13Jun
The term Maximum Tolerable Period of Disruption (MTPOD) appeared in the vernacular of business continuity back in 2007. Yet, from emails we have received on this topic, we believe that MTPOD remains a misunderstood and often difficult concept to agree upon within the business continuity discipline of most organizations.
Originally introduced as a term within the British Standard 25999-2, the MTPOD determination is an opportunity to get upper management involved very early in the business continuity process.
In a recent article by Jacque Rupert of the Avalution Consulting Group, which was published by Continuity Central, we believe the topic is addressed well and is worth reading.
Click here to read the article.
We also recommend reading the BSI Committee response to this article which was authored by Malcolm Cornish, FBCI FCA, BSI BCM/1 committee member.
04Dec
Whether you are running a small business or managing a multi-national corporation, Business Continuity (BC) planning and preparedness are crucial to the long-term survival of your organization.
For this reason alone, you should consider hiring a professional to help prepare your team to survive. When I say “hiring a professional”, I mean either a full-time manager or staff to create and manage your planning efforts, or engaging a qualified professional consultant to create your program and get it running.
So here are ten additional reasons (in no particular order):
- Follow-up. A full-timer can “nudge” employees and managers to complete planning tasks that tend to take a back seat to other priorities
- Expertise. Trained and experienced professionals know the right questions to ask and what to look for. This is a huge time and money saver.
- Connections. Someone who has been around the industry for a while usually knows how to identify and marshal 3rd party resources you many need.
- Objectivity. When ones job is solely focused on business continuity, you have an “outsider’s view” of the other departments of the company. This allows for a line of questioning that can illuminate vulnerabilities that the daily practitioner may have overlooked.
- Plan updates. Make reminding departments to keep plans updated the responsibility of your full time BC pro. It is too easy for plans to get outdated and dusty without a full time person keeping track.
- Tools and Templates. Most professionals in the BC industry have created many plans and other reports, and have accumulated a stack of tools and templates that can make things go faster. Why reinvent the wheel?
- Auditors. You can show an auditor a plan, but if you can also show them that it was created by a certified professional it can carry more weight.
- Exercises. Skilled pros know the value of rehearsing a recovery effort based on a realistic scenario. They know how to get your people to think through what they would do in a disaster situation, as well as how to ask the right questions to get people thinking.
- Completeness. A trained professional knows that a comprehensive planning effort requires certain steps, and a certain order of steps which build upon each other to create the complete picture.
- Professionalism. When you take an employee from an existing job or department and assign them to the task of learning about the subject of business continuity and creating your program, you will get what you pay for – a half-baked plan. A qualified professional has experience with multiple industries or at least with multiple plans. He or she knows what a good program requires, and what is does not need. If they have been through an actual disaster, even better, because there is nothing that will provide a better experience than recovering from an actual event.
