Planning for business continuity and disaster recovery

Overview

Do you remember the massive fire at the Buncefield oil storage depot? Sixty businesses next door faced massive disruption as a result. If your business had been one of them, would it have been the business that was fully operational the next day or the one that has gone bust?

Ensuring business continuity is a key FM responsibility. It calls for careful planning and regular re-appraisal. Our trainer is a specialist in the subject – make the most of his experience to avoid a bad experience of your own!

Training objectives

Depending on the particular focus required (see ‘Special features’, below), this programme will give participants:

  • A better appreciation of the risks you face
  • Clear advice on how to prepare a business continuity plan
  • Practical guidance as to how to compile a risk register
  • The ability to develop effective strategies for awareness and training
  • The opportunity to bench-mark your current state of preparedness against best practice

Audience

All managers, and some specialists, within the FM team would benefit from this programme, which should also be attended by other relevant managers (eg, IT) and by the directors / senior managers whose commitment to a business continuity plan is essential.

Format

A highly interactive one-day course, with workshops and informal breakout discussions a feature of every session. Additionally, the course notes have been prepared as a real aid to inform, containing many checklists and example forms to assist participants in their workplace.

Special features

The course outline below is an indicative programme, which can easily be tailored to focus on those issues which are of particular relevance to your organisation or environment.

The supporting materials can be supplied in either printed or electronic form.

Post-course support, whereby participants can call or email the trainer direct with any questions or concerns, can also be arranged.

The expert trainer

John has been a senior Facilities Manager for the greater part of his career and has extensive experience as a regional estate manager carrying out the full range of commercial duties. His experience extends to senior public sector posts and Group Director level in the private sector. He produced the Business Continuity Plan for the whole of the NTL Cable company’s UK estate and, as an independent consultant, he has carried out various projects including an FM performance system for Unilever, a strategic review and demographic survey for AIT and reviews of computer systems for Jarvis plc and Consignia. John is now Director of an independent consultancy specialising in FM and PFI with clients such as Clearstream International DBG, Mitchells & Butlers and Stonemartin Corporate Centres.

He is a fellow of the British Institute of Facilities Management and an experienced public speaker – as a trainer as well as conference speaking. He is a visiting lecturer at Reading University.

Course outline

  1. Why worry?
    • Risks and threats
    • Consequences
    • Organisational responsibility
    • FM’s role
  2. Principal risk areas
    • Fire
    • Flood
    • Utilities and telecommunications
    • IT failure (internet downtime / viruses / hackers / data loss)
    • Loss of key personnel
    • Industrial action
    • Transport failure
    • Asbestos or legionella contamination
    • Major vandalism
    • Loss or failure of subcontracted services
    • Security
    • Terrorism
  3. Business continuity planning – preparation
    • Selling the message and getting support
    • Authority, roles and responsibilities
    • Identifying potential risk areas
    • Assessing potential impact
    • Aligning strategies and scenarios
  4. Business continuity planning – the plan
    • Structure
    • Link with other documents
    • Drafting
    • Reviewing
    • Training
    • Testing
    • Integration with other organisational policies and processes
    • Change and configuration management
  5. The risk register
    • Purpose
    • Content
    • Compilation
    • Maintenance
    • Information sources
    • Building up the picture
    • Calculating the risk
  6. Awareness and training
    • Preparation and implementation
    • Communicating the plan internally
    • Training for implementation
    • Roles and responsibilities
    • Dealing with the emergency services