News

EVENT CLOSED

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This event forms part of our public awareness sessions and is open to both members and non-members. Preference will be given in the first instance to Full Forum Members. This event is strictly hosted under CHATHAM HOUSE RULES. For more details on this please click on the following link  

Location: City of London Date: 29th April 

   Managing Domestic Terrorism Workshop

Special Facilitated Workshop Session

Business today faces many new threats, and the management of these threats is rapidly becoming a major factor in business planning.

Is Terrorism just one more threat, or are there specific risks, separate from other business issues, that need to be considered? Government guidelines are available to all, but how can you be sure that you have understood and adapted the guidelines to suit your own specific requirements? Can you be sure that you have done everything necessary, by law and by logic, to protect your business and your people?

This workshop allows you to discuss and analyse current guidelines, with peers and experts from a range of organisations, and will give you the opportunity to gain a clear insight into your responsibilities and capabilities, in a no-nonsense format.

Workshop Topics

The Current Risks facing Business 

Government Guidelines how to understand and apply them

Coordinating business continuity and emergency planning

How to communicate your plans with your people 

Agenda

09:00 - 09:30 Registration, networking and coffee

09:30 - 09:45 Introduction by the Continuity Forum

09:45 - 10:00 Workshop briefing

10:00 - 10:50 Round table - facilitated group discussions

10:50 - 11.00 Coffee and networking break

11.00 - 11.50 Round table  facilitated group discussions

11.50 - 12.00 Round up and EXTENDED Q&A Session ____________________________

To reserve your place please click HERE! or phone Sara McKenna or Ann Sharp +44 (0) 208 993 1599. Please do book as soon as possible as space tends to be allocated very quickly. Details on the venue will be provided upon confirmation of your booking. 

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If you would like to know more about how your organisation can get involved and benefit from working with the Continuity Forum, please email us HERE! or call on + 44 (0) 208 993 1599.

EVENT CLOSED This event forms part of our public awareness sessions and is open to both members and non-members. Preference will be given in the first instance to Full Forum Members. This event is strictly hosted under CHATHAM HOUSE RULES. 

Location: City of London Date: 29th April 2005.

Exercising the BCM Plan

Special Facilitated Workshop Session 

Exercising your plan is the most vital aspect of the planning process and one which is the topic of extensive discussion. 

Through this facilitated WORKSHOP we provide practitioners with both direct support and materials, which will enable most to directly improve the viability and effectiveness of their Business Continuity Management process. Remember that 70% of UNTESTED plans FAIL when they are needed most! So without adequate testing, how can you be sure that the plan will be effective when it is needed most? 

The Continuity Forum will be working with David Upton of Stirling Reid, and will be offering advice in a workshop setting, showing why exercising your plan is vital, and will be using template based activities to help you to understand how to proceed with this vital aspect of your BCP. 

Agenda

14.00 - 14.30 Registration, networking & coffee 

14.30 - 14.45 Introduction from the Continuity Forum 

14.45 - 15.00 Introduction from David Upton, Stirling Reid. 

15.00 - 15.15 Template One - Deciding your exercise Objectives 

15.30 - 15.45 Template Two - Exercise Scope 

15.45 - 16.00 Coffee & Networking 

16.00 - 16.15 Template Three - Exercise Scenario 

16.15 - 16.30 Template Four - Exercise Administration 

16-30 - 16.45 Template Five - Lessons Learned 

16-45 - 17.00 Coffee, networking & Close.

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To reserve your place please click HERE! or phone Sara McKenna or Ann Sharp +44 (0) 208 993 1599. Please do book as soon as possible as space tends to be allocated very quickly. Details on the venue will be provided upon confirmation of your booking. 

 If you would like to know more about how your organisation can get involved and benefit from working with the Continuity Forum, please email us HERE! or call on + 44 (0) 208 993 1599. 

Source - THE WASHINGTON TIMES Recurrent intelligence reports say al Qaeda terrorist Abu Musab Zarqawi has obtained a nuclear device or is preparing a radiological explosive -- or dirty bomb -- for an attack, according to U.S. officials, who also say analysts are unable to gauge the reliability of the information's sources.

April 26 2005

Companies look to cut the risk to data by looking at "near-shoring"

Security and privacy concerns are becoming the biggest issue for companies considering outsourcing their IT projects to companies offshore.

Analyst house Gartner said that this year concerns about job losses will be overshadowed by these security issues.

Gartner research director Ian Marriott commented: "This will become the top issue for companies taking their work to other parts of the world."

In certain regions - such as China, Russia and the Baltics - concerns remain around issues such as government interception and access to data, and controls restricting the use of encryption, Gartner said. There are also concerns about intellectual property risks - in terms of enforcing patents laws, copyright and trade secrets.

By contrast, the risk of these problems is lower in other countries - such as Canada, Ireland and Australia - which also offer offshore IT services.

As a result some companies may look at building their own "captive" data centres in order to guarantee data security, or might consider outsourcing some services to countries with lower levels of risk.

"If they are looking to cut back on some of the risk they may look at more near-sourcing options," said Marriott, speaking at a Gartner outsourcing conference in London.
Gartner also predicted that, over the next three years, some Indian salaries for application-related services will increase by 35 per cent to 60 per cent.

Despite this, it envisaged even reduced cost savings being enough to drive continued demand. "Companies will continue to find sufficient benefit because there are other benefits being delivered as well as the cost savings," said Marriott.

According to the analyst house, worldwide spending on IT services delivered by nearshore and offshore companies will exceed $50bn within two years.

Commenting on this news, The Continuity Forum believes that the serious consideration now starting to be shown concerning the broader Risk issues is a small but positive step in the right direction. “By recognising that organisations need a balance between Risk and reward with regards to outsourcing we will hopefully see a better and more consistent approach the management of Risk in these complex outsourcing deals. It is easy to be lured by the promise of cheaper labour costs, but what about the downsides! From our own research, we know that many contracts are signed with only ‘lip service’ given to the BCM arrangements and as over half of the G2000 companies are testing their own systems and procedures on a regular basis what confidence can we have on the level of planning and testing arrangements of distant outsource partners.

The news on ‘near-sourcing’ could mark the start of a reappraisal of the importance of Risk and Continuity planning in the outsourcing sector and indications suggest that this may be down to a renewed regulatory focus on the importance of these disciplines. It will also provide companies who face fierce cost based competition from regions with a very much lower labour cost with the opportunity to demonstrate that investing in Continuity and Resilience measures will make them a better choice over regions which do not have the same level of Infrastructure resilience.”

News Source Silicon.com

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To find out more about how the Continuity Forum can help your organisation plan for and address a wide variety of Business Resilience and Continuity issues, please contact us directly HERE! or call either Russell Price or John Sharp on 020 8993 1599.

April 27 2005

HSBC and Lloyds TSB are set to open offshore back-office and contact centre operations in Calcutta (now known as Kolkata) in the Indian state of West Bengal.

The new operations represent a move away from the traditional Indian locations such as Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai.

Competition between Indian cities for the offshore outsourcing business of multinational corporations is fierce and as land and labour costs rise, firms are starting to look outside the traditional offshoring centres in order to maintain a cost advantage.

HSBC is moving some back-office operations to Kolkata from September while Lloyds TSB is in talks with Indian BPO vendor ICICI OneSource about opening a facility in the city, according to the Minister of IT for the communist government of West Bengal.

Both HSBC and Lloyds TSB have gone public about their plans to offshore thousands of jobs to cheaper overseas locations such as India.

At the recent Offshore Customer Management conference in New Delhi, Manabendra Mukherjee, Minister of IT, environment and government for West Bengal, said Kolkata has overcome its legacy of poverty and now has both the modern infrastructure and government support to attract western companies.

"Perception has been a big problem for Kolkatta but it has the lowest cost of operation and lowest staff attrition," he said.

Mukherjee claimed Kolkata-based operations are 12 to 13 per cent cheaper than Delhi and Mumbai and 11 per cent cheaper than Bangalore and Hyderabad.

Kolkata is the capital of the state of West Bengal, and accounts for around five per cent of the Indian IT and BPO market. It produces almost 200,000 graduates a year who can earn between 66,000 Rupees (£795) and 84,000 Rupees (£1,011) a year working in the call centres there.

In the opinion of Russell Price of the Continuity Forum, whilst the commercial gains of cheaper of cheaper skilled labour are easily understood, considerable investigation should be undertaken concerning the effects of outsourcing deals such as these on the risks and the capabilities of organisations to manage them properly. Russell states " the benefits to these organisations in simple P&L terms are clear, but it is important to take time to consider the broader Risk picture and ensure that proper safeguards and backup mechanisms are in place to ensure the continuance of a service, which is after all relied on by people and organisations on the other side of the world. It is also important to ensure that all regional differences in infrastructure and culture are considered and dealt with appropriately through detailed risk assessments and BIA’s."

Continuing he said “ … recent experience has shown that events on one side of the world can rapidly affect the intertwined Global economy and failure to recognise these emerging issues and importantly deal with them will mean disruptions seriously impacting on organisations, otherwise unconnected with the region.”

News Source Silicon.com

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To find out more about how the Continuity Forum can help your organisation plan for and address a wide variety of Business Resilience and Continuity issues, please contact us directly HERE! or call either Russell Price or John Sharp on 020 8993 1599.

Hewlett-Packard, through Synstar, its UK-based business continuity company, is launching a new recovery centre on 25th May, 2005. This new business continuity centre is situated in Reading to serve the Thames Valley area.

The facility will offer in excess of 100 seats and boasts office, IT, telephone and communications facilities, as well as a data centre of over 10,000 sq ft.

On the 25th May Synstar will be providing a free business continuity seminar, which will address:

- Why it is vital for businesses to have a business continuity plan;

- How you can assess the specific areas of risk to your business, and develop a specific business continuity plan to address these risks;

- What types of business continuity services are available today and how they can help organisations.

A full tour of the new facility will also be on offer.

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To find out more about how the Continuity Forum can help your organisation plan for and address a wide variety of Business Resilience and Continuity issues, please contact us directly HERE! or call either Russell Price or John Sharp on 020 8993 1599.

Maintaining business continuity was once viewed in the context of maintaining disaster recovery plans. Today, however, you must address the entire range and level of your company's exposures, including IT disruptions, sudden competitive moves, customer and consumer demands, security threats, market fluctuations and failure to comply with numerous government and industry regulations.

To fully address these exposures, today's risk management, business continuity, crisis management, and security professionals need to focus on business resilience, believes IBM Business Continuity and Recovery Services. Business resilience is the ability to rapidly adapt and respond to risks, as well as opportunities, in order to maintain continuous business operations, be a more trusted partner, and enable growth.

Managing resilience means bringing together high availability, recovery, continuity, compliance and security management practices to help enhance return on investment and limit interruptions. To help you understand and measure your organisation's end-to-end business resilience program maturity against industry-leading practices, IBM has developed a new service - the Resilience Program Assessment.

The process guides you in determining best-practice management goals for business resilience and provides you with prioritised recommendations in the form of an action plan to move your business resilience program forward.

The Resilience Program Assessment enables companies to:

* Measure current continuity and recovery programs against business continuity and disaster recovery industry best practices;

* Establish a focused approach to building and strengthening resilience programs;

* Receive guidance on establishing a centralised governance model to help increase the efficiency of the management of the business resilience program;

* Identify, quantify, and monitor risks to business resilience on an ongoing basis.

For more information see HERE!

To find out more about how the Continuity Forum can help your organisation plan for and address a wide variety of Business Resilience and Continuity issues, please contact us directly HERE! or on 020 8993 1599.

SunGard has reported that net income for the three months ended March 31st, 2005 was $90 million, a 5 percent increase over the first quarter of 2004.

Diluted net income per share grew 3 percent to $0.30. Merger costs and costs associated with the previously planned spin-off of Availability Services were $0.01 per share in the quarter. Also in the first quarter of 2005 was a one-time charge of $11.5 million related to the relocation of an availability services facility. Before merger and spin-off costs and the one-time facility charge, diluted net income per share was $0.34 for the quarter, representing an increase of 17 percent from the first quarter of last year.

Revenue for the first quarter increased 13 percent to $947 million. Internal revenue (revenue from businesses owned for at least one year and excluding revenue from Brut LLC) was up 5 percent from the same period in 2004, with the impact of favourable exchange rates contributing approximately 1 percent.

Cristobal Conde, president and chief executive officer, said, "SunGard performed solidly in the quarter and is well positioned to grow competitively. The recent announcement of the acquisition of SunGard by a consortium of seven of the world's leading private equity investment firms is a resounding endorsement of our business model, industry leadership and financial strength. The reaction from customers has been positive. We continue to be committed to improving customer satisfaction, delivering high levels of service and deepening relationships with our customers. Now and following the completion of the transaction it is business as usual at SunGard."

The acquiring consortium, which has agreed to pay $36 in cash for each SunGard share, was organized by Silver Lake Partners and includes Bain Capital, The Blackstone Group, Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. L.P., Providence Equity Partners and Texas Pacific Group.

The transaction is subject to receipt of stockholder approval and customary regulatory approvals as well as satisfaction of other customary closing conditions. SunGard filed its preliminary proxy statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission on April 12, 2005.

SunGard filed its Hart-Scott-Rodino notification with the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice on April 15, 2005. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2005.

Availability Services’ revenue increased 10 percent to $317 million for the quarter. Internal revenue increased approximately 2.5 percent for the quarter. The impact of favourable exchange rates contributed approximately 1 percent to revenue growth in the quarter. Margins declined by approximately 570 basis points in the quarter due to the initial impact of a recently acquired business and a charge related to the relocation of an Availability Services facility.

SunGard expects growth in internal revenue in its Availability Services business to be in the low to middle single digits for the full year 2005.

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To find out more about how the Continuity Forum can help your organisation plan for and address a wide variety of Business Resilience and Continuity issues, please contact us directly HERE! or call either Russell Price or John Sharp on 020 8993 1599.

Aon Insurances' latest risk monitor report places London in the same category of risk of terrorist attack as Cities in Afganistan and Iraq.

BRITAIN is near the top of world terrorism risk ratings for a second year amid fears that Islamic extremists will try to disrupt the general election with an attack on a big city. Britain has an “elevated” risk of being hit by terrorists, while London is at “high” risk, together with Baghdad, Kabul and Jerusalem, according to a terrorism risk map published by Aon, the world’s second-largest insurance broker.

Paul Bassett, an executive director of Aon, said that events such as the Madrid train bombing in March last year and the murder of Theo van Gogh, the Dutch film-maker, by an Islamic fundamentalist in November, meant that almost half of the countries with an increased risk of terrorist attack were in Europe.

“We’re seeing increased recruiting of radical Islamists in Europe for a tour of duty in Iraq, then these people returning to their own country, feeling motivated and recruiting others,” said Mr Bassett, a former bomb disposal expert. “If they can carry out a successful attack around the election in the UK, they will.” The map assigns ratings ranging from “severe” to “low” to each country, taking into account the risk from terrorists, nationalists, separatists and other extremists. Symbols on the map include a skinhead for far-right groups and a rabbit for animal extremists. A blindfolded head marks places where kidnapping is common.

Aon has increased the terrorism risk ratings of 31 countries, including Australia, Germany, Egypt, Nigeria, Denmark and South Korea. Almost half of the countries with a higher risk rating were in Europe and 23 per cent were in Africa. “The 2005 map highlights the need for vigilance in so-called safer European countries,” Mr Bassett said.

Six countries — Switzerland, Denmark, Poland, Djibouti, Chad and Libya — that were considered safe from attacks by Islamic extremists last year are now believed to be at risk. Libya and Greenland were the world’s safest territories last year. This year the Western Sahara is among those least threatened by terrorism, with Mongolia and African nations such as Cameroon, Togo and Gabon. Australia, Poland and Estonia were at greater risk than previously because of their support for the Iraq war. Mr Bassett said: “There’s concern that al-Qaeda and other terrorist organisations could take advantage of anti-Western sentiment and launch attacks in these countries.”

End (source Times and Aon)

To find out more about how the Continuity Forum can help your organisation plan for and address a wide variety of Business Resilience and Continuity issues, please contact us directly HERE! or call either Russell Price or John Sharp on 020 8993 1599.

Fuel protesters in poll disruption threat

Friday April 22, 09:08 AM

Fuel tax protesters have threatened to disrupt the General Election with direct action including refinery blockades and go-slows on major routes as forecourt prices peak.

Farmer and haulier Andrew Spence, a spokesman for the Fuel Lobby, said their campaign was set to begin on May 3, two days before polling day, if the Government did not bring down tax on fuel.

The lobby said it was prepared to recreate the week-long protests of September 2000 which caused shortages and buying panic at the pumps.

Mr Spence, from Consett, County Durham, said: "Don't rule anything out.
"The election would be stopped if we had our way. Tony Blair will not be able have enough fuel in his car to get to the polling station."

He added that a large meeting of hauliers will be held in Stirling, Scotland.

"Those boys up there want to do something now," Mr Spence said. "The hardest part will be stopping them from protesting until May 3."

The Road Haulage Association has also warned that members could be stirred into "legal" action.

It claimed anger was mounting around the country about "the increasing cost of fuel".
RHA chief executive Roger King said meetings had been held in Scotland and North Wales and attitudes among those present were "increasingly militant".

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To find out more about how the Continuity Forum can help your organisation plan for and address a wide variety of Business Resilience and Continuity issues, please contact us directly HERE! or call either Russell Price or John Sharp on 020 8993 1599.

The Civil Contingencies Act places a statutory duty on all Category 1 Responders, to 'warn, inform and advise the public about risks and emergency plans', with websites a key tool recommended for this work. The advice applies equally to material produced by third parties, which will be used by Category 1 responders when providing information to the public.

In view of the Act's requirements, and the publication of the 'Preparing for Emergencies' booklet, the Cabinet Office has produced good practice guidance and advice on using web sites to promote emergency information, which Category 1 Responders and third parties are urged to apply to their sites.

What is the Chatham House Rule?

The Chatham House Rule is used worldwide to facilitate both free speech and importantly, confidentiality at meetings.

The Continuity Forum uses the Chatham House rule at many of our meetings and particularly, our debates.  

Building links with Academia 

The Continuity Forum is keen to develop collaborative relationships with Academia Internationally to support research and development into Business Continuity issues.

We will work with all interested parties and provide essential support to initiatives geared to improve the knowledge base and professionalism of the industry.

Our extensive research library provides data ideal to support learning and development programmes and we would be delighted to work on or develop joint projects with Colleges and Universities as well as to support and encourage those individual students studying for higher degrees.

If you would like to discuss how we can work together please contact us at info@Continuityforum.org.

If you would like to work with the Continuity Forum on joint projects of mutual interest please contact us directly on +44 (0) 993 1599 or by clicking HERE! outlining your specific area of interest and we'll get straight back to you.

Exercise Atlantic Blue is due to take place 4-8 April 2005 and is designed to test simultaneous responses to internationally linked terrorist incidents, focusing on how we communicate across international borders at a strategic level.

On 17 March 2005 Home Office Minister Hazel Blears said:

"The threat from international terrorism remains real and serious, and is a worldwide concern. It is vital we make every effort to enhance and develop our resilience to this threat by working closely with our international colleagues. Exercise Atlantic Blue provides an excellent opportunity to do just this, through sharing best practice on emergency planning and response procedures."

The Metropolitan Police Service is the host police force for the UK working closely with the Home Office and other government departments and London agencies on planning and delivery. Planning has taken over two years since it was first agreed between the UK and the US. See the statement issued in July 2003 by David Blunkett - An update on counter-terrorism and security issues.

The exercise will be a command post exercise (CPX). This means a real incident control room is set up to co-ordinate responses, but will not involve live action on the ground.

Running a CPX will allow the UK to focus entirely on strategic-level communication issues, rather than on the management of live play at an operational level which is regularly rehearsed around the country.

The Canada Exercise Tripleplay will also run as a CPX, and, as with the UK will involve players from the emergency services, local and regional governments, and the health services.

The US TOPOFF 3 will run as a live play exercise, this means it will incorporate strategic level play, similar to that played UK and Canada, as well as play at an operational level. Exercise TOPOFF3 will involve more than 10,000 participants representing more than 200 federal, state, local, tribal, private sector and international agencies and organisations, as well as volunteer groups.

International objectives
The international objectives of the exercise are:

• Incident Management
To test the full range of existing procedures for domestic incident management of a terrorist event and improve, through practice, top officials’ capabilities in affected countries to respond in partnership.

• Public Information
To practice the joint response of the UK, US, and Canadian governments to media handling and public information following a linked terrorist incident occurring in all three countries.

• Intelligence/Investigation
To test the flow of operational time-critical intelligence among US, UK, and Canadian agencies in response to a linked terrorist incident occurring in all three countries.

• Evaluation
To identify lessons learned and promote best practices.

FAQs
How was it decided to hold the exercise, and how long has it been planned for?

• Exercise Atlantic Blue is part of our on-going national exercise programme. The exercise has been planned for over 2 years and was first announced parliament in July 2003.

Why isn’t Exercise Atlantic Blue going to be a live exercise?

• A Command Post Exercise (CPX) is still a live exercise, but on a strategic level rather than operational one. In this case we believe a CPX is the best way for us to focus entirely on strategic-level communication issues with the US and Canada, rather than on the management of live play at an operational level, which is already regularly rehearsed around the UK.

What scenarios are being tested in the UK?

• We do not give details out of any exercise scenario in advance for obvious reasons. The exercise is designed to test players’ responses and to identify existing strengths and weaknesses. This would not be an effective test if players knew the scenario in advance.

Does this mean there is a greater risk to the UK?

• No. We are holding this exercise as part of sensible contingency planning with the aim of developing our joint preparedness and resilience in the event of a terrorist incident. It in no way reflects a change in the level of threat to the UK.

How many people are taking part in the exercise? What organisations do they represent?

• Around 2500 people are involved in the planning and delivery of Exercise Atlantic Blue. These include representatives from the Home Office and other Government Departments, the Metropolitan Police Service and a wide variety of London agencies including emergency services, utilities and local government.

What happens if a terrorist incident occurs during the exercise?

• In the event of a major incident of any sort a decision would be taken to halt the exercise. There will be no impact on the level of policing or security within London during the week of the exercise.

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