Verizon Business Reminds Enterprises on Creating and Implementing Business Vontinuity Plan

Verizon Business, a unit of Verizon (News - Alert) Communications and a global company specializing in communications, IT, Security, Network and Professional services solutions, has been recognized for its business-continuity capabilities by the British Standards Institute (BSI).

 

Business Continuity Management (BCM) and Continuity of Operations (COOP) are multi-dimensional practices that demand a complete steadiness and balance of investment against risk to the enterprise. By meticulously managing a large global network infrastructure even in times of critical events in the past, Verizon Business (News - Alert) keeps reminding on the fact that in today’s volatile world, creating and implementing a business continuity plan is becoming increasingly critical.

 

Verizon Business is the only North American-based global communications provider to be recognized for its business-continuity capabilities by the British Standards Institute, according to the company. In 2008, BSI Management Systems accepted Verizon Business into its Associate Consultant Program for BS 25999, a global standard for business-continuity management.

 

Verizon Business offers a comprehensive suite of business-continuity solutions. Professional consulting services, designed to assess and address critical recovery challenges, include business-impact-and-risk analyses, network assessments, gap analyses and recovery strategies, as well as plan development, implementation and life-cycle management services.

 

The company also offers notification services, a fully automated service, interoperability solution, continuity-planning software, virtual file-sharing, storage replication and restoration services and a full complement of managed information-technology services and other advanced telework, conferencing, collaboration and contact center capabilities. These collaborative tools is said to allow organizations to effectively communicate virtually anywhere at any time, helping to increase response time and productivity, and reduce downtime from major events that affect businesses.

 

"While it may seem obvious that a comprehensive business-continuity plan begins with professional help, some companies still think one shoe fits all and many more simply don't know where to begin," said Kerry Bailey, senior vice president - global services, Verizon Business.

 

"Because enterprises today are often global and operate round-the-clock, a multidimensional approach is required. It's no longer enough to simply plan for a single event, or merely back up your data."

 

In addition to reminding enterprises that a tailored business-continuity management (BCM) plan starts with professional consulting, Verizon Business offers key considerations for businesses building or upgrading their BCM programs which includes; Executive sponsorship; Multidisciplined team; Risk assessment; Business impact assessment; Strategy development and Plan development and implementation.

 

Added to this, the company also mentioned that businesses should take into consideration the types of events that can disrupt business. This, as stated by Verizon, offers a baseline to begin assessing impacts and formulating a strategy for mitigating the effects of each potential threat.

 

Facilities Infrastructure; Workforce Continuity are the areas, which Verizon stresses that organizations need to focus clearly to maintain continuity.

 

IT Infrastructure has long been at the heart of disaster recovery and BCM in this area needs to address the complete business-information flow and the entire critical infrastructure that supports it, to ensure appropriate plans are in place, says the company.

 

"The range of potential threats is broad, and global extended enterprises must be prepared to respond on a moment's notice," said Michael Marcellin, vice president - global managed services, Verizon. "The time to plan is before disruptive events occur. Verizon's comprehensive portfolio of business-continuity professional services and advanced communications tools offer large-business and government customers the ability to craft effective business-continuity strategies."