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NYS FORUM Business Continuity Planning Meeting

Location:
NYS Forum
Rockefeller Institute of Government
411 State Street
Albany, New York 12203
Date:
May 3, 2006
Time:
2:00 - 4:00 pm
Attendees:
Michelle LaRock, Ramchandra Shenoy, Joe Impicciatore, Steve Conant, Diane Galuski, Keith Farrell, Tom Fargione, Peter W. Avery, Kathleen Norsek, Jennifer Mizener, Don Bulson, Tim Oxborough-Powell, Celene McManus, Tony Leva, Doug Winkler

Agenda/Meeting Notes:

  • Meeting Kickoff
    • The meeting was kicked off with introductions of all the participants, each of which were asked to give a brief statement about where their agency stood in implementing Emergency Response (ER), Business Continuity Planning (BCP) and Disaster Recovery (DR).
    • Agencies represented were at varying levels of maturity with regards to ER, BCP and DR, although for most, it is not a dedicated function which receives focused attention.
    • Agency representatives were also asked to share their needs and expectations with regards to what topics and initiatives the BC committee take on which would be of interest or benefit to their agency. Summary of those initiatives follows:
      1. Produce templates and guidance on how to use them.
      2. Develop common/standard steps in a BC Plan; develop the steps that might be common across business processes.
      3. Establish a contract with a vendor that agencies can use to buy hours for BCP consulting services.
      4. Provide resource material, informational sessions, hands-on workshops to walk through structured exercises.
      5. Develop a NYS BCP Guidebook similar to the Project Management Guidebook.
      6. Testing, Exercises and/or tabletop sessions.
      7. Suggestion that agencies may have difficulty gaining Executive Sponsorship (support) for BCP program and perhaps a workshop on how to do this would be useful.
      8. Develop a sample RFP for a Hot Site.
      9. Training opportunities for a business continuity analyst.
      10. Networking with others; comparing plans.
      11. Best practices in developing a BCP/DR plan
      12. LDRPS user groups. LDRPS is one of a number of software packages designed specifically for an organization to use for business continuity planning.
      13. Training for ER/BCP/DR.
      14. Networking and guidance to assist with the development and implementation of ER/BCP/DR.
      15. Coordinate the efforts of various agencies and act as a clearinghouse for BCP/DR information.
  • Business Continuity Planning Presentation
    • Chris Lloyd and Tom Luther gave a presentation introducing the concept of a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) and a logical flow of steps required to produce an effective plan.
    • Presentation Slides and a sample Business Continuity Plan template will be posted to the BC Committee page of the NYS Forum Website (www.nysforum.org).
    • The committee discussed the importance of establishing executive support and ways to gain buy in. The idea of having an informative interactive session with Deputies, Directors, and Commissioners was suggested. Given the status of implementing BCP within NYS agencies, "Gaining Executive Buy-in to BCP" may be a valuable topic for an upcoming presentation.
  • State Emergency Management Office (SEMO) Support
    • Tom Fargione (State Emergency Management Office) announced that James McMahon, Director of the New York State Office of Homeland Security, recently sent a survey to state agencies on the topic of Avian Flu to get a picture of individual agency activities but had little response. Tom also recommended that Mr. McMahon be kept in the loop in terms of any planned seminar events.
  • Survey
    • The meeting concluded with a request for participants to complete a survey
    • The enclosed survey template contains an aggregate of the responses received to date. This information will be analyzed by the committee and used as input in determining new initiatives to be addressed by the committee.

      View survey template and responses [MS Word format]