Risk-Based Approach to Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Planning
(Two days; 16 CPE Hours)

Your revenues are important. Without them, your organization cannot continue to exist. Anything that could significantly interrupt your revenues or business processes must be quickly and appropriately managed.  How well you respond to potential business interruptions is almost entirely dependent upon how well you planned for them. You need to be sure that appropriate response resources, capabilities, and procedures are in place to minimize the financial and human impact of significant potential business disruptions.

A Risk-Based Approach...
It's a fact.  You're probably wasting money by overspending on some controls, while risking far too much by not investing in others.

When considering any financial invest whatsoever, most organizations perform feasibility analysis for return-on-investment (ROI). Even after investing in a new business process or product, continual re-assessment occurs to make sure the process or product warrants further investment. This is just good business sense.

Many organizations spend too much on protecting themselves against some contingencies, while spending too little on others. In almost all cases, organizations are spending more on business continuity for particular potential business disruptions than what they would lose if the disruption actually occurred. Likewise, the same organizations are taking more risk than they really want to accept by not planning and investing appropriately for other potential business interruptions. By taking a professional risk-management approach to business continuity gap assessment and planning, you can determine what minimum countermeasures and response procedures are necessary to meet your organization's business needs.  This course is designed to help you make sure your investment in such countermeasures and response procedures is perfectly aligned to the projected business impact risk of potential business disruptions.

...to Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Planning.

The goal of business continuity planning and disaster recovery is simply to answer the question, “What would we lose if?” 

• What if our power went down? 

• What if our facilities flooded? 

• What if our information and processing were attacked and compromised by a hacker? 

• What if critical documents and records are stolen? 

• What if we inadvertently break a new international privacy law? 

• What if key management personnel are unavailable?” 

Questions like these lead to others like:

• How would we continue to service our customers?
• How would we continue to operate the business?
• How long can our business survive if it is not operational?
• How would we protect the safety and well-being of our employees?
• How can we minimize the losses of a disaster or disruptive event?
• How would our stock price be affected by failing to respond to a disaster or attack with speed and efficiency?
• How are we organized to make sure that our disaster recovery efforts are reported favorably by the media?

Ninety percent of how effectively your organization handles and survives a disaster or business interruption is determined by how well you planned and prepared for potential events.  Delivered by Allen Keele, this course will give you the tools and understanding you need to effectively plan for contingencies.

What you will learn:
Learn the foundation of setting up and maintaining a solid business continuity and disaster recovery program.  Learn the core best practices for:

R Project Initiation and Management

R Risk Evaluation and Control

R Business Impact Analysis

R Developing Continuity Strategies

R Emergency Response and Operations

R Developing and Implementing the Business Continuity Plan

R Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery Awareness and Training

R Maintaining and Testing the Business Continuity Plan and Disaster Recovery Plan

R Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery Standards and Guidelines

Based upon DRII/BCI approved courseware, this course is an excellent introduction to the complexities of business continuity and disaster recovery management.  Seasoned professionals, as well as those new to the BCM role, will appreciate the real-life practical tone of this course.  This course provides you with the forms, templates, examples, and sample contracts you need to be able to effectively manage a professional on-going business continuity and disaster recovery program.

Target Audience