Frequently Asked Questions
Business Continuity:
Q: Can you summarise Business Continuity Management for me?
A: Business Continuity Management (BCM) is a management system which seeks to mitigate the impact of a
disruptive incident on an organisation’s critical processes. In doing this, BCM helps to ensure that an organisation's
products and services that are underpinned by these critical processes can still be delivered in the face of an incident
or disaster. This protects, among other things, the organisation's reputation, it's market share, customer loyalty and
it's legal and regulatory obligations.
Q: How long does it take to put in a Business Continuity Management System?
A: This will depend on the size, complexity and geographical location(s) of the organisation. It will also
take into account any current Business Continuity initiatives and the Incident Management and (IT) Disaster Recovery procedures
already in place (if any). What is for sure is that BCM can and should be applied to any size or complexity of business. The same
basic processes and procedures should be followed to implement BCM into a sole trader’s business as in a multi-national,
multi-cultural organisation. However, size and complexity will add time, effort, resources, including man power and of course, budget.
Q: Do my own staff have to have Business Continuity Management experience?
A: Of course it will always help if your current workforce has BCM experience and knowledge! But this is not
necessary if you engage RKJ Consulting Limited to help implement BCM into your organisation. We can guide the relevant people
in your organisation in every step of the BCM process and in doing so we impart knowledge to your staff that will help you
keep your BCM system up to date.
What is most important is that there is total commitment to BCM from your leadership - this is the only way to ensure that
BCM is embedded into the culture of your organisation and taken seriously at all levels.
There also are various misinterpretations of what BCM really is that sometimes result in an organisation placing responsibility
for BCM with certain departments or functions. For example, BCM is not just about "Risk Assessment". So whilst you may choose
to have your BCM project "owned" by your Finance function, it does not necessarily follow that a "Finance" person or Accountant
is the perfect choice to head a BCM project!
Q: How much do you charge to put in a Business Continuity Management System?
A: Again, this will depend on the size, complexity and geographical location(s) of the organisation. It will
also depend on whether RKJ Consulting Limited will be engaged with helping to implement the entire system or whether you need
us to help with specific parts of the BCM "Lifecycle" – or perhaps you need us just to train or present to your leadership team or staff.
The best thing to do is contact us so that we can visit you and speak to you for 30 minutes about BCM in general – this is free
of charge and will give us both an idea about how we can help you.
Q: It’s highly unlikely I will be affected by a disaster or disruptive incident, why do I need Business Continuity Management?
A: It’s not unusual for organisations to react like this – "it won’t happen to me"! Let's put it this way, if you
do not have a burglar alarm because you live in a safe area - but then your house is burgled, how will you feel? Upset, angry and
wishing you had invested in a burglar alarm. You will also contemplate investing in an alarm to prevent the episode happening
again. Would you feel the same if it was your next door neighbours who had the break-in? They also live in the safe area so does
this mean you are less safe than you believed?
It follows that disruptive incidents do not necessarily have to happen to YOUR organisation in order to affect YOUR business.
The Buncefield Oil depot fire in Hemel Hempstead, which occurred in December 2005, affected 630 neighbouring businesses
employing 16,500 staff – they were disrupted for 2 days. Some buildings and their contents were destroyed, other premises
were not accessible and in the end some businesses moved away, which meant that some employees had to travel greater distances to work.
Therefore if you feel that you as an organisation are unlikely to encounter a disruptive incident we would suggest you give some
consideration to issues outside of your control.
For example, can your suppliers guarantee to deliver to you essential supplies if they suffer an incident? If not, does that
affect your ability to deliver to your customers? If yes, how will this affect your bottom line, your customer loyalty,
your reputation? How will this affect your key stakeholders such as your employees?
This is just one area that is sometimes overlooked when making decisions about BCM and there are so many more to
contemplate! RKJ Consulting Limited will visit you for a free ½ hour chat and bring other
considerations to the table, to help you make an informed decision.
Q: I already have Crisis Management in my organisation, why do I need Business Continuity Management as well?
A: There is a cross over between Crisis Management and BCM. In a Crisis, your organisation's Crisis Management
Team (CMT) will make various decisions which will include the handling of Communications with the media, dealing with the welfare
of affected staff and protecting the reputation of the organisation. The CMT will have pre-planned locations where they can
meet to hold meetings and make decisions and there will be procedures to get in touch with key staff.
However, if the Crisis is one that affects the ability to perform critical processes, then the BCM system should kick-in.
Those critical processes may be operational (e.g. manufacturing) in nature, with the Crisis being a terrorist attack. Or they
may be critical processes to ensure that year-end legal and regulatory results & reports are sent to Government and
the organisation’s Board & stakeholders, with the Crisis being a flood at Head Office meaning no staff can enter to perform
their administrative and financial duties.
Whatever the disruption to the critical processes, there needs to be a system in place to ensure timely continuity
in the event of the disaster and total recovery once the disaster has been tackled. The way that systems operate needs
to be cascaded to all staff, the part that staff play in the continuity and recovery procedures needs to be documented
and the staff must be trained. There will be a separate team (the Business Continuity Team) that will put that system into
operation and they will need to report to the CMT at each stage, enabling the CMT to make overall strategic decisions.
Recruitment Screening:
No FAQs in this category at present.
Training:
No FAQs in this category at present.
Web Solutions:
Q: Can I have any name for my website?
A: Sometimes. You may be able to have the website name (called a "URL" or a domain name) of your choice as long as it has not
already been allocated to someone else. There is some flexibility in the naming of domains, for example a “.co.uk” domain may be
available whereas a “.com” may not. Also you may consider including a dash or underscore in the name (no blanks) if your first
choice is not available – for example “www.xxx-yyy.com” in place of “www.xxxyyy.com”.
Choosing your new domain name is one of the first actions following agreement to proceed – our developers will be there to advise you
interactively by use of an online database on which names are available and what your other options may be.
Q: What email address can I have?
A: Your e-mail address will be of the form: xxxxxxxx@domain-name
So if you select a domain name of “rightsaidfred.co.uk” (sorry – already taken!) you would be known as: “xxxxxxxx@rightsaidfred.co.uk”.
Of course, since you would own the domain name, the username (“xxxxxxxx”) can be anything you like! It is also possible to split
up the username, for example if there were more than one “richard” in your organisation, “richard@...” could be specified as
richard.surname@... – as the owner of the domain, the choice is yours.
Q: Do I have to provide the written content for the website myself?
A: No – all of our packages have content (the “Copy”) written by our excellent Copy Writers.
Soon after you commission us to create your web solution, one of our representatives will be in touch with you to discuss
the details of your business and identify what you would like to see for each page of your new site. We will then
write the text which will be uploaded onto a test domain for your approval. This service is always included in all of our
packages.
Of course, if you want to write any or all of it for yourself, you can do!
Q: What are the hosting arrangements for my website?
A: All of our hosting services are provided by FastHosts Internet Limited, the UK's #1 web hosting
supplier. To quote FastHosts directly:
"Based in Gloucester, in the heart of England, our two state-of-the-art data centres house thousands of the latest web and mail
servers, maintained 24x7 by our expert team of engineers. Every possible consideration is made for our servers to operate to their
full potential, so they can deliver the highest possible levels of uptime and security."
"The latest technology – thousands of the latest Microsoft Windows 2003, Linux and Exchange mail servers, with all major
scripting languages and database technologies supported."
"Unrivalled connectivity - plugged directly to the backbone of the internet, every server enjoys a fully redundant Tier 1 connection
so our customers never experience slow-down or service interruptions."
(Courtesy FastHosts Internet Limited, June 2008)
Your website will be hosted on a Windows 2003 Advanced Server, though Linux-based server options are also available on request.
Q: How much will I be charged for my website?
A: Sorry to be vague, but this really depends upon customer requirements. A number of standard packages have
been created, built to satisfy most of the usual website needs, and a selection of additional options is available which can
be added if you wish. Of course, an agreed figure is set before we start any work, and this figure will be adhered to unless
further requirements are made during development. Be assured that the developers are very flexible and will do all they can to
make you a satisfied customer.
Q: What are my payment options?
A: Currently we accept cash, cheque, bankers draft or inter-bank transfer.
Q: Do I have to pay any money "up front"?
A: We ask for a deposit when we start work. This is to ensure we are able to cover items which we have to
purchase early in development (such as the initial 1 or 2 years domain name rental). The deposit is usually 30% of the agreed final cost.
Q: How long will it take to create my website?
A: This depends upon the complexity and size of the website requirements. It goes without saying that a
20-page website will take longer to set up than a 5-page or single page site, especially if the subject matter of that site
is complicated. One thing we can assure you is that once we have had a chance to discuss the site with you and agree a date
for delivery, we will stick to it.
Q: How do I keep my site up to date – do you offer maintenance?
A: Yes, we offer an excellent value maintenance contract - click
here for details.
Q: I want a website but I don't know anything about "IT" or Computers.
A: This is not a problem. We are here to help at every point in the process, with developers and copy writers
who can take your vision and make it a reality. We're sure you know what you would like, even if you don’t know the technical
steps needed to create it.
For all projects, our company takes a "holistic" approach; as such you can rest assured we will take all factors into account
while creating your web solution and be available throughout and after the process should you need any further work doing.
