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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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US software company Sungard Data has been bought by a consortium of investment funds for $11.3bn (£6bn).

The deal is the largest private buyout of a technology firm, and also believed to be the second-largest buyout of any type of company in business history.

The broad-based consortium includes Silver Lake Partners, Bain Capital, Blackstone Group and Texas Pacific.

Sungard provides computer services, particularly to finance firms, and has annual sales of $3bn.

The Pennsylvania-based company has more than 20,000 customers in about 50 countries.

"This transaction offers great value to our stockholders and represents an endorsement of our business model," said Sungard president Cristobal Conde.

"Our customers and employees should know that it is business as usual, now and following the completion of the transaction."

Mr Conde added that Sungard will retain its senior management team and current headquarters.

The consortium is paying $36 a share for Sungard. Its other members include Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, and Providence Equity.

The deal is being financed through a combination of equity contributed by each partner, and additional loans provided by JP Morgan, Citigroup Global Markets, Deutsche Bank Securities, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley.

While the Sungard board has recommended acceptance of the offer, it must still be approved by stockholders and regulators.

The sale is expected to be completed by the third quarter of this year.

"Our consortium partners are extremely pleased with this investment," said Silver Lake Partners co-founder Glenn Hutchins.

The annoucements made no reference to the future plans for the group, although some industry analysts are reported as believing that this record deal increases the chance of a further sell off of the Availability Services Disvision to offset increased costs.

At this time no spokesman was available for comment from the European operations of SunGard, but it appears as though mergers and acquisition are to remain a hot topic for some time to come.

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22nd March 2005

SunGard (NYSE:SDS) A global leader in the provision of information availability services, has announced that it is in discussions with an investment consortium concerning a possible sale.

SunGard’s Board of Directors has authorized Credit Suisse First Boston and the law firm of Shearman & Sterling to commence discussions with the consortium. The consortium comprises Silver Lake Partners, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Carlyle Group, Bain Capital, Texas Pacific Group, Blackstone Group and Thomas H. Lee Partners.

These negotiations will be undertaken while the company continues to progress the planned spin-off of the company's Availability Services business, which was announced last Autumn.
The offer for the whole Business could total more than $10 billion and negotiations have apparently been underway for the last few months.

SunGard, which is based in Wayne, Pennsylvania, provides software and information availability services, as well as BC consulting to many of the worlds top financial companies. Representatives from the consortium were expected to have a conference call on Tuesday to complete details of its offer and could reach a deal by Thursday, executives suggested.

The consortium has tentatively agreed to pay about $35 a share for SunGard, they said. That represents about a 40 percent premium to the closing price of SunGard's shares on Friday, which was $24.95. The shares surged $6.12, or 24.5 percent, in heavy trading on Monday, to close at $31.07.

The talks were originally reported by The New York Post on Monday.

The potential deal comes just six months after SunGard announced its intention to split off its disaster data recovery business into a publicly traded company. SunGard's decision to split its software and business processing operation from the disaster data recovery unit, called Availability Services, made the deal under discussion possible, the executives said. The software unit accounts for about 60 percent of the company's total revenue, or $1.8 billion in 2003. It had operating income of $324 million that year.

SunGard, which employs more than 10,000 people, has long been viewed by many as a ripe takeover target but had been considered less attractive because its two businesses appealed to different organisations. One effect of the investment group approach may be to increase the likelihood of a company break up as the consortium seeks to maximise the return for the 40% premium placed on the share price.

Glenn Greene, an analyst at ThinkEquity has been reported as saying that “it was likely that the company's announcement of its plans to spin off its disaster recovery business had piqued the interest of outside investors and that this is what probably led the private equity firms to put together the deal," adding that "The fact that these are very credible investors in the deal suggests it's fairly far along."

Over the past year, he said, the company has focused on its plans for growth. The data recovery unit competes directly with International Business Machines (IBM) and Hewlett Packard (HP). The software unit, the bigger of the two, faces a more fragmented market. "SunGard plays in a lot of different markets," Greene said. "But they have the largest product breadth."

SunGard has announced that it does not intend to comment on any specific discussions or any potential transaction unless and until it enters into a definitive agreement with respect to a transaction. There can be no assurance that these discussions will result in any transaction for a purchase of the company. However the New York Times has reported that a deal could be close and expects news shortly, perhaps by Easter.

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Feedback on the Forum and its work

Below we have listed comments we have recieved about us and our work from a wide range of organisations and fellow professionals who have already benefited from working with the Continuity Forum.

The Continuity Forum provides an excellent focal point for business continuity professionals and for advancement of BCM in the wider business community.

A configuration issue between Windows 2000 and XP caused the machines to crash on Monday 22 November and it was not until Friday of that week that all systems were fully functioning. November's crash happened in part because of the power of remote upgrade tools which allow technicians to modify tens of thousands of machines using simple routines at a single terminal.

It is believed that an EDS operator allowed Windows XP to be installed on 40,000 computers instead of the 30 in the trial. Procedures have been strengthened to ensure that a single operator cannot perform a remote upgrade accidentally, EDS said.

Issues with a new supply chain system have cost furniture retailer MFI £46m in lost sales, write-offs, additional costs and extra IT work. The company admitted the problems with the multi-million pound supply chain modernisation project in a profits warning earlier this year that led to then COO Gordon MacDonald and finance director Martin Clifford-King being sacked.

Major Series of events and workshops launched by the Continuity Forum

We are delighted to announce our Autumn & Winter series of events and workshops aimed at supporting and promoting professional BCM to Business and helping those involved gain the skills needed to effectively create Continuity within your organisation

The Continuity Forum, in association with a number of the UK’s leading Companies, is pleased to announce our High Risk Industries Special event and an associated Forum Development Group (FDG).

This event is scheduled for 15th September 2004 at the British Airways EPIC Centre at Heathrow and will focus on issues affecting the Business Continuity Management, Security and other ‘Special Considerations’ within organisations working in or affected by ‘High Risk’ Industries Environments. if you are interested in attending this event please contact the Forum directly at events@continuityforum.org

This will be followed by our Annual Telecoms & Resilience event, this year at the BT Tower, on the 23rd September, and a new ‘Special Event’ aimed at boosting the planning for BCM in the Charities sector.

In October, we’ll be adding two more Special Events covering Basell II and Sarbanes Oxley, where we’ll be exploring compliance and BCM under the Legislative and Regulatory framework needed. This will be followed with another new special event and focussing on the needs of the Public Sector prior to the Royal assent of the Civil Contingencies Bill expected in November. This event is designed to coincide with the further development of the CCB and the increasingly high profile of a wide variety of UK BCM and security issues.

In December we'll be running our Business and Terrorism Annual Event again and sharing the results of this years research into this delicate and important topic. You'll be able to meet experts from a wide variety of backgrounds and discuss the issues as they affect your business or organisation. It is intended that this event will support government initiatives in raising the awareness and information available to promote good corporate and civil resilience to a range of threats.

All these events are all part of an exciting Autumn and Winter programme of events, research and workshops for the Continuity Sector with over 40 different events and workshops provided by the Continuity Forum across the country, covering public promotion of Business Continuity Management, specialist events, professional development workshops and numerous private group meetings. We are also extending our research still further and have 4 major programmes completing in the next few months, covering the developing BC sector and its related issues, which our members will be able to receive free of charge.

Remember that while events are free to access, we will, of course, give preference in our delegate allocation to Forum Members for all these events.

Just look at the value you could be getting with your membership of the Forum. If you were to book with commercial event organisers these events alone would cost you nearly £15,000 per person!

Whatever your level of experience, you and your organisation simply cannot get better value or support.

So what are you waiting for? Join us today!

For more details or to join the Continuity Forum please contact us on either 020 8993 1599 or by email via events@continuityforum.org

These events are part of our 'Public Series' and are run to promote BCM generally to organisations of all types.

Major Public Events

Security and the City ... Securing Safety and Continuity

High Risk Industries ... BCM at the frontiers

Telecoms and Resilience ... Communicating in a crisis

Civil Contingencies Bill, EP, BCM and the Public Sector ...
Public Sector Planning and Preparation

Basel II and Sarbanes-Oxley ... creating a Strategic framework for Compliance

Business Continuity and Terrorism ... The unlikely Counter Terrorist - You?

The following CPD workshops are geared to support the professional development of those involved in planning and managing an Organisations BCM Programme. Spaces are limited at these events as they are held in a workshop format. New events will be added based on feedback received from those attending our CPD series.

*** CPD Event Series ***

CPD - Introducing & Developing a BCM culture within organisation
CPD - Introducing Crisis Management
CPD - Plan Initiation and BIA Development
CPD - Communications and Resilience
CPD - BC for SME’s
CPD - Emergency Planning and BC Workshop
CPD - Managing ‘Risk’
CPD - Media Skills
CPD - Security and BCM
CPD - an Introduction to BCM and IT
CPD - Reputational Risk and BCM
The following are part of our Regional programme of events and are part of our 'Public Series' run to promote BCM generally to organisations of all types with a 'regional' focus. New events are constantly being added so do check back regularly for updates!

Regional Events Series

Croydon Continuity
West Midlands Forum
Eastern Counties Forum
North West Forum
North East Forum
Scottish Development Agency & CF Event
Greater London Boroughs LA Programme
South East Forum
South West Forum
In addition, we have created Forum Development Groups covering the main industry issues, which are designed to focus on specific topics of interest to the BC planner and Business in general. These FDG's are run on either a 'standalone' basis or as part of a larger event. Each group has an Independent 'chair' nominated by the group who can direct Forum resources proactively to undertake research or develop events.

Forum Development Groups

High Risk Industries Group
Insurance and RM Group
Regulation and Standards Group
Telecoms and Resilience Group
Emergency Planning & BCM Group
Security Forum Group
Financial Services & City Continuity Group
Charities Group
Public Sector Group

If you have any questions please contact Sara Mckenna or Russell Price at the Continuity Forum directly on 020 8993 1599 or events@continuityforum.org

HP buying Synstar Plc

Consolidation of the UK BC & Services Sector continues

August 9th, 2004

Today the announcement was made to the Stock Exchange that HP intends to purchase Synstar Plc confirming rumours in the weekend press.

This purchase, valued at over £150m, will further increase the investment made by HP over the past two years and rivals the acquisitions of SG-RS by IBM earlier this year and SunGards purchase of Comdisco last year.

Up until a few years there was quite a choice of recovery centres available to business, but over the past few years we have seen Guardian, Comdisco and now Synstar being integrated within the far larger Multi-national, Multi-service vendors. This process of integration seems to be an essential part of the changing landscape of the BCM sector as it becomes not just an important issue, but a business critical one.

Currently the UK and European markets are changing rapidly and we believe these acquisitions are closely associated with the growth potential available in Europe as both Regulatory, Compliance and commercial issues highlight the need for far more organisations to invest in Best Practice Business Continuity Management.

While most of the UK Corporate markets do have some form of BCM planning in place, often these plans are relatively ‘compact’ in relation to the overall business, with the planners frequently having to compromise on the level of planning possible due to budgetary constraints. From research undertaken earlier this year we believe that there is still huge growth potential within the BC sector, with as much as 100%+ growth possible in some segments of the market. The opportunity for growth does not stop there as the Middle Tier of Enterprise companies are still predominantly operating with little more than basic DR planning in place. These plans, focused on only a limited number of business critical systems, will undoubtedly be expected to mature into more effective and acceptable BCM programmes as time passes and more ‘senior’ Corporate Partners increase the pressure on Supply Chain Partners to ‘upgrade’ their planning and general commitment to BCM.

In addition, further sector specific growth is anticipated next year (2005) as the UK Civil Contingency Bill (CCB) will be coming into effect and will be likely to focus the efforts of the Public Sector on a Local and National level and both support and broaden the BCM message to many more organisations of all types and sizes around the UK.

Our Market Trends surveys are continuing to indicate that growth in the SME sector is continuing at pace and this is being driven by middle tier organisations, with the huge potential for the BCM growth in the SME sector still remaining largely untapped by most service providers as they struggle to come to terms with appropriate offerings. With this in mind, it looks like HP has found the ideal acquisition to drive further revenue growth and increase Service Capability in Synstar Plc, who are particularly strong in both Regional and Middle Tier services, with an excellent reputation for Customer Loyalty and Service Performance.

With this acquisition of Synstar HP will undoubtedly increase its ability to compete in the UK market across all sectors, as well as extending the total number of Recovery Sites and facilities available around the country to HP clients.

If you have any questions please contact Sara Mckenna or Russell Price at the Continuity Forum directly on 020 8993 1599 or info@continuityforum.org

Manchester Tunnel Fire, March 2004, UK

Communications failure causes widespread disruption

Manchester’s communications infrastructure was thrown into chaos at the end of March with a widespread telecoms failure affecting over 130,000 lines.

The cause was a tunnel fire in the early hours of Monday 29th March in an underground tunnel many meters below surface level. Access difficulties and safety concerns for Fire Fighters added to the difficulties in bringing the blaze under control.

The UK is not alone in facing in facing a new age in terrorist threat, the risks around the world are greater than ever before and it is our responsibility to directly address the real dangers posed

Business and residential customers across a wide area of the North West of England suffered the complete loss of both voice and data capability, in most cases for over a week, and a cascade effect was seen with data hosting and call centres located within the affected area extending the effects across Britain and other countries.

Some disruption was also caused to mobile networks and Emergency Services Radio Networks. Estimates for the losses caused by this event are already ranging from £4.5 - £8 million a day, although once the full effects have been calculated we expect to see a total impact in the region of £50-60million. BT has commented saying that ‘an investigation is underway and once the facts have been established they will consider the issue of Compensation’.

However, from experience of previous disruptions of this we expect levels of compensation to be very low, typically some £50 per day affected for businesses and much less for residential customers. Some of those affected may be able to claim for business interruption through their insurance policies, but again previous experience points to difficulties in claiming and long settlement times for those ultimately successful.

The broader issues raised by this event are extensive and through our recent Telecoms & Resilience group activities we have highlighted the vulnerability of organisations of ALL types to serious disruption caused by Telecoms failure.

Last November at our Telecoms and Resilience event, the Continuity Forum, Home Office and OFCOM urged business to urgently take greater steps to ensure Telecoms Resilience throughout their operations. Continuity Forum research has shown that in most businesses, even those with BC plans, very little provision is made for Telecoms Continuity. Service Providers were also urged to increase their abilities to work with Planners and increase both the access to, and accuracy of, information needed to identify single points of failure.

Critically a number of organisations have contacted the Continuity Forum highlighting the effect of NOT having access to this data. They had all implemented a dual supply policy for much of their critical communications, only to discover through this event that the routing taken by suppliers was common resulting in complete failure. Needless to say these organisations are very disturbed by this experience and want suppliers to work together to avoid a repeat instance of this event and they are also intending to vigorously pursue legal action should ‘significant and substantial compensation’ not be forthcoming in the very near future.

The cascade effect also extended the reach of this event to international companies in the US and beyond, even reaching Afghanistan! Web servers located in the region were affected and this caused serious disruption to many smaller businesses using the services of ISP’s to host and manage Web sites and email. Speaking to one of the affected companies in Surrey the Forum was told that they had lost revenue amounting to approximately £10,000 per day and they had had great difficulties in contacting their ISP to resolve matters. The Continuity Forum has commenced the Case Study process and will report back to members on the effects of this event and the lessons that can be learned from it.

If you have any information on the effects on your organisation we would be delighted to hear from you, as always, in the strictest confidence. Contact the Forum directly on 020 8993 1599 or info@continuityforum.org

Check out the Downloads in the FORUM area!

The Continuity Forum provides information and support directly to our members and you can contact us via Phone or Email with any questions you may have related to Business Continuity. In addition to this unique level of service, we provide a constantly growing and diverse range of materials in the Download and Discussion Forum (accessed through the FORUM link on the top bar).

We are keen to develop this further and would urge you to register with with us through this Website, which is required before access can be granted. You'll then be able to both download materials that interest you and upload materials that you have found useful for other professionals to view and us.

Registration is easy and FREE and should only take 30 seconds to complete.

Registration will also facilitate 'Early Bird' Notification for our seminars and workshops giving you priority access to our highly regarded events and enabling you to meet Leading Experts from all areas of our professions disciplines.

You can contact us directly on info@Continuityforum.org

If you have any questions or queries please contact the Continuity Forum on 020 8993 1599 or via email on info@Continuityforum.org

We would also like to encourage you to send in any White Papers, research, template plans or any other material you have developed enabling the content to be shared with a far wider audience.

If you want to get more involved with the Forum and our work, why not join in our active Forum and events schedule or even the Workshops, which are soon to be greatly extended and which provides you with a great way to keep up to date on current issues and develop your professional skill and awareness

You can contact us directly on info@Continuityforum.org

If you have any questions or queries please contact the Continuity Forum on 020 8993 1599 or via email on info@Continuityforum.org

Self Assessment Toolkit for the Public Sector National Audit Office lauches Self Assessment tools for Local Authorities

The Civil Contingencies Bill supports the promotion of greater resilience among public agencies and the wider local community.

The bill makes now an appropriate time for authorities to review current arrangements. It promotes business continuity as well as emergency planning, recognising that preparedness is an issue for the whole local authority and the businesses within the area.

There is no preferred structure for delivering the services covered by the bill. Much will depend on local issues (for example local hazards such as the number of COMAH sites; the internal arrangements of the local authority regarding risk management and links between emergency planning, risk and business continuity arrangements.) Authorities also need to contribute to local multi-agency strategic work and to the development of regional and national agendas. Business/service continuity arrangements are an issue for all services.

In areas of joint arrangements many specific emergency planning responsibilities lie with the responsible or contracted authority. However, all authorities need clarity about who would be responsible for responding to an internal or external emergency on behalf of the authority; effective arrangements for contacting those people, including out of hours; and a clear system for control and communication during emergencies.

Individuals who may form any emergency response team are likely to benefit from appropriate training. The effectiveness of arrangements can only be reviewed and validated through regular exercises. Reviews and learning based on those exercises and on actual incidents in an authority, or in other authorities, can then feed into improvements. In June 2004 the Forum started to provided Local Authorities and other groups with the resources and expertise to run and manage a variety of Business Continuity events around the whole of the UK designed to boost awareness and connect with local businesses.

Russell Price, Chairman of the Continuity Forum, commenting on this announcement from the NAO says: “The importance of effective Emergency Planning and BCM within our local Authorities is clear and the current CCB proposals are for the first time placing responsibilities on the public sector to ensure that both their own BCM plans are effective and that local business are encouraged to adopt BCM to boost local resilience to disruption events. We are commited to support Local Authorities with this work and have already supported a nuimber of initiatives around the UK. ANY Regional or Local group needing support, assistance or guidance can contact us and we'll help develop Materials, Guidance and even local Events to promote BC both internally and externally.”

The Continuity Forum is providing an extensive range of free support services to assist UK authoroities develop the awareness and proactive planning and management in a wider range of businesses across the UK.

Our Guidance has been developed in conjunction with a number of Local Authorities and is completely NON commercial in nature, thereby fully meeting the needs of the PUBLIC Sector whilst not compromising on the either the quality or content of the advice and support. The Bill makes it clear that there is a duty on Local Authorities to engage with Business for the promotion of Business Continuity Planning and recognises the role that indepedent groups can offer in this space.

The Continuity forum is once again leading the way by bringing information and knowledge on the issues to a new audience enabling a greater level of National awareness and importantly, support for both the Local Businesses and the Authorities. The programme has already started with a very succesful event, held in conjunction with the Corporation of London during June, and will now rollout to other parts of the UK.

All feedback recieved has been excellent and we are now confident that with the Local Authority sector and the Continuity Forum working in Union we can bring the benefits of BCM many more organisations across the country and improve the quality of both planning and local liaison.

For more information or to join the programme please contact the Continuity Forum directly on 020 8993 1599 or info@continuityforum.org If you have any questions please do contact us at the Continuity Forum, you can either mail us on events@continuityforum.org or call us on 020 8993 1599.

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