[O21]Of Business Continuity Planning

Business continuity must be part of the strategic planning process to ensure the longevity of a business during a hurricane or other natural disasters. The development of business continuity has historically been driven by stockholders, government regulation, technology advancements and market forces. In recent years it has evolved from disaster recovery into a more comprehensive strategy that includes not only recovery, but operational continuity during and following a disaster.

The impetus for this change has been data processing technology. Changing technologies have given businesses the ability to address critical recovery issues and focus on business continuance. Each advance has taken business continuity to a new and more strategic level. Since electronic data is now a critical asset for many businesses, business continuity strategies are no longer an option, but are imperative for survival.

Because of their unique vulnerability, crucial importance to their customers and ever evolving government regulation, banks have taken a leadership role in business continuity planning. Many of the lessons learned by the financial services industry are guides for helping other businesses, both large and small, shortcut the learning curve.

Facilities/building protection is typically called the first level of disaster recovery and business continuance. Many years ago, disaster planning for banks meant building structurally strong facilities to prevent disasters such as robbery, fires, earthquakes, floods or tornadoes. Banks became steel, brick and mortar fortresses designed for the purpose of protecting the cash through nearly indestructible vaults of thick concrete and buildings that were themselves designed to be as secure as possible.

Around the 1950s, banks and many larger companies were starting to make backup copies of critical records which were kept in bank vaults along with the cash. Due to the advent of high speed data processing in the 1960s, the Federal Reserve Banks began using main frame computers to process transactions. Many of the larger banks established in-house data processing centers and sold this service to smaller institutions.

This dramatically changed the banking industry as customer transaction information and transactions between banks and with the Federal Reserve Bank could be processed very quickly. It became unnecessary for banks to keep large amounts of cash on hand which enabled them to keep cash not otherwise invested, on deposit at the Federal Reserve.

Data now became the primary and most important commodity. Data protection became increasingly more important requiring frequent backups and off premise storage. Data processing centers began using off-site data storage vendors. In 1983, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) made it mandatory for banks to develop, document and maintain recovery plans. Data management had now become crucial not only for banks but for all businesses of every size.

The next level of disaster recovery and business continuance was the introduction of insurance. Along with property liability insurance, key man life insurance, and officer liability insurance, business interruption insurance policies have now been developed and are marketed.

Communication was the next critical area of business continuity being driven to new levels by rapidly changing technologies. During and after a hurricane or other crisis, a business has several groups of people with whom it must communicate. These groups include employees, the company's management team, suppliers and vendors, customers and potential customers, emergency response teams and the general public.

It is critical to the continuance of the business that communication with any of these groups not be disrupted. The management team must communicate with each other in order to deal with the crisis in the most effective manner possible. Management must quickly communicate with their employees regarding job status and when they might be able to return to work. Customers and potential customers must be able to communicate with the business to determine if it will be able to provide the needed products or services.

Communications technology innovations have increased the number of ways and the speed with which these different groups can be contacted. Electronic technology has expanded written and voice communications to encompass telephones, fax machines, cell phones, global positioning systems, e-mail, the Internet and mass communications that include both radio and television.

Unfortunately, the majority of these systems share a very serious, common problem that is exposed during disasters and crisis periods. They are ground based communication systems! Natural and man-made disasters almost always, and usually do, disrupt ground-based communication systems.

However, a satellite phone has proven many times that it is generally not affected by such disasters. Incorporating satellite phone systems into your company's business continuity plan allows you to maintain communication with important groups of people and resources as well as maintain business continuity and longevity.