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BUSINESS CONTINUITY

Business continuity planning has emerged as a way to define the steps necessary to maintain critical operations before, during, and after a disruptive event. Business Continuity Planning typically includes a pre-event preparation stage, an event stage, and a post-event return to full operations stage.

A comprehensive business continuity plan requires flexibility in order to deal effectively with the situational changes that may be presented by a number of events, including a pandemic disease outbreak. While a pandemic shares some characteristics with a physical disaster (e.g., fire, flood, hurricane, cyclone, tsunami, earthquake), it also possesses at least five distinctive characteristics that must be considered in business continuity planning:

1. Broad Geographic Impact: A pandemic, by definition, is a global event. This means that all locations are likely to be affected, including the entire company, its suppliers and customers.
   
2. Human Impact: Unlike a physical disaster where response plans often bring additional human resources to bear, in a pandemic it is the people themselves who are most effected. Physical infrastructure will be largely unaffected; however, high rates of absenteeism may result in spot shortages, service interruptions, and difficulty in staffing even critical operations.
   
3. Limited Advanced Notice: Because there is no direct medical or scientific evidence at present regarding the H5N1 virus mutation, there is no effective means for predicting if, when and how a pandemic may emerge. Once an outbreak occurs, it is expected to spread globally within a matter of months, if not weeks, offering only minimal warning of its approach.
   
4. Length of Duration: Unlike physical events, which typically have a predictable end, the timeline of a pandemic is not predictable. It is expected that avian flu will occur in waves, each of several weeks in duration.
   
5. Social Disruption: With a pandemic, outbreaks may force limits placed on large gatherings, travel restrictions, changes in demand for services (i.e. increased use of internet, telephone and ATMs; decreased traffic in retail stores, malls and public transportation). Officials are predicting, at the height of a pandemic wave, overwhelmed medical services, closed schools, limited or interrupted delivery services, and other interruptions in public and social services.

Today, many businesses are planning for the actual pandemic phase. However, the need for effective business continuity activity will exist long after a pandemic wave is over. People will be impacted in a variety of ways, from physical and emotional exhaustion to coping with the deaths of friends and family. Some may even have financial stress because of the interruption of work.

There are a number of excellent resources being developed and shared in regards to business continuity planning. Please continue to watch this space or subscribe to receive updates and additional information about Avian Flu and pandemic planning as it emerges. Our links page also lists many websites that have additional information on business continuity planning.