Service Continuity

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Service Continuity

• Maintaining Your Agencys Ability to Respond

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What is Service Continuity?

• The ability of a service organization to continue
  to function under adverse conditions

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Service Continuity Planning

• Set of policies, procedures, and information
  developed and maintained for use in the event of
  a service disruption

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Purpose

• The purpose of Service Continuity is to maintain
  a minimum level of service while restoring your
  organization to business as usual.

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Why is SCP important?

• An organization which fails to provide a minimum
  level of service to its clients following a
  disaster may not have an agency to recover.

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• Trust may be breached Reputation damaged
• Funding may disappear
• Service may be re-evaluated and deemed
  unnecessary
• Clients may seek services elsewhere

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Also

• Emergency Response agencies have a moral and
  professional obligation to be prepared to provide
  community assistance during an event

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Question?

• What specific event ignited the topic of business
  continuity?

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• Y2K

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Y2K represented uncertainty. Questions were

• What value is information if there is no system
  to put it on?
• What good is the system if there is no place to
  put it or no access to it?
• What good is the system if there are no skilled
  people to perform the work?
• Thus, Business Continuity was born

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Service Continuity assists indisasters
Hurricane Katrina

• gt 1,600 Deaths
• 75 Billion in damages
• 200 Billion estimated in economic impact

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Catastrophic Incidents

• September 11, 2001
• 2,750 persons perished
• 8,000 Intel-based servers and 5,000 UNIX servers
  lost
• Estimated that 45,000 50,000 securities
  positions (i.e. trading, sales, research,
  operations) were lost in WTC and adjacent
  buildings.

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Loma Prieta Earthquake7.1 -- 15 Seconds

• 3,000 Injured
• 62 Deaths
• 7 Billion property damage
• 1.5 Billion highway repair
• 1,925 Businesses destroyed/damaged
• 414 Homes destroyed
• 18,306 Homes damaged

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1906 San Francisco Earthquake

• April 18, 1906
• 8.3 Magnitude
• 500 Million Damage
• gt 3,000 Deaths
• 375,000 population
• Fire was the greatest danger

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More common risks that we face

• Legal action
• Loss of key personnel
• Recession
• Reputation
• Severe storm
• Unscrupulous vendor
• Ubiquitous other

• Communications failure
• Computer crash
• Fire
• Electrical failure
• Flood
• Hazmat incident
• Inflation
• Internet failure

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Where do the Hazards originate?

• External
• Nature
• Utilities Suppliers
• Economic / Political forces
• Human nature
• Internal
• Facility problems
• Equipment failures
• Staff

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Development of a Service Continuity Program

• Approach
• Service Impact Analysis
• Risk Assessment
• Service Continuity Plans
• Disaster Recovery Plan
• Incident Management Plan

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Comprehensive Emergency Management
EVENT
Level of Effort
Response
Business Interruption
Business as Usual
Local Authority Recovery
Community Recovery
Preparedness
Risk Assessment
Mitigation
Time
Response Plan
Preparedness Plan
Municipal Recovery Plan
Mitigation Plan
Risk Assessment
Business Continuity Plan
Community Recovery Plan
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Effective Service Continuity

• Effective Service Continuity is built on 7 Ps
• 1. Program proactively managing the process
• 2. People roles responsibilities, awareness
  education
• 3. Processes all organisational processes
• 4. Premises buildings facilities
• 5. Providers supply chain, vendors, outsourcing
• 6. Profile reputation, image
• 7. Performance benchmarking, evaluation, audit
• Source Business Continuity Institute, 2003

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Most important Resource?

• Answer Personnel
• Although there are other critical resources, the
  service or product in almost all organizations
  depend on actions preformed by, and decisions
  made by, people.

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The difference between Service Continuity and
Disaster Recovery

• Service Continuity is PROACTIVE. Its focus is to
  avoid or mitigate the impact of a risk
• Disaster Recovery is REACTIVE. Its focus is to
  pick up the pieces and restore the organization
  to business as usual after a risk occurs

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Three Phases of Continuity Planning
1. Risk Reduction 2. Incident 3. Recovery
Producing a Service Continuity Plan
Using and closing down the Service Continuity Plan
Activating the Service Continuity Plan
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A. Service Impact Analysis

• Examines the impact of the service interruption.
• Impacts might include
• Well-being of clients is reduced
• Public image loss of reputation and community
  goodwill
• Loss of donor funding

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Additional Impacts

• Excessive staffing costs
• Legal - failure to meet contractual obligations
  fines or penalties

• Extra expense to replace supplies or equipment
• Customer services reduction or termination of
  service, possibly when needed most

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B. Risk Assessment
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Risk Options

• Avoid the risk
• Leave location
• Eliminate the service rendered
• Transfer the risk
• Contract out function or resource
• Insurance
• Mitigate the risk
• Reduce the risk or its impact
• Control the risk
• Accept the risk
• Should be calculated after full evaluation
• Absorb only after weighing cost vs. benefit

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Not all risks present the same danger

• Risks can be rated
• Probability of occurrence
• frequency
• Consequence on the organization
• impact

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Probability and Consequence
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C. Service Continuity Plan Development

• Obtain Management Support for SCP
• Identify Essential Services
• Identify Key Support Functions
• Identify Critical Resources
• Assure Workforce Considerations
• Exercise and distribute the Plan

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Clarifications

• Services are those activities which are deemed
  vital to client well-being.
• Functions are those measures within the
  organization to support the critical services,
  i.e. management, administration, IT, logistics,
  etc.
• Resources are the materials, hardware/ software,
  and vendors that are necessary to achieve either
  the functions or service mandate.

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2. Identify Essential Services

• Identify all services that my agency delivers
• Identify essential services
• Useful Tool Maximum Acceptable Downtime
• Window of time after which there is a serious
  impact on my agencys service delivery

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3. Identify Key Support Functions

• List the functions within the agency that are
  necessary to support Essential Services
• Senior management
• IT
• Logistics
• Administration
• Human Resources
• Etc.

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.
 
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4. Identify Critical Resources

• List the resources that are necessary for Support
  Functions
• Utilities
• IT/Internet
• Communications
• Vehicles / Fuel
• Food / Water
• Etc.

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Critical Resource Considerations

• Relationship with vendors
• Multiple vendors and suppliers
• Systems redundancies
• Stockpiling supplies and materials

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5. Assure Workforce Measures

• Manage Personnel during and after Event
• Protect Staff (e.g. H1N1)
• Decision-making authority
• Lines of authority
• Chain of command
• Staffing Plan
• Cross-training
• Call-out procedure

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6. Service Continuity Plan Testing

• Exercise the Plan
• Exercise schedule endorsed by senior management
• Tabletop exercises with each service area in the
  agency
• Tabletop exercises with select functional teams
  (e.g. IT, logistics)
• Coordinate with partner agencies
• Distribute the Plan
• Update and revise Plan

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Training

• To assure personnel will be able to effectively
  and efficiently respond after a disaster event
• To develop self-confidence in the ability to
  perform assigned functions

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SCP Plan Maintenance

• A plan that lacks maintenance quickly becomes a
  Non-plan

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Service Continuity ProgramD. Disaster Recovery
Plan

• The Disaster Recovery Plan for provides the game
  plan for the recovery of services.

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Service Continuity Program E. Incident
Management Plan

• The Incident Management Plan provides the EOCs
  senior management and staff with a specific plan
  to orchestrate the recovery of business.

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• Summary
• Business Continuity is concerned with

People
Assets
Process
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Remember

• Always plan ahead. It wasn't raining when
  Noah built the ark.
• Richard C. Cushing

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Questions?
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Business Continuity Plan Scenario

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H1N1 Influenzaa challenging risk

• Serious economic interruption
• Public unknowns have huge impact
• Overwhelmed facilities
• Limited outside resources

• No infra-structural damage, but
• Long term staffing considerations
• Quickly changing event (decisions with partial
  information)

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Lets review with a Flu Scenario

• It has been reported on television that the
  pandemic flu has reached Canada.

The Times Colonist is reporting flu sickness on
the mainland and Vancouver Island.
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Week 1 Today

• You have noticed that staff absenteeism has been
  higher than normal yesterday and today.

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Week 1

• A few staff are coughing and wheezing and
  complaining of feeling ill

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Initial Reactions

• What staff issues are there?
• What are the implications?
• Can any of the staff work from home? What is
  required to make this happen?
• Who will you communicate with?
• Other issues?

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Week 2

• Staff absence is now 25 higher than is normal
  for this time of the year.
• A key supplier calls to tell you that they will
  not be operating for the foreseeable future
  because of staff absenteeism.

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Actions?

• What are the priorities?
• Who do you communicate with?
• Is your contact list up-to-date?
• Do you have a phone tree?
• What will be the implication of losing a key
  supplier for the service?
• Do any members of the team have unique skills or
  knowledge? What are the risks of this? How to
  reduce this risk?

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Week 2

• The District has decided to close all schools in
  the area due to teacher shortages and also to
  limit spread of the flu.
• Half of your staff have phoned in to say that
  they will not be attending work this week. They
  are staying at home to look after their children.

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A few more questions

• What issues does school closing raise?
• How will you deal with staff who dont attend
  work to look after their children/dependants?
• How will you deal with the work load?

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Week 3

• Following further staff absences, the number of
  staff in work has dropped by 75.
• You have just been informed that one of your
  staff has died in hospital.
• A Times Colonist reporter has asked for your
  response on this and the effects of the outbreak.

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Actions of on-site team?

• Who do you communicate with?
• How will you manage your resources, and your
  workload, with only 20 of staff attending work?
• What are the implications for the team of a death
  of a colleague?
• How will the media enquiry be dealt with?
• Anything else?

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Week 5

• You have located additional staff through an temp
  agency. Which areas of work would you prioritise
  for these extra staff?
• Do you work with any vulnerable groups? If yes,
  what are the implications of this group?
• How can you minimise the impact on this group?

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Week 8

• The event has eased. Are there issues that need
  to be addressed?
• Are there any questions this scenario has raised
  that you will now look into?
• Are there any plans youd now put in place in
  case a 2nd wave hits?
• What lessons have been learned? How can this
  knowledge be used to improve your Service
  Continuity Plans?

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Remember

• Always plan ahead. It wasn't raining when
  Noah built the ark.
• Richard C. Cushing

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Additional Sources

• Business Continuity Institute http//www.thebci.
  org/
• Business Continuity Plan glossary
  http//www.drj.com/glossary/glossleft.htm
• Business Continuity Planners Association
  http//www.bcpa.org/
• Natural Disasters preparedness http//www.colorado
  .edu/hazards/informer/informerupdate.pdf
• Disaster recovery planning exchange
  http//www.drie.org/

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Thank you!