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What is Business Continuity Planning ( BCP )?
BCP is a process of understanding what your business does on a daily basis and establishing what is required to insure its survival following a major incident that affects its normal operations. The Process, by its very nature MUST focus on the Critical (essential) activities of your business, In addition, the Plan must address the internal and external dependencies that support these activities, such as IT, material supplies, and essential services.

Global Continuum, is a customer based service oriented corporation, which is organized to provide affordable Business Continuity Planning, Alternative Site Services and other essential business support services to small and medium sized businesses and governmental entities. Global Continuum is formed from various professional consulting endeavors spanning over thirty years experience in IT, Governmental Relations and Finance. In the field of BCP , Global Continuum has developed a planning model that provides maximum focus on internal team building, risk identification, mitigation and assessment. At our Headquarters' based Data Center, we have a full range of Alternative Site Services and Monitor solutions, as well as the Intradyn “Rocket Vault, BackAgain and Compliance Vault” product line .

Throughout the BCP process we will stress that Global Continuum is your Business Continuity Planning Consultant charged with the responsibility of facilitating a process not dictating a solution.

What is a Disaster?
A “ disaster is defined as any event which disrupts operations to the point of having a significant interruption of business functions or customer based service, such as:

*Human Error *Software Corruption *Hardware Failure

*Computer Virus *Natural Disaster

What are the major elements of a BCP?
The major elements of a BCP are:

Business Impact analysis (BIA)
Risk Identification and Assessment (RIA)
Risk mitigation and Plan implementation

What are the consequences if a company DOESN'T Plan?
A recent industry study found that companies that did not have a valid Plan in place at the time of a disaster:

70% of companies without a valid plan failed within the next year.
Of those that did survive, only 10% make a full recovery.
Without a plan, recovery is guaranteed to be slower resulting in:
- Loss of customers
- Loss of sales revenues
- Loss of shareholder confidence
- Recovery is ALWAYS more expensive
Although a Plan, in most instances is not required, for insurability, most insurers are requiring a valid Plan before issuing an insurance policy.
Often, when companies are seeking business loans for growth, or inventory, or working capital, lenders either require a Plan for a loan or charge higher interest rates because of a perception of higher risk.

Who is responsible for Business Continuity Planning?
A valid BCP program is an Executive Supported Initiative. With that initiative, your BCP consultant will work with company stakeholders who are versed in the operational functions of the organization and the prioritized needs of the business continuity process. Once the BCP is completed an employee educational process needs to be developed and deployed.

How long will the Business Continuity Planning process take?
The actual time required to develop a viable BCP is really a function of how much value corporate management places on the final product, and its' benefits to the corporation. Planning, like all good business processes, should follow the simple rule of thumb: The benefit derived from the process is in direct relationship to the amount of “appropriate” time spent in the development of the plan . Typically, working with your Global Continuum professional, given a strong commitment from upper management, the basics of the Plan can be accomplished within thirty (30) to sixty (60) days.

Can someone else do the planning process for us?
Unfortunately, the answer is NO. While a BCP professional can facilitate the gathering of information and create the actual BCP documents, the company stakeholders are key to a valid and successful Plan.

What are Alternate Site Services?
Alternate Site Services are located at a site other than the normal facility, used to host the emergency command center. It is equipped and staffed to provide support in coordinating and guiding emergency/disaster operations. Emergency Operations Centers (EOCs) are activated on an as needed basis. Global Continuum offers the following alternate site services: Ready Rack Lease Program (Cold Site) with server ready racks in a full service data center environment with available redundant data connectivity; Live Rack Program (Hot Site) where you place your servers with live connectivity to your business for virtual data connectivity; Managed Rack Program where we customize a managed service program to fit your company's specific server needs; and, Specialized Services where we supply a variety of specialized failover/connectivity solutions to assist in meeting Regulatory compliance issues such as HIPAA and NASD/ SEC .11