Filed under: KingsBridge Disaster Recovery | Tags: business continuity, business continuity software, business disaster, business impact analysis, Continuity of Operations, COOP, disaster recovery, disaster recovery software, iPhone Application, KingsBridge Disaster Recovery, Phoenix Mobile, Phoenix Mobile iPhone App, Phoenix software
We’re seeing a unique disaster this year in both the U.S. and Canada. In both countries, there is unprecedented flooding from heavy winter snows and rains. In both cases, flood gates are being opened to flood some areas to protect other.
In Louisiana, Army engineers opened a spillway to allow the swollen Mississippi River to flood thousands of homes and fields but save New Orleans and Baton Rouge.
One of the 125 floodgates at the Morganza Spillway northwest of Baton Rouge was opened on Saturday which dumped water onto nearby fields. This is intended to save Louisiana’s two largest cities.
There are already 3 million acres of farmland flooded in Mississippi, Tennessee and Arkansas.
It is expected that 3,000 square miles of land could be inundated in up to 20 feet of water for several weeks and it will take up to three weeks for the water to pass through a system of levees and spillways to the Gulf of Mexico.
The irony is that there is a drought in the area and still, they won’t be able to benefit from the flood waters.
If they didn’t open the spillway, then New Orleans would be at risk of flooding worse than seen during Hurricane Katrina, when 80 percent of the city was flooded and 1,500 people died.
In Canada, they are having similar difficulties in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Quebec. They have opened a dike in Manitoba to divert water from swollen rivers unto farms and towns. They have filled tens of thousands of sandbags to minimize damage to homes in the path of the water. The idea is to sacrifice some homes to save many more. In Quebec, the Richelieu River has flooded scores of homes as well.
So what does all of this mean in the continuity business ? Well, government officials in all of these cases have been faced with difficult decisions to choose between homes, farms, businesses, power plants, oil refineries in some areas and those in more populous areas. Even with the best of intentions, some are going to lose.
The variety of disasters that can affect your business continue to increase. You must continue to re-visit your plans to ensure that they remain current and that your team members are still trained to the new standards.
About KingsBridge
KingsBridge offers private businesses and government organizations a unique combination of industry knowledge and cost-effective disaster recovery / business continuity solutions. KingsBridge products and seminars provide the tools to assess possible threats and create tailored plans which mitigate risks and minimize losses in the event of a disruption to business. Kingsbridge is headquartered in Ogdensburg, New York, with offices in Ottawa, Canada and Burlington, Vermont. For more information visit us at www.DisasterRecovery.com.
Filed under: KingsBridge Disaster Recovery | Tags: business continuity, business continuity software, business disaster, business impact analysis, Continuity of Operations, COOP, disaster recovery, disaster recovery software, iPhone Application, KingsBridge Disaster Recovery, Phoenix Mobile, Phoenix Mobile iPhone App, Phoenix software
A client of ours has fallen on some hard times, due to the economy. We have been working with this client for a number of years and we continue to maintain their response and recovery plans. However, the current world and national economies have hit this client hard, to the tune of many tens of millions of dollars lost. This is not an isolated story. There are many companies who are facing the same difficulties.
There have been many layoffs and the same is true for this client. This means that the teams in their response and recovery plans have also been disseminated; more than half of the team members are now gone.
So, we decided to do what we do best. We decided to help.
We have offered to help by either maintaining their plans from our offices, at no cost to them, for the balance of this year or on their premises for travel and living costs only. Either of these saves them the cost of our people.
Why are we doing this ? We believe that, in tough times, we have to help each other. They helped us get to where we are and we think that they could use our help now.
Maybe other companies, in the service businesses, could consider doing the same. If we all help each other, just a little bit, it could make a large difference overall.
About KingsBridge
KingsBridge offers private businesses and government organizations a unique combination of industry knowledge and cost-effective disaster recovery / business continuity solutions. KingsBridge products and seminars provide the tools to assess possible threats and create tailored plans which mitigate risks and minimize losses in the event of a disruption to business. Kingsbridge is headquartered in Ogdensburg, New York, with offices in Ottawa, Canada and Burlington, Vermont. For more information visit us at www.DisasterRecovery.com.
Filed under: KingsBridge Disaster Recovery | Tags: business, business continuity, business continuity software, business disaster, business impact analysis, Continuity of Operations, COOP, disaster recovery, disaster recovery software, iPhone Application, KingsBridge Disaster Recovery, Phoenix Mobile, Phoenix Mobile Enterprise, Phoenix Mobile iPhone App, Phoenix software, threat risk analysis
There was a survey (http://is.gd/R3KQkQ )taken a few months ago by CDW of businesses in the U.S., who had experienced major disruptions in their networks during the previous year.
Officials of CDW said that “through more preparation, testing and improved network accessibility, business can improve” disaster management and business recovery plans and “have real confidence in business operations during unplanned disruptions.”
There were some interesting things that came from that survey. Most of the businesses believed that spending some money on IT would enable them to weather disruptions while being able to support regular operations. But almost all of the businesses surveyed did admit that disruptions in networks had a very big effect on their business in the previous year.
CDW said that the survey was a confirmation that as businesses had the belief they were well prepared for any unplanned disruption in their network, a good number of them were not.
I would suggest that the results of this should make you look inward and review your own preparedness. Virtually all of these businesses were not prepared and not aware of their shortcomings. Don’t be caught out the same way. Get your business continuity plans in order. They need to be audited.
About KingsBridge
KingsBridge offers private businesses and government organizations a unique combination of industry knowledge and cost-effective disaster recovery / business continuity solutions. KingsBridge products and seminars provide the tools to assess possible threats and create tailored plans which mitigate risks and minimize losses in the event of a disruption to business. Kingsbridge is headquartered in Ogdensburg, New York, with offices in Ottawa, Canada and Burlington, Vermont. For more information visit us at www.DisasterRecovery.com.
Filed under: KingsBridge Disaster Recovery | Tags: business, business continuity, business continuity software, business disaster, business impact analysis, Continuity of Operations, COOP, disaster recovery, disaster recovery software, iPhone Application, KingsBridge Disaster Recovery, Phoenix Mobile, Phoenix Mobile iPhone App, Phoenix software
We know this to be true, that everyone (every company, hospital, school, airport, etc.) should have a plan if they are serious about staying in business. And the reasons for having a plan are numerous:
- succession planning
- the ability to stay in business
- the vast majority of business that suffer a major hit, and don’t have plan, go bankrupt
- training your staff to think about their jobs and how to do them better in order to protect their jobs after an incident
- to prioritize critical services or products
- to identify impacts of disruptions
- to identify areas of potential revenue loss
- to identify additional expenses
- to determine insurance requirements
. . . . and the list goes on.
In short, the reason you need a plan is to be able to stay in business when something bad happen, hence the term “business continuity”
We can now see that a plan is important. So why doesn’t every organization have a plan in place, as the first order of business. It really is important.
Well the reasons (excuses) are many but some of them are:
- lack of funds
- This isn’t a very good reason as the cost of continuity planning can be offset by the risk insurance premium savings (if you need an explanation on this one, call us (888 246-6642) and we’ll explain it)
- lack of management commitment
- This one should be called a lack of management understanding of the criticality of this planning/insurance. If you can’t carry on the business, then you’re no longer in business.
- lack of time to do a plan
- There’s lots of software, courses, seminars, consultants, associations where you can solve this problem.
- we don’t know how to do it
- see the above answer for this one
The statistics are brutal:
- over 50% of companies do not have plans in place and many of the ones that do have plans don’t maintain their plans. Testing of the plan and training of the personnel should be ongoing aspects of any plan.
- some companies without plans never get to open their doors again. The devastation is so large and, without plans, they don’t know where to begin.
- when companies are unable to service their clients, the lost revenue can run from tens of thousands of dollars up to millions. And the cost side of your profit equation continue on.
- when companies fail, jobs are lost. Work to protect your job now.
About KingsBridge
KingsBridge offers private businesses and government organizations a unique combination of industry knowledge and cost-effective disaster recovery / business continuity solutions. KingsBridge products and seminars provide the tools to assess possible threats and create tailored plans which mitigate risks and minimize losses in the event of a disruption to business. Kingsbridge is headquartered in Ogdensburg, New York, with offices in Ottawa, Canada and Burlington, Vermont. For more information visit us at www.DisasterRecovery.com.
Filed under: KingsBridge Disaster Recovery | Tags: business continuity, business continuity software, business disaster, business impact analysis, Continuity of Operations, COOP, disaster preparation, disaster recovery, disaster recovery software, iPhone Application, KingsBridge Disaster Recovery, Phoenix Mobile, Phoenix Mobile Enterprise, Phoenix Mobile iPhone App, Phoenix software, sharepoint, threat risk analysis
Well, we are now on our way to one of the biggest annual conferences in our industry, the bi-annual conference on business continuity and disaster recovery by the Disaster Recovery Journal. Starting this weekend, the conference will unfold, as it has for many years, at Disney’s Coronado Springs Hotel in Orlando, Florida. Seminars lead off on Saturday morning through Sunday noon. The trade show begins at 6pm on Sunday through Tuesday afternoon. And papers are being given in several streams Monday through Wednesday.
Our Booth
As always, Kingsbridge will have a booth (#518) this year so that we can meet with our clients and visitors to discuss what is new from our company. We have software solutions for developing and managing business continuity and disaster recovery plans that are:
a) standalone on your site,
b) online to be accessible from anywhere, and
c) remotely available from your iPhone (see this one on the Apple AppStore at http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/phoenix-enterprise/id396903548?mt=8 )
We love our topic and we welcome the chance to discuss it with you. If you can’t make it to our booth, call us in the booth at 888-246-6642 and we’ll give you a live report from the show floor!.
See more information on this conference atwww.drj.com
About KingsBridge
KingsBridge offers private businesses and government organizations a unique combination of industry knowledge and cost-effective disaster recovery / business continuity solutions. KingsBridge products and seminars provide the tools to assess possible threats and create tailored plans which mitigate risks and minimize losses in the event of a disruption to business. Kingsbridge is headquartered in Ogdensburg, New York, with offices in Ottawa, Canada and Burlington, Vermont. For more information visit us at www.DisasterRecovery.com.
Filed under: Knowledge, Software | Tags: business, business continuity, business continuity software, business disaster, business impact analysis, disaster preparation, disaster recovery, disaster recovery software, Infonetics Research, KingsBridge Disaster Recovery, phoenix foundation, Phoenix Mobile, Phoenix Mobile Enterprise, Phoenix Mobile iPhone App, Phoenix software, threat risk analysis
“Medium businesses (101 – 1000 employees) are losing an average of 1% of their annual revenue, or $867,000, to downtime with an average of nearly 140 hours of downtime every year. In addition to the financial losses, downtime creates a number of other risks including lost productivity due to idle employees, loss of customer confidence, liability and fraud due to lost records and data, and safety concerns due to no surveillance or critical communications.”
- Infonetics Research
One per cent of your annual revenue… That is not small change when it comes to a medium-sized business. That one per cent plus the trickle down effects of downtime can have catastrophic results for your company.
With a statistic such as this and proven research to emphasize how serious downtime really is to the longevity and financial stability of a company, we at KingsBridge really wonder how it is that some companies still believe that they don’t need disaster recovery and business continuity plans.
Lets look at the second sentence from above: In addition to the financial losses, downtime creates a number of other risks including lost productivity due to idle employees, loss of customer confidence, liability and fraud due to lost records and data, and safety concerns due to no surveillance or critical communications.
This is where the real stability of your business is affected. But with a business continuity and disaster recovery plan in place, these factors are easily preventable:
- lost productivity due to idle employees: an effective plan ensures that employees can work remotely if the workplace is affected. Back-up plans, remote servers and contact information is included in the plan and ensures that business can continue as usual.
- loss of customer confidence: there is nothing worse than calling a customer and telling them that you can’t deliver. With a disaster recovery plan in place you are prepared to maintain your customer supply chain and relationships. Your customers can rest easy knowing that they can continue to get quality service and products from you.
- liability and fraud due to lost records and data: you need to have back-up plans, remote servers and off-site storage. A disaster recovery plan ensures that your data is protected should anything happen to your building – flood, fire, theft, etc.
- safety concerns due to no surveillance or critical communications: it is your responsibility to ensure a safe and productive workplace. By completely analyzing your business and doing a thorough threat risk analysis and business impact analysis followed by a disaster recovery plan, any and all holes in security and communication will be highlighted and fixed.
So putting it all together: 1 per cent of your annual revenue plus the real potential loss of customers, idle employees, lost data, fraud concerns coupled with questions over safety and security – it really does make you wonder why there are companies out there who still believe that downtime is not an issue for them. In a way, we hope these companies are your competitors – it only makes you look that much better when faced with a disaster or threat and you’re able to respond and maintain business as usual.
If you work at one of “those” companies that is not prepared and doesn’t believe that downtime is an issue, perhaps you should click on over to our website and do some more reading about disaster recovery, business continuity planning and our industry leading Phoenix software.
Filed under: Knowledge, Software | Tags: 2011, Australia flooding, business continuity software, business disaster, business impact analysis, disaster recovery, disaster recovery software, H1N1, iPad, iPhone, iPhone Application, KingsBridge Disaster Recovery, New Year Resolutions, Phoenix Mobile, Phoenix software, threat risk analysis
We are a few days into the New Year… 2011. We can only wonder what this new year will bring – personally and professionally. One thing is certain, this new year has started with a bang.
Record flooding in Australia has resulted in numerous deaths and unplanned interruptions. The crazy snowstorm of late 2010 has ended but it severely put a dent in the travel and business plans of people through-out Europe and the United States. Reports in Canada stress that we are still not safe from the H1N1 virus.
The big question at this time of year, in light of current and past events is this – what are you going to do differently? What changes are you going to implement in your business and professional life. New Year’s resolutions are not limited to our personal lives. This is the perfect time to reflect on what worked and didn’t work in your company. It is also the perfect opportunity to really spend some time doing some planning and preparation.
One only needs to look back on 2010 to be reminded how many “unexpected or unplanned” disasters occurred. At first blush when these incidents are looked at separately, the impact might not be considered to be that much. But when you really consider the overall collective global impact of incidents such as the oil spill, volcanic ash cloud, sudden flooding and snowstorms, H1N1 pandemic, power outages, fires, and hurricanes – you quickly realize how these seemingly isolated incidents resulted in real and actual impacts on your bottom line.
My suggestion to you is this: take this week to get ready for the year ahead. Do a threat risk analysis – really look at the results of this process and consider how these threats will really impact your business and bottom-line. Next, take some action. Work with a proven leader in disaster recovery and business continuity planning to put together a disaster recovery plan. When done effectively, the creation and implementation of this plan will not have a big impact on the day-to-day operations of your business and will leave you with the business peace of mind that your company and its assets are protected in the event of disaster.
There are lots of options out there now for flexible and easy-to-use disaster recovery and business continuity planning software. If you have a mobile device such as an iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad you can take advantage of our industry-leading Phoenix Mobile Software. We offer a free version of our leading application that will help you get familiar with disaster recovery planning and see how easy it really is to implement a plan that will work for you. Click on over to iTunes and download our free software.
It it the time for changes for the better and believe me, we want your business to be safe and protected. If we can help you get started on this path to preparedness, then we’re pretty darn pleased. To top it off, we want to hear from you – tell us what you like and don’t like about our free application – the more feedback the better! To learn more about Phoenix Mobile and Phoenix Mobile Enterprise, be sure to click on over to our website – where you’ll find a complete resource on disaster recovery and business continuity planning.
If you take anything away from this, just be sure to prepare and plan. Based on the year we had in 2010, you’ll be making 2011 a much easier and profitable year for yourself.
Filed under: Knowledge, Software | Tags: business, business continuity, business continuity software, business disaster, business impact analysis, Continuity of Operations, COOP, disaster preparation, disaster recovery, disaster recovery software, iPad, iPhone, iPhone Application, KingsBridge Disaster Recovery, Phoenix Mobile, Phoenix Mobile iPhone App, Phoenix software
As our Phoenix Mobile for iPhone and iPad are becoming more popular, we are getting more people asking how they can access their Phoenix plans on a mobile device but don’t want to give Apple their credit card info just so they can “buy” free apps. To solve this problem, we found a “How To” on the Apple support page explaining how to do it! As with most things Apple, it is very simple and once explained makes it seem so obvious. So follow this link to setup the free purchases from your computer or from your mobile device. We found them to be very simple and easy to follow.
Once you have the ability to “buy” your apps, you should check out how Phoenix mobile can make your Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Planning on a mobile device very simple and as close to one-click as possible.
About KingsBridge
KingsBridge offers private businesses and government organizations a unique combination of industry knowledge and cost-effective disaster recovery / business continuity solutions. KingsBridge products and seminars provide the tools to assess possible threats and create tailored plans which mitigate risks and minimize losses in the event of a disruption to business. Kingsbridge is headquartered in Ogdensburg, New York, with offices in Ottawa, Canada and Burlington, Vermont. For more information visit us at www.DisasterRecovery.com.
Filed under: Knowledge, Software | Tags: business continuity software, disaster recovery software, DRJ Fall World, iPad, iPhone, iPhone Application, iPod Touch, iTunes Store, KingsBridge Disaster Recovery, Phoenix Mobile, Phoenix Mobile Enterprise, Phoenix Mobile iPhone App, Phoenix software
Ottawa, Ontario – October 4, 2010 – KingsBridge is pleased to announce the newest piece of its Phoenix recovery planning suite of software. Phoenix Mobile is the first mobile application that puts business continuity and disaster recovery planning on your mobile device.
Phoenix Mobile and Phoenix Mobile – Enterprise run on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch – literally putting your business continuity and disaster recovery plans in your pocket.
Phoenix Mobile debuted quietly a few weeks ago to a select group of users. The popularity of this free application quickly signaled that there is an industry demand for business continuity and disaster recovery planning software that runs on mobile devices. Phoenix Mobile is available from the iTunes Store and can be on your mobile device with one click.
While at the DRJ Fall World Show in San Diego, California from Sept. 19 – 22 we demonstrated Phoenix Mobile – Enterprise to show attendees. This new addition to the Phoenix suite puts your plan in your pocket. Whereas Phoenix Mobile puts a standard plan in your pocket, Phoenix Mobile – Enterprise syncs with your Phoenix plan over the air to ensure your latest plan is with you… Always. The freedom and capabilities of the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch have been captured and integrated into our industry-leading software.
Our free iPhone and iPad application has a simple-to-use and intuitive interface:
- Teach Your Team: access information on detailed pre-formatted disaster scenarios.
- Contact Your Team: automatically sync with your address book.
- Find Your Team: in the event of a disaster, quickly and easily send out a Google Maps pin, letting the people in your address book know where you and your phone are.
In addition to the features of Phoenix Mobile – Enterprise edition adds:
- The same simple-to-use and intuitive interface.
- Syn your plan to your mobile device.
- Create custom maps with directions to your hotsite.
- Initiate your notifications to your mass notification provide from your iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch.
Teach, Connect, Find – all with Phoenix Mobile.
Be sure to visit our website to learn more about Phoenix Mobile.
About KingsBridge
KingsBridge offers private businesses and government organizations a unique combination of industry knowledge and cost-effective disaster recovery / business continuity solutions. KingsBridge products and seminars provide the tools to assess possible threats and create tailored plans which mitigate risks and minimize losses in the event of a disruption to business. Kingsbridge is headquartered in Ogdensburg, New York, with offices in Ottawa, Canada and Burlington, Vermont. For more information visit us at www.DisasterRecovery.com.
Filed under: Knowledge, Software | Tags: business continuity, business continuity software, business disaster, disaster preparation, disaster recovery, disaster recovery software, DRJ Fall World, iPad, iPhone, iPhone Application, KingsBridge Disaster Recovery, Phoenix Mobile, Phoenix Mobile Enterprise, Phoenix Mobile iPhone App, Phoenix software
If you were at the DRJ Fall World show last week, you most likely saw a demo of our latest addition to the Phoenix software line. Once again, we’ve pushed the boundaries by delivering our industry-leading software to your iPad and iPhone.
We believe that Phoenix Mobile Enterprise will quickly become your “go to” business continuity and disaster recovery planning tool. By making our software available to you anywhere at anytime, we have bridged the gap between software and tool. Really, Phoenix Mobile Enterprise is your tool and answer to ensuring that your business is prepared and ready. Imagine the peace of mind of having your plan with you wherever and whenever.
But of course, we can appreciate that this is a big change for many of you. We are all slowly but surely realizing the power of our handy iPhones and iPads but it still might be a big leap to trust your business continuity and disaster recovery plans to a device that fits in your pocket or in your briefcase. No problem – we’ve got you covered!
Try us out first – download our free version of Phoenix Mobile. Yes – we are giving Phoenix Mobile away for free. Try out the tool and let us know what you like and don’t like. And when you’re convinced that this is the way to go, download Phoenix Mobile Enterprise.
Here are the facts on Phoenix Mobile:
- Teach Your Team: access information on detailed pre-formatted disaster scenarios.
- Contact Your Team: automatically sync with your address book.
- Find Your Team: in the event of a disaster, quickly and easily send out a Google Maps pin, letting the people in your address book know where you and your phone are.
In addition to these features, Phoenix Mobile Enterprise offers:
- The sample simple-to-use and intuitive interface
- Syncing of your plan to your iPhone/iPad
- Custom maps with directions to your hotsite
- Initiate your notifications to your mass notification from your iPhone/iPad
Teach, Connect, Find – all with Phoenix Mobile
