Filed under: Knowledge | Tags: business, business continuity, business continuity software, business disaster, business impact analysis, Continuity of Operations, COOP, disaster recovery, disaster recovery software, KingsBridge Disaster Recovery, Phoenix software
I always find it interesting to see how the field of Business Continuity (BC), Disaster Recovery (DR) and Continuity of Operations (COOP) is continually evolving. Recently, I have been asked to comment on the “need” for consultants when a client already has software. Before this month this wasn’t that big of a deal, but now it’s a hot topic that seems to be gaining momentum. What are we seeing when it comes to having a consultant in house to complete your planning?
Let’s set the stage first.
In the old days, consultants were the only way to go since software vendors (us included) hadn’t built tools that were simple to use… Thereby requiring a consultant to really get the BC, DR, or COOP plan into a finalized actionable state.
As time evolved the consultant was still an integral part of the process, but software vendors were getting closer to building a tool that clients could use themselves to build a successful BC, DR or COOP plan.
In the past few years, we’ve seen a shift since the software has improved allowing clients to build a plan themselves – pushing consultants out of the process. Unfortunately, 2009 happened and a lot of the people who were doing the BC, DR, COOP planning at their companies were let go or assigned to “more important tasks”. This left the planning in disarray and inevitably the planning took a back seat.
But now we’re seeing that shift again. Because clients have been whittled down to a skeleton staff and the planning still needs to be done, we are now seeing a resurgence in the need for BC, DR, COOP consultants. The reality is that it is still more cost effective to hire a consultant than it is to have full time staff working on the planning.
So this must mean the consultant has won the battle of survival?
Sort of… Clients are smarter now, they are asking for a complete solution as opposed to letting a vendor push their services. We are seeing maturity in the questions that we haven’t seen before; this is excellent as it means the clients are doing their homework and their expectations are that much higher. Consultants and planning software are finding a good balance of being able to offer a complete solution.
In the end the clients are the winners in all of this because they are reaping the benefits of the more comprehensive solution.
KingsBridge is a Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity company specializing in Software, Seminars and Consulting. If you are looking for a Microsoft Office integrated recovery planning tool, Phoenix is not only an excellent tool, but the only completely integrated planning tool. Our seminars (online and in-house) are some of the longest running seminars in the recovery business. KingsBridge uses turn-key consulting for those who need the plan done, right the first time. For more information about KingsBridge, checkout www.disasterrecovery.com
Filed under: Knowledge | Tags: business, business continuity, business continuity software, business disaster, Continuity of Operations, COOP, cyclo-cross, disaster preparation, disaster recovery, disaster recovery software, KingsBridge Disaster Recovery, plus 3 networks, vicki thomas, world championships
I always find it inspiring to see a long line of cyclist rolling along like an outstretched human train, everyone is wearing matching jersey and shorts working together to a common goal. If you’ve ever watched the Tour de France then you will certainly understand this amazing group of people working towards a sight. This is a sight that has become common at KingsBridge, minus the Tour de France part of course! Everyone working towards a common goal.
Before joining KingsBridge I often dealt with Skip Williams (CEO) as he frequently visited the bicycle store that I managed during my university days, as it was just around the corner from their office. He would often drop in mid-ride in full KingsBridge cycling gear, matching head to toe. I found it very interesting that a Disaster Recovery software and consulting company would have such a passion in cycling. One day Skip dropped by the shop and gave me a KingsBridge cycling jersey, unknown to me, the first of many to come. It was my first step into the KingsBridge train.
Now having been with KingsBridge for almost a year, I’ve discovered that Skip and KingsBridge are committed to their employees, clients and sports (not just cycling). KingsBridge sponsors; the Ultimate Frisbee team of our IT manager, the Touch football team that I play on and KingsBridge cycling jerseys to local (both Road and Mountain) bikers. In addition to sponsoring employee related teams, KingsBridge is also giving back to clients by working to raise money for the Nevada Cancer Institute. Each mile ridden, run, skied or hiked goes to raising money for cancer research. The culmination of this years KingsBridge sporting sponsorship just recently took place as Vicki Thomas, our sponsored Cyclo-cross rider. Vicki raced in the World Cyclo-cross championship in the Czech Republic. It was great to see a KingsBridge sponsored racer at a world caliber event! One of our very own on a world stage… very cool! As each day goes by and the KingsBridge train gains more momentum and more members!
In the coming months, we will have a section on our website dedicated to the KingsBridge train, everyone working towards a common goal and in complete unison. 2010 is going to be a great year and I will certainly keep you posted of new developments and when the train is leaving the station, hop on board and learn about how your goals can be reached when everyone works together!
Steve Rogers
KingsBridge Disaster Recovery
KingsBridge is a Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity company specializing in Software, Seminars and Consulting. If you are looking for a Microsoft Office integrated recovery planning tool, Phoenix is not only an excellent tool, but the only completely integrated planning tool. Our seminars (online and in-house) are some of the longest running seminars in the recovery business. KingsBridge uses turn-key consulting for those who need the plan done, right the first time. For more information about KingsBridge, checkout www.disasterrecovery.com
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: business continuity, business continuity software, business disaster, business impact analysis, Continuity of Operations, COOP, disaster preparation, disaster recovery, disaster recovery software, KingsBridge Disaster Recovery, nyc snow, Phoenix software, snowmageddon, washington snow
The current weather that has gripped Washington and most of the North East is a perfect example of what we try to impart to our clients. It doesn’t take a major event such as hurricane, flood, earthquake, etc. to cause a significant impact to your bottom line. Let’s take a quick look.
We are constantly asked about the Return on Investment (ROI) of Business Continuity (BC) and Disaster Recovery (DR). Unfortunately, it is very much like insurance (car, life, house, etc.) it doesn’t do you any good until you need it! For the most part BC/DR are money losers, in other words you aren’t making money from doing Recovery Planning. But, those days when you need some guidance or what to do in the event of “Snowmageddon” (for example), it will save you tons of money.
So if BC/DR planning doesn’t save me money until an incident occurs, how do I get budget for the planning before an incident occurs?
This question goes back to our previous post “I cant get budget for my planning…” and in there we recommended the use of our ROI tool. If you haven’t used the tool, I would really recommend giving it a try. It takes seconds to scare years off your life!
Let’s take a look at what I mean:
Very simple process, take the annual gross income for your company, divide it by the work hours in a year (we’ll use 1717 as per Wikipedia) This calculation will give you a cost of dollars revenue lost per hour of downtime. For example: A company with a gross income of $20 million dollars value works out to:
Lost Revenue = $20,000,000 / 1717 hours = $11,648.22 per hour.
So that means for every hour Snowmageddon slows your ability to get to work, you are looking at loosing almost $12,000 an hour! Obviously, this is a very simple calculation, but it gets the idea across.
If this number doesn’t get you some budget, add in the cost of the not working employees! Say the same company has 75 employees with an average annual income of $80,000 each. What is their cost per hour?
We know the lost revenue is $11,648.22 per hour
Their cost per hour is the number of employees multiplied by their average income divided by the number of work hours. So…
Employee Cost = (75 employees x $80,000) / 1717 hours = $3,494.47 per hour.
Getting back to Snowmageddon, each hour your company is delayed due to snow, power failure, delayed transit… what is the cost of not being open? Add the Employee Cost (because you don’t stop paying them due to snow) and the Lost Revenue, your small $20 million company is now losing $15,142.69 per hour!!
If you company matches these stats bang on, well you don’t have to get to the ROI tool, but if your company is larger (or smaller), run your numbers through the tool and find out how much each hour is costing you!
If these numbers don’t get you budget to do your planning, you might want to polish your resume. Not because you are leaving right now, but when the next incident occurs and there is no plan, you will need you resume!!
KingsBridge is a Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity company specializing in Software, Seminars and Consulting. If you are looking for a Microsoft Office integrated recovery planning tool, Phoenix is not only an excellent tool, but the only completely integrated planning tool. Our seminars (online and in-house) are some of the longest running seminars in the recovery business. KingsBridge uses turn-key consulting for those who need the plan done, right the first time. For more information about KingsBridge, checkout www.disasterrecovery.com
Filed under: Knowledge | Tags: business, business continuity, business continuity software, business disaster, Continuity of Operations, COOP, disaster preparation, disaster recovery, KingsBridge Disaster Recovery, recall, tiger woods, toyota
In our last post about the media being mean, I talked about the media making up news about Tiger Woods when he crashed his truck and hasn’t spoken to the media. Well, here is the next installment (sorry, it’s Toyota’s turn, enough on Tiger).
A few weeks ago there was a report that Toyota was going to recall a bunch of their cars due to a sticking gas pedal. At the time there were no accidents (at least not enough to make the news) attributed to the sticking gas pedal, nobody had been hurt and there was no cause for alarm (other than it was impacting 2.3 million cars). To date, there still aren’t any injuries resulting from the recall/faulty part, but the media storm that has resulted had caused the value of Toyota to drop and is calling into question the “safetyness” of the entire brand! All of this came around before the CEO of Toyota stepped forward, expressed his heart felt regret for the gas pedal recall. Since the apology was issued, the value of Toyota has gone back up and everything seems to have settled into a regular recall of car parts.
What does all of this teach us?
Before the CEO came out with the apology, we saw the media going nuts about the recall and how it was going to be a long-term black eye against the most reliable car manufacturer in the world. Since the apology, the wind has been taken out of the sails of the media and they have left Toyota alone to complete the repairs to the gas pedal. These exact steps need to be taken by you (and your company) whenever something like this happens. Address the problem, make amends and go about fixing the problem before it festers so far out of control that you’ll never recover. Keep your customers up to date about the facts and don’t let the media dictate to your customers about your disaster.
As a note: Tiger Woods is still the top brand by an athlete.
KingsBridge is a Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity company specializing in Software, Seminars and Consulting. If you are looking for a Microsoft Office integrated recovery planning tool, Phoenix is not only an excellent tool, but the only completely integrated planning tool. Our seminars (online and in-house) are some of the longest running seminars in the recovery business. KingsBridge uses turn-key consulting for those who need the plan done, right the first time. For more information about KingsBridge, checkoutwww.disasterrecovery.com
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: canada, cyclo-cross, KingsBridge Disaster Recovery, tabor, uci, vicki thomas, world championships
Over the past couple of years, KingsBridge Disaster Recovery has sponsored one of our contractors in their dream of racing on a world level. We are very proud to congratulate Vicki in reaching her 2009 goal of racing at the Cyclo-Cross World Championships!
To get an idea of what Vicki has been up to over the past months, check out her blog at www.ottawa.cx! It really is an amazing story of someone setting a goal and doing absolutely everything possible to reach that goal. From weekend flights to Italy to spending the entire winter in Belgium, Vicki has made the commitment I am sure every one of us wishes we could!
Her race in Tabor, Czech Republic (photos posted here) this past weekend was the culmination of her efforts in 2009 (and early 2010), but she has already set her goals for next year and we look forward to sharing them with Vicki throughout the year!
If you get a chance, drop her a comment on her blog to say hello or give her encouragement (not that she needs much) to continue to chase her dreams and push her limits next year. We are still working out the details, but if you attend the Disaster Recovery Journal’s Spring World in Orlando, you might just get to meet her and wish her luck in person!
Thanks for the great year Vicki and we look forward to cheering you on again next season (and hopefully keeping up with you on our group rides)!
Sincerely,
Skip Williams
KingsBridge Disaster Recovery
Filed under: Knowledge | Tags: business, business continuity, business continuity software, business disaster, Continuity of Operations, COOP, disaster preparation, disaster recovery, disaster recovery software, KingsBridge Disaster Recovery, Phoenix software, Return on Investment
Have your been tasked with building a recovery plan for your business and you don’t know where to begin? While it might sound like a daunting task, it really isn’t all that difficult, but you will need to learn some of the basics before you begin your journey!
The good thing is you aren’t alone, all of our customers have faced and overcome the same thing.
First, you have to determine the “why” and “how” of the project. WHY is it critical for YOUR business to have a plan and HOW are you expected to get it done? Most of this is simply finding the pressure point and leveraging that towards the funding and solution you have been tasked with. If you need help with this, contact us and we’ll happily help you through the proess, (for free).
Second, avoid the regular pit falls (call trees, only IT backups, etc) that will create a lot of work and aren’t even close to what you should have to pass an audit.
We have seen a million times how a call tree simply doesn’t work. Why? Simple, people are unreliable. I know that sound mean, but think about it… They want unreasonable things like vacation, sick days, sick kids, out of the office, etc. If they don’t pass their responsibilities to a co-worker, their link in the tree gets broken and that is the end of the call tree.
The concept of “calling two friends and so on” works great for Shampoo (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgDxWNV4wWY), it doesn’t give you a reliable method for notifying your team in the event of a disaster. Everbridge (a technology partner of ours) has an excellent section of their website that deals with a lot of the issues you are likely to face, check out:
http://everbridge.com/why-incident-notification
Their system is completely integrated with ours and we have worked with them for a number of years now. Very good and very reliable system.
Third, it is critical to stop thinking that a disaster is something huge like H1N1, earthquake, hurricane, etc…
A disaster can be something very small, any interruption to regular business really. Think of the last snowstorm, power failure, etc. were you able to work as normal? Did everyone make it to work at their regular hour? For every hour lost, use our Phoenix Return on Investment (ROI) tool to determine the “cost” of the interruption. If you are trying to secure budget, this is the best starting point as it puts some real numbers to each hour of downtime. To use the calculator, go to www.disasterrecovery.com/roi
Last, I know… lots of reading.
Remember that there is more to Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity than just backups and computer recovery. There is the whole office component meaning who are our suppliers? who owes us money? who do we owe money to? what are our Service Level Agreements (SLAs)? What penalties do we pay in event we can’t deliver on contracts? what are our legislative requirements? This is the essence of Business Continuity, the entire business side of the corporation. From a strictly IT perspective; there are the number of computers, what each of them does, not to mention how they are networked. This type of information isn’t captured in the “backups” promised by your IT manager. As you can see there is a lot more to BC/DR planning than computer backups and call trees.
It’s a lot to take in, but I know these are all things that you have to consider when it comes to planning, but they are critical to building a foundation that you can go to senior management with. If you simply ask them for money, with no reasoning or foundation, you aren’t likely to get any. If you go to them with the numbers (i.e. dollars lost per hour of downtime), you are a lot more likely to get the funding you will need to build a successful plan.
Filed under: Knowledge | Tags: business, business continuity, business continuity software, business disaster, business impact analysis, Continuity of Operations, COOP, disaster, disaster preparation, disaster recovery, disaster recovery software, KingsBridge Disaster Recovery, Phoenix software
Earlier this morning as I was having my morning coffee with some colleagues from work I received a phone call. I noticed that it was my wife that was calling me. As I picked up the phone I noticed right away a bizarre tone in her voice, she seemed lazy, almost sleepy. After asking her about it she told me that she was bored! She then tells me that she and her entire office floor have had no power for the last two hours! As a result, she and her co-workers have had no computer access, which means that they have been sitting idle for that entire time waiting for the power to come back on.
What surprised me the most? She didn’t seem bothered in the slightest about this.
I hung up the phone a couple minutes later and sat at my desk asking myself how would such a conversation be possible. Being in the disaster recovery and business continuity industry this type of scenario seemed absolutely absurd. How could an entire floor of 70 plus people that work for a Federal Government agency sit essentially being useless for hours on end without any thing to do? As I know my wife’s salary and can make an educated guess of the total salary of all 70 plus workers, I find it completely ridiculous that all that money is being lost and there does not seem to be any sense of urgency among her or her peers.
Unfortunately most people view the field of disaster recovery and business continuity as one that deals with only the fire and brimstone of earthquakes, tornadoes and hurricanes and overlook power outages as being a normal acceptable occurrence. A lack of power does not necessarily mean lack of productivity. A simple recovery plan would of outlined alternate tasks that could have been completed by my wife and her colleagues while they wait for the lights to come back on. This would only be one of many options that would certainly provide a much better business outcome compared to a floor full of people twirling there thumbs waiting for power.
Navigate to www.disasterrecovery.com/roi and discover how much money your business losses during each hour of downtime!
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: business, business continuity, business continuity software, business disaster, business impact analysis, Continuity of Operations, KingsBridge Disaster Recovery, Phoenix software, plus 3 networks
Every year, we close our offices between Dec 25th and Jan 1st. While this seems like a long break, we’ve found it gives everyone time to take a break, visit with family and enjoy some down time without their iPhone going nuts due to missed calls/emails. Each year, I try to use this time to plan for the upcoming year and how to make things better; in our processes, deliverables and customer service. While this year was no different, I did find some time to reflect on the year that was…
First, we expanded our sales team. I know it sounds strange to be growing during a down economy, but that is what happened! 2009 has been our best year to date and we are hoping to continue that momentum into 2010! By adding Steve Rogers at our sales office in Ottawa (whom most of you have met – on the phone at least), we’ve been able to reach new people and spend more time with each person to ensure they are getting the best service possible! In addition to Steve, we added Rich Bender in St. Louis. Rich comes from a retirement planning/financial services background and has brought some excellent experience to the table!
Second, we wanted to make a difference, so we started some fund raising activities. Most of you will have heard of the +3 Network by now, through our newsletters, but for those who haven’t, check them out here. Our goal is to get people off the couch and on their bike, feet, hiking boots, etc. As with all new programs, this is getting off to a slow start, but we are looking forward to 2010 being a big year! Our benefactor is the Nevada Cancer Institute in Las Vegas. Everyone has a cancer related story (my mom is a survivor of almost 20 years) and we want to be part of finding a solution!
Third, we are sponsoring a bunch of cycling events in 2010. Most everyone in the office is a cycling fan and we thought it would be fun to have company jerseys and shorts. Early in 2009 we ordered a bunch of jerseys and shorts and have been riding in them since! This has grown into a KingsBridge sponsored rider (Vicki Thomas – who is in Belgium right now) and an increasingly busy riding schedule for 2010. We’ll post a calendar of events early in 2010, so if we are near by, you can come out and say hello.
Finally, we have to give thanks to YOU. Without you, all of this wouldn’t be possible. You continued support makes it a joy to come to work, allows us to sponsor cancer research and cyclists chasing their dreams. Some have been Binomial/KingsBridge clients for years and other are just coming on board, but each of you found us to offer the best service/product for the best price. With each new product we release, we try to build it with one goal in mind… Make our client’s lives easier and less confusing. So… Thank you!
We look forward to working with you in 2010 and many more years to come! Our doors are always open for comments, requests or just a simple hello. See you in the New Year!!
Sincerely,
Skip Williams
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: business, business continuity, business continuity software, business disaster, Continuity of Operations, david letterman, disaster preparation, disaster recovery, disaster recovery software, image trouble, KingsBridge Disaster Recovery, Phoenix software, tiger woods
During our Disaster Recovery classes, we always tell the clients that the media, with the unlimited airtime to fill, will create the news if you don’t give it to them. So, for all our clients, we work with them to build a set of press releases and strongly encourage their management to go to media training to learn the basics of dealing with the media. If you are in a highly visible position, even having a media firm do your press releases and media relations is absolutely critical.
If you don’t believe me, look at one very costly example going on right now… Can you guess it? In two words “Tiger Woods transgressions”. Ok… you got me… that’s three words, but anytime anyone says “Tiger” I always think of Woods first and the animal second.
How does the predicament Tiger finds himself in right now have anything to do with your company?
First, what does he have to sell? His image. What do you have to sell? Your product or your image… Your image is extremely critical when it comes to attracting new customers or keeping existing ones. How would it look if your company were suffering the same scrutiny that Tiger is under right now? Could your business survive the intensive digging by groups that are trying to create news, even if it isn’t there?
What could Tiger have done differently?
Make a serious statement, not something ambiguous on your website. Face the music! Pay the piper! David Letterman had the same “transgressions – caught on film!” and he hasn’t suffered the same trouble Tiger has , if you don’t believe me, check out what the Wall Street Journal has to say! The hardest part to take in this entire news blitz on Tiger… Currently, there is no hard proof! There is a lot of conjecture and speculation, but to date, there is no smoking gun. To make matters worse, now ESPN reports the police believe he was driving under the influence! Again, no proof, just people trying to get their 15 minutes of fame…
I guarantee there will be someone who stands in a golf store this year and buys Callaway (endorsed by Phil Mickelson who’s wife is fighting cancer) golf balls instead of Nike (endorsed by Tiger Woods.. enough said). Please make sure when someone is trying to decide if they should buy your product, they aren’t swayed by bad press and make the wrong decision. Have your recovery plan up to date with press releases and media statements ready to go! The camera lights are bright and unforgiving!
KingsBridge is a Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity company specializing in Software, Seminars and Consulting. If you are looking for a Microsoft Office integrated recovery planning tool, Phoenix is not only an excellent tool, but the only completely integrated planning tool. Our seminars (online and in-house) are some of the longest running seminars in the recovery business. KingsBridge uses turn-key consulting for those who need the plan done, right the first time. For more information about KingsBridge, checkoutwww.disasterrecovery.com
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: business, business continuity, business continuity software, business disaster, business impact analysis, Continuity of Operations, disaster preparation, KingsBridge Disaster Recovery, Phoenix online, Phoenix software, Saas, software, swine flu education
In addition to an online Threat Risk and Business Impact Analysis tool, we are working on a repository for your Phoenix generated plans online!! Side Note: We have been asked for a hosted planning tool for several years, but due to technical restrictions with the internet and Microsoft, we aren’t able to integrate Microsoft Office with an online tool. To date, our customers (you) have told us they would rather have the ability to edit in Microsoft Word, than have a hosted solution. But we have also been asked to make the plans available online (once they are completed) and we have responded. Currently this feature is in Beta, if you would like to have an input on how it works, please let us know and we’ll be in touch. We are very excited about this new feature as it will make accessing your plan anywhere that much easier and faster.
