Business continuity planning may be the most critical area of concern for an organization in today’s world and yet, in most cases, is never implemented.  Organizations continue to install higher levels of security, firewall, generated power and redundancy systems, yet they fail to test and monitor these systems.  Organizations need to develop communication systems and plans for potential disasters that will effect employees and key vendors.  We all think it won’t happen to us, that it is too time consuming or that we don’t have enough access to information, but in this world of uncertainty and terrorism, we need to deploy defined plans to address these issues.  Axis specializes in the process. The following issues should top the list for organizations of all sizes:

• Evacuation planning for employees and critical data; defining and practicing procedures.
• Testing of building systems, including: emergency lighting, locks, emergency doors, elevators, stairwells, grounding, door strikes, and alarm systems.
• Testing of backup systems, data, UPS’s, redundant circuits and backbones.
• Testing security; creating failure-checking media and backups to ensure quality.
• Recording inventory, equipment and data management.
• Building true redundancy systems that are managed and monitored.
• Testing and managing generators, fuel consumption, and fuel sources during emergency and runtime.
• Proper training, role playing and disaster simulation.
• Evaluating cost controls - what could be outsourced to create savings and redundancy?