Enterprise business continuity: making sure agencies are preparedDecember 2005

Enterprise business continuity: making sure agencies are prepared

Short-term disruptions such as power outages or computer problems, or long-term disruptions caused by fires or natural disasters, share a common result – business operations stop. Disruptions can interrupt your revenue stream, cause you to be out of compliance with state and federal regulations, impact your operations, and destroy your reputation and trust.

Agencies must ensure their vital services remain intact by developing proactive business continuity plans to recover critical business, personnel and technology pieces. Agencies must also ensure they can restore operations to an acceptable level within a reasonable timeframe.

Department of Information Services (DIS) creates an enterprise initiative to help agencies develop business continuity plans
To address this demand, DIS is leading a collaborative enterprise Business Continuity Management initiative to improve business continuity planning among all state and local government agencies.

"Working closely with partner agencies, we will identify the primary risks, account for dependencies among colleague organizations, and capitalize on economies of scale," says Dave Kirk. "The goal is to help state and local government agencies improve the resiliency of vital services, circulate actionable business continuity plans, and establish an ongoing program to monitor, sustain, and coordinate the capacity to handle disruptions."

Initiative assists agencies in using a business continuity framework to develop plans for vital services
Twenty-one state and local agencies are participating in the Business Continuity Management initiative. They are the first to use an overarching business continuity management framework for the State of Washington. This framework will help agencies produce better plans in less time and avoid unnecessary duplication of cost and efforts. The 21 agencies are testing the framework by creating thorough, practical business continuity plans for resuming specific vital services within their agencies.

Outcome of initiative is to create an enterprise business continuity program to help agencies with their continued planning
According to Kirk, Washington state will also establish an ongoing Enterprise Business Continuity Management Program. "Business continuity is a dynamic, proactive and ongoing process. In order to be effective, agencies must keep their plans current," says Kirk. "Our program will help agencies incorporate business continuity practices into their business planning and operations."

Potential new service
Another important component of the business continuity initiative is to develop a business continuity/disaster recovery service. DIS requested funding in the 2006 Supplemental Budget to support the operation of a business continuity/disaster recovery site in eastern Washington. This service will enable agencies to recover server-based computer systems that support vital government services.  Agencies will be able to share the site and eliminate the cost of duplicate facilities, support and operations staff, and data communications charges.    

"As business continuity plans are implemented throughout state government," says Kirk, "we will sustain public confidence by responding to disruptions in a timely manner and by maintaining delivery of critical services."

For more information about the enterprise Business Continuity Management initiative, contact Dave Kirk at 360-902-3561 or via e-mail at davek@dis.wa.gov.