Contingency Now can help your organization determine its risk management profile.Contingency Now will partner with your organization and create a business recovery plan that is aligned with strategic strategies and informational structures.Check out our other consulting services such as Audits, Training Programs, and Risk Analysis & Assessments.Proactive contingency planning will protect your employees, investors, supply chain, technology and business processes from unplanned outages and down time.Follow this link to access a list of resource documents and information that can help your enterprise.Learn about Contingency Now and what a few of our past clients are saying about the outstanding value we bring to the table.
A well prepared and validated disaster recovery plan for IT will ensure the timely recovery of your critical information systems.Did you know that business continuity planning is critical to the survival and livelihood any operating enterprise?Contingency Now's Business Impact Analysis will provide critical system, business process and financial data so your senior management team will know where, when, why and how much risk is inherited into enterprise operations.Contingency Now can help your organization create an effective business continuity management program.
Exercises & Maintenance for Plan Validation
Test (exercise)
Any contingency planning program is only as good as its ability to recover vital processes and technologies inside the recovery window set by your business requirements (your customers). The key to validating the integrity and functionality of your current or future recovery program is through an integrated test (exercise).

The purpose of performing an exercise is to demonstrate to both management and technology teams the ability of one or more vital business processes to continue functioning inside the identified timeframe required by your customers - post an unplanned interruption event. An exercise is not a pass/fail work effort but an opportunity to identify strengths, vulnerabilities and gaps in your recovery plan. Once identified, then your team can build a continuous improvement roadmap that will mitigate and/or eliminate these gaps and vulnerabilities.

Contingency Now offers three types of exercises:
  1. Tabletop
  2. Functional Drill
  3. Full Scale
Tabletop Exercise
A tabletop exercise is a paper supported and process driven exercise leveraged to validate the ability to recover vital business processes, technology based systems and infrastructure for the management team. In general, a table top exercise consists of the following:
  1. Provides a verbally simulated business interruption event while ensuring personnel fully understand their functions
  2. Is performed at no set time with flexible scheduling
  3. Allows the client to review their policies, procedures and internal action plans.
  4. Should contain question and answer period.
  5. Should have a continuous improvement program associated with the exercise output.
Functional Drill
A functional drill is an exercise that allows actual performance of an identified business interruption response. These exercises are more invasive to your operations than a table top exercise. The functional drill will specifically identify where and why short comings exist in the client's disaster recovery plan. In general, a functional drill exercise consists of the following:
  1. Focused on a single event response to a function and/or process.
  2. May be limited to a specific entity or department.
  3. Consists of human, natural and technical affects.
  4. Allows the client to review their policies, procedures and internal action plans.
  5. Should contain question and answer period.
  6. Should have a continuous improvement program associated with the exercise output.
  7. Can simulate main server loss, power outage, biohazard, telecom loss, etc.
  8. Is managed in "real time".
  9. Has emphasis on specific emergency mode functions.
  10. The client's emergency operations center may be activated on a per function basis.
Full Scale
A full scale exercise is an exercise that allows actual performance of a staged/realistic emergency response to a company-wide affected business interruption event. These exercises are more invasive to your operations than a functional drill exercise. The functional drill is more complex, takes more time to prepare and is more financially costly than any other exercise. This exercise is predominantly performed within the government sector but may be fully supported in private industry. In general, a full scale exercise consists of the following:
  1. Actual performance of a staged/realistic company -wide business interruption event with emergency response.
  2. Is managed in "real time".
  3. Is coordinated with local public officials such as FEMA, Red Cross, Hazmat, fire and police.
  4. Exercises multiple emergency functions simultaneously.
  5. The client's emergency operations center is activated. Should contain question and answer period.
  6. Should have a continuous improvement program associated with the exercise output.
Maintenance
All recovery program documentation is considered as "live documents". As your business or business technology changes over time so must your recovery program. If you don't keep your plans and program in lock-step with either business process or technology changes, your plans and program will become obsolete and rendered useless. Contingency Now will work closely with your team to identify and help you manage your on-going planning maintenance requirements. In general, Contingency Now recommends the following for recovery plan maintenance:
  • Electronic and physical formats in multiple "secured" locations
  • Quarterly updates on resources information
  • Semi-annual updates on strategies and procedures
  • Updates performed whenever a "significant" enterprise process, system, or technology changes
If your enterprise has or will have a recovery program then maintaining it properly can make a difference between an effective and timely recovery or significant financial costs and possible bankruptcy.