Keith Shirley

In short the course will help you to critically review your business processes and analyse the impact potential disasters would have on them. It will help them to figure out which parts of their business are the most critical and to document in advance what needs to be done if the disaster materialises. At the end of the day the intention is to make sure that a little advance planning will help ensure that the business survives.

A breakdown of the content is below. For more information contact me directly  or the Carlow Kilkenny Training Network. The course will take place at the new Carlow Chamber of Commerce Gateway Centre on the Athy Road, Carlow.

Course Breakdown

Lesson 1 – What is Disaster Recovery
This introductory lesson covers the differences between disaster recovery planning and business continuity planning.

Lesson 2 – Reviewing your current status
This lesson starts with a review of your current state of preparedness. It then reviews the reasons for such planning and the consequences of not being properly prepared.

- Worksheet – Business Impact Analysis
- What is a Business Impact Analysis?
- How Prepared are some Organizations?
- Top 5 Consequences of Disasters
- The Extended Impact of Disaster

Lesson 3 – Planning and Preparation
This lesson covers the steps and methods needed to do an analysis of the business processes and the risks those processes face. The risks are divided into categories to aid in the analysis and determination of the final impact a failure can have on the business. The lesson reviews the pressures faced when setting priorities and demonstrates a system for quantifying risk vs. impact.

- What steps do you need to take to ensure you are prepared?
- Methods for Completing a Business Impact Analysis
- Categories of Risk
- Additional pressures when setting priorities

Lesson 4 – Business Systems and Technology
This lesson reviews some of the tools needed for a disaster. It also covers some tips to help reduce the impact of a disaster event.

 Do you have the tools you need in case of a problem?
- Inexpensive options to reduce the impact of disaster

Lesson 5 – Incident Response Planning
This lesson reviews the first steps to take in the event of a disaster and discusses how to prepare a timeline of actions suitable for your organization.

 What to do what the crisis strikes
- Timeline preparation

Lesson 6 – The Next Steps
This closing lesson reviews how a contingency plan might actually look and discusses the long term activities that are needed to make the plan is a success.

- Sample Contingency Plan Format
- Publishing the Disaster Recovery Plans
- Testing the disaster recovery solution and ongoing assessment of the plan