is simply a process that we can use to ensure that we can continue to offer our critical functions and services to students, faculty and staff in spite of disruptive events that affect our normal college operations.

Why Do We Do It?Why Do We Do It? Increased recognition of the impact that a

serious incident could have on the college Need to establish a formal process to be

followed when a disaster occurs Increased dependency on computerized

information systems and increased likelihood of IT security problems make us more vulnerable

Obligation to protect and provide for our students, faculty and staff in the event of a major interruption of college operations

How Do We Do It?How Do We Do It?

Planning teams identify critical functions and/or services and the impact their loss would have on the college

Identify assets that enable those critical functions and/or services (personnel, facilities, equipment, communications, etc.)

Assess and prioritize major risks to those assets, and thereby our critical functions and/or services

How Do We Do It?How Do We Do It?

Identify actions that could lessen the risks to our assets or mitigate the impact of their loss

Create a team planning document for all critical functions and/or services, including the required facilities and resources

Successful Planning . . . Successful Planning . . . Is useful; it is not busy-work for you Follows a logical process and is simple Enables the college to survive the effects of a

disaster; to be resilient Produces a set of specialized team plans which

are compiled into an overall college Business Continuity Plan. Each individual plan includes only the information necessary for that team to accomplish its critical functions and/or services.