NYS Forum Business Continuity Committee Meeting
(http://www.nysforum.org/committees/businesscontinuity/)

Date: Held 10/15/2008 @ 2:00 PM Keane Office
From: Tom Luther, Chris Lloyd and Mark Spreitzer

Discussion Topic

Attendance (14 people)

Attendants, and the agencies or organizations they represent:
NYS Housing and Community Renewal - Richard Siek
Tax & Finance - Shelly Brosen, Joanne Lonczak
Tax & Finance - Janine Messina, Holly Montgomery
OSC - Tom Luther, Keith Farrell, Chad Erickson
Office for the Aging - Niels Hansen
State Police - Doug Friedman
Health Department - Becky Hathaway, Jeanne Behr
CGI - Mark Spreitzer
New York State Forum - Greg Benson

Table go-around, with updates on BC-related activities

  • Richard Siek, DHCR's disaster preparedness coordinator, said the agency is working on a COOP. They are now in the process of weighing several different COOP templates. Siek has first-responder experience and training, and previously was affiliated with the NYS Division of Military and Naval Affairs.
  • Joanne Lonczak and Janine Messina from Tax & Finance said they're now planning to facilitate some small-scale tabletop exercises within the agency.
  • Keith Farrell of OSC said they're planning for a test of a responsible-caller (phone tree) list.
  • Doug Friedman, a non-sworn, civilian employee of the State Police, said a disaster test planned for October had been delayed until December. He also indicated that NYSP and Integrated Justice have established remote access capability using technology such as RSA Tokens.
  • Shelly Brosen of Tax & Finance said their planned test at SunGard was canceled due to a restriction in NYS travel funds. She said they did conduct an IT DR-type test with a few servers. She said they've also worked out external contact listings.
  • Niels Hansen from OFA said they have a BC working group, but have had difficulty in getting it organized and getting the proper ownership established. He said that they appear to have achieved the necessary level of commitment from executive management and will proceed to update existing documentaiton
  • Chad Erickson of OSC said the agency's Business Continuity Unit was ramping up plans to put information on the Intranet.
  • Becky Hathaway said NYS DOH had used the NYS SEMO COOP template for their planning efforts. She said the agency had conducted a series of BC exercises, and has Department-wide Incident Response Plan. She said DOH has an alternate operating center (EOC) with full data failover redundancy. She said DOH uses a communication system that allows for alerts and notifications to be broadcasted. She said emergency contact information is contained in an Access database. Hathaway said DOH's recovery plans need work. Also, DOH views telecommuting as an option ? but noted various points have been raised about this, including policies regarding the use of home computers. Becky indicated that she felt they had addressed their policy requirements and offered to provide an example to the team.

Review of the BC Committee document and checklist, both entitled "Components of a Business Continuity Plan."

  • Tom Luther and Mark Spreitzer discussed the document and the checklist, including the importance of identifying an organization's critical business functions and the processes that enable those functions to happen. Also discussed: why staff and external contact information must be collected and updated regularly. Tom and Mark will continue work on the document and share with all on the listserv in the near future.

Review of the NIST (the National Institute of Standards and Technology) diagram "Interrelationship between Emergency Preparedness Plans."

  • Mark Spreitzer explained some of the differences and nuances between Business Continuity as defined by NIST and Business Continuity as defined by the Disaster Recovery Institute and others. He also explained some of the differences between COOP and BCP.

Other matters

  • Greg Benson from the New York State Forum thought the meeting was a good one, and hoped the handouts would be posted online - and become components in an expanding "toolkit" of Business Continuity resources.
  • The group discussed potential new initiatives and agenda items for upcoming meetings and will continue to solicit input from others.

Action Items

Action Item
Becky Hathaway volunteered to work with Mark Spreitzer and Tom Luther in developing a lessons learned presentation around their policy program
Owner
Becky Hathaway
Due Date
Pending
 
Action Item
Doug Friedman volunteered to work with Tom Luther and Mark Spreitzer in developing a lessons learned presentation on how to address the security concerns with telecommuting and remote access
Owner
Doug Friedman
Due Date
Pending
 
Action Item
Committee members should feel free to inform other BC planners to become members.
Owner
Committee Members
Due Date
On going
 
Action Item
The BC Committee (and other NYSF committees, for that matter) should work to better market themselves.
Owner
Co-chairs, others
Due Date
Pending
 

Next Meeting: The next meeting is planned for Wednesday November 19 in Building 12 of Corporate Woods, in the CGI office (second floor) from 2 to 4:00 PM. The agenda will be announced in advance.

Additional Documents of Reference

Interrelationship of Emergency Preparedness Plans (diagram handout at meeting)
(from NIST Special Publication 800-34, "Contingency Planning Guide for Information Technology Systems")