What is Business Continuity Planning?
Business Continuity Planning is a systematic interdisciplinary approach to planning for how an organization will continue critical operations and business during and after a disaster. Such planning is a crucial part of the larger integrated UC Santa Cruz Emergency Management program which focuses on mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery planning and activities.
"Business" at UC Santa Cruz is framed by its threefold mission of teaching, research and public service. The University's ability to accomplish its mission is vulnerable to a major emergency which results in a significant loss of vital resources such as power, buildings, equipment, infrastructure, technology, or personnel. The UC Office of the President, sister campuses and campuses nationwide have identified business continuity planning as a major area of focus and development.
In 2007, the UC Office of Risk Services announced a major business continuity planning initiative for the ten UC campuses and the five UC medical centers known as the Restarting UC Business Continuity Planning Program.
UCReady Tool
Central to the campus business continuity planning effort is the UCReady software tool, based on the successful Restarting Berkeley tool developed by the UC Berkeley Office of Continuity Planning.
During 2009, UCSC will begin implementing the UCReady tool for academic and administrative units, coordinated by the campus Business Continuity Planner, Elaine Rivas.
During Fall 2009, there will be a series of two-part Information and Training sessions to assist your unit or department in becoming better prepared to resume its critical functions during and after an emergency. To register online for these important sessions, please visit the UCSC Events Manager.
Process
The decentralized nature of University decision-making makes a single "one-size-fits-all" business continuity plan unfeasible and ineffective. Involvement and input by individual departments and units is essential to effective business continuity planning at UC Santa Cruz.
Collaborative department-based business continuity planning identifies needs and requirements which are in some cases unique to individual departments and in other cases shared by multiple departments or the entire University. The process of identifying essential functions and taking steps to sustain those functions enhances the resilience of the University by enabling it to maintain or to quickly resume mission-critical activities when faced with a significant loss of essential resources.
As departments and units develop individual business continuity plans they will generate a list of action items - a "to-do list" - which identifies steps that can be taken to reduce vulnerability to disaster events whether limited to a single department or involving the entire University.
Contact
For more information about Business Continuity or the UC Ready tool, please contact:
Elaine Rivas
Business Continuity Planner
(831) 459-3828
ejrivas@ucsc.edu
