Maintaining and Exercising Business Continuity Plans

We can help you maintain and test your Security and Continuity Plans, because Redmond Worldwide, Inc. is one of the most experienced professional service firms in all areas of Security and Continuity Management. Because our consultants have assisted many Fortune 500 companies, Government Agencies, Universities and Not for Profit Firms worldwide with maintaining and exercising their Security and Continuity Plans. As a result we have a wealth of accumulated knowledge and a team of experienced Security and Continuity Management professionals to assist you.

Which means to you, that you will have assistance with all aspects of your Security and Continuity exercise, including: establishing the program, determining the requirements, developing realistic scenarios, creating a schedule, defining the objectives, establishing evaluation criteria, conducting and managing the exercise, documenting the findings and preparing the control plan and post-exercise reports.

And what that really means is that you will achieve a degree of comfort knowing that, in the event of a real disaster or disruption, your Security and Continuity Plans will prove effective. And the reason we say this is without thorough periodic testing, Security and Continuity Plans could prove ineffective in the event a disaster or disruption and expose your company to potential losses.  Additionally, in this ever changing world, Security and Continuity Plans can quickly become an antiquated document without routine updates and maintenance.

The objective of Maintenance and Exercise program it to help with protecting the vital business processes of your operations, so that in the event of a major - or minor - critical incident, the essential business components of your organization will continue to function.

Security and Continuity plans need to be tested regularly, and Security and Continuity teams need to exercise regularly, to ensure performance meets expectations in an actual disaster. .

Redmond Worldwide, Inc work with your organization in:

• Establishing the Maintenance and Exercise program

• Determining the Maintenance and Exercise requirements

• Creating a schedule

• Defining the objectives

• Developing realistic scenarios

• Pre-planning  and Coordinating the Exercises

• Establishing evaluation criteria

• Preparing the control plan

• Conducting, facilitating and managing the exercise

• Evaluating and Documenting the Exercise Results

• Documenting the findings

• Post-exercise reports

• Updating the Plan

• Reporting Results/Evaluation to Management

• Coordinating Ongoing Plan Maintenance

• Assisting in Establishing Audit Program for the Business Continuity Plan

Minimum Areas considered under our Exercise Service include:

As defined by FFIEC Guidance, NFPA 1600 and Disaster Recovery Institute DRII

• Testing methodologies (desk check, peer review, structured walkthrough, table top tests, standalone test, integrated test, operational test, call tree test)

• Exercise methodologies (table top, simulation, drill, operational, mock disaster)

• Setting test and exercise objectives

• Planning and preparation

• Measuring success and performance

Minimum Areas considered under our Maintenance Service include:

As defined by FFIEC Guidance, NFPA 1600 and Disaster Recovery Institute DRII

• Maintain Structure, Contents, and Action Sections

• Determine if a section in the Plan addresses recovery considerations

• Evaluate the adequacy of emergency provisions and procedures

• Recommend improved positions if weaknesses exist

• Required internal controls; legal and regulatory and internal policies, standards, procedures and guidelines

Redmond Worldwide’s Maintenance and Documentation Control Procedures

• As defined by FFIEC Guidance, NFPA 1600 and Disaster Recovery Institute DRII

• Determine whether the Plan is available to key personnel

• Review update procedures

• Demonstrate that update procedures are effective

• Examine the provision of secure backup copies of the BCP for emergency use

• List those individuals with copies of the BCP

• Ensure that BCP copies are current

Redmond Worldwide’s  Process for Formulating Change Control Procedures

• As defined by FFIEC Guidance, NFPA 1600 and Disaster Recovery Institute DRII

• Analyze business changes with business continuity planning implications

• Set guidelines for feedback of changes to planning function

• Develop and implement change control procedures to monitor changes

• Create proper version control—develop plan reissue, distribution, and circulation procedures

• Identify plan distribution list for circulation