Open Continuity - We deliver continuity 10 times quicker at 1/10th the cost of our peers!

Why is continuity important to your business?

The market demands its now a cost doing business

Business continuity has moved into the mainstream. Regulation and greater awareness of risk and how to manage it is forcing business continuity down the supply chain.

In all probability you are either governed and require a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) to comply with the regulations of your industry, or you supply organisations that demand that their suppliers have sound continuity in place. If this is not the case now, it almost certainly will be as regulation extends across industries and down supply chains.

For the majority of companies today, business continuity is a cost of being in business in the same way that insurance is. You need it both in it's own right to protect you from disaster and also because no one will do business with you if you don't have it.

For listed companies it's now a mandatory requirement that you declare your risk controls in your annual reporting. Analysts scrutinise this and use it as a key indicator of your internal governance. Would you think that an organisation that fails to address it's number one operational risk is a good place to put your money?

Changes in the law are soon going to require that even unlisted companies declare their risk controls.

Last but not least as a company director you are liable to be prosecuted if you fail to take adequate precautions.

Continuity is not just a cost of business, it can be a source of income!

Having continuity is a prerequisite for winning business with an increasing number of clients. Most notably, all the finance, utility and public sector organisations are building business continuity into their requests for tender, terms and conditions and service schedules.

We should know we've prepared enough of these and responded to even more!

It's not just these sectors that demand it either, as those businesses that are in the supply chain now have to make sure their suppliers are covered too!

Many clients are successfully building the costs of continuity into their pricing, especially where the client demands it. Best of all they are charging each client, and effectively creating an income stream by paying once and charging many times.

Open Continuity helps you keep clients

Obviously, it's not just making it possible to bid for new business, continuity keeps you in the running for the business you already have i.e. as your clients start to introduce continuity requirements and policies they'll demand it from you!

Open Continuity is a source of competitive advantage

If your competitors don't have effective auditable business continuity, then it can be used as a differentiator and a great way of positioning your business as a quality and professional organisation. Not only that but you'll get over a hurdle that will claim many of your competitors!

If you've got to have continuity, and you're competitors have it then doing it for less cost and disruption is a source of competitive advantage.

It's good practice, which is the best reason; though perhaps the least compelling reason for having business continuity!

Irrespective of demands placed from outside the organisation or a desire to win new business and keep what you have. The best reason for having business continuity in place is because it's good management practice. Bottom line, is that business interruption is the number one operational risk, and having it economically covered is essential if you plan to be in business over the long term.

"You cannot evade the responsibility of tomorrow, by evading it today." Abraham Lincoln

Your business continuity provision is going to be visible to external scrutiny as all management will soon be forced to declare what risk controls they have under new legislation due in 2007. Regardless of whether you have to declare you operational risk controls, you will be held accountable for any loss of customer or tax data.

As a director it's increasingly important to be able to demonstrate you've taken adequate measures to manage risks, otherwise you run the risk of prosecution.

We seem to live in times of ever greater threat!

Read the news, disasters happen everyday. However, most of the things that can kill your business wouldn't ever make the papers. If you succeed in business, sooner or later they will happen to you!

In fact, the threat landscape is getting worse. The emergence of global terrorism is very real, most alarming is the shift by terrorists from targeting governments to businesses and infrastructure.

You don't have to be directly effected by an act of terrorism, the 7th of July bombings brought London to a stand still for two days and effected companies across the country.

On terrorism the official line from government is:

“It's not if, BUT when!” Eliza Manningham-Buller, Director General, MI5

Perhaps a more chilling perspective comes from Gerry Adams:

"You have to be lucky all the time, we only have to be lucky once."

Nearly clocking up as much media attention is the emerging threat of disease. Pandemics in particular is now the number one concern of the finance sector when looking at business continuity.

Take a moment to think... What will you do when none of your staff come to work for a month?

Less obvious, but more likely to hit your business in the short term are things like:

	Increasingly lean business processes leading to single points of failure. Do you know where they are or what you’d do?
	Consolidation up the supply chain leading to fewer alternate sources of supply and a critical dependence on a single supplier – do you know where your supply chain risks are and do you have alternate sourcing available.
	Utility stability. Power in particular is increasingly fragile – What will you do if they ration businesses during winter months?
	Your Number 1 client goes bust. What’s the impact on your cash flow can you still carry your fixed costs?

	Flood. With the erosion of natural flood plains and climate change there are ever greater areas vulnerable to flooding. Are you, your customers, your staff or your suppliers at threat?
	Building work. This is probably the number one cause of business interruption. Subcontractors who cut your power, or data, or telephones or worst of all set fire to your building or flood the office. We’ve had all these happen to our clients.
	Weather. The climate is always undergoing dramatic change. Hotter, longer summers and colder winters seem likely with more extremes happening more frequently. Expect to have blizzards in April, that close the roads; flash floods in July, that take out your main supplier.
	Someone else's disaster. More often than not, you'll need to find somewhere else to run your business because one of your neighbours has had a disaster that has left your premises inaccessible or uninhabitable.

Though these things seem unlikely, they hit businesses like yours everyday. Ironically, it’s the everyday things that turn into a major crisis, often without the business effected being aware until it’s too late.

If all this wasn't enough, you're at the mercy of other peoples stupidity.

"Only 2 things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." Albert Einstein

SMEs are more vulnerable to disasters!

Small and Medium sized businesses are more vulnerable to disruption, as they have far less reserves to weather a storm, a limited customer base and often operate with hand to mouth cash flow.

"The future depends on what we do in the present." Mahatma Gandhi

Bottom line – Many businesses that have an interruption event go bust.

Good news - Amongst businesses with effective continuity in place, they don’t just survive they see a significant increase in share holder-value^[1]

Don't be one of the 80% that go to the wall because they didn't have the foresight to prepare simple plans, for the unexpected, but inevitable things that happen to every business sooner or later. Contact Jamie at Open Continuity on 07894 906 559 (Jamie.Watters@OpenContinuity.com) to talk about how we can help you before it's too late.

Business continuity takes too much time and attention!

Business continuity requires specialist skills and attention, lots of attention. In the real world companies don't have the time to learn and master business continuity and the related disciplines, nor should they!

Businesses need to focus on solving business problems and growing their business!

Let Open Continuity bring our depth of experience to your business freeing you and your team to focus on the things you do best!

"An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made in a very narrow field." Neils Bohr

Spare your self the pain and enjoy the benefit of our experience.

Contact Jamie at Open Continuity on 07894 906 559 (Jamie.Watters@OpenContinuity.com) to talk about how our experience can free you to concentrate on what you do best, your business not continuity!

Don't get caught by a sudden need for continuity to keep or win business

Lots of companies find they’ve got a contract negotiation depending on business continuity provision, or an audit item overdue, or a regulator bearing down on them. In this situation, even if you can afford to pay for a traditional business continuity project, the 3-6 months delay associated with traditional approaches is useless.

Open Continuity brings delivery times down from months to days, not only that, it works first time; unlike traditional approaches that require several iterations to get it right. N.B. Each iteration is several rounds of expensive consultancy too!

Contact Jamie at Open Continuity on 07894 906 559 (Jamie.Watters@OpenContinuity.com) to find out how we can fast track your needs or avoid being caught like this down the line!

Cost & Time

You can always do it yourself. Many large corporations have dedicated business continuity teams. However, you have to ask what business you're in and is spending time learning all about business continuity making the best use of your most precious commodity time?

You should also consider the costs... Training your own staff costs at least £15k per head. N.B. You’re giving them a very marketable skill. Guess what - they'll leave!

Traditional approaches are very labour intensive and require considerable time i.e. from your staff answering questions, gathering information, etc.

The big 4 practices have a day rate approach and charge between £1500-£2500 a day. Typical assignment takes 40-60 days and you'll get junior consultants for your money or pay a huge premium for experienced consultants.

Costs - Best case £60k plus expenses!

Don't panic! Our FAST approach means that having Open Continuity dealing with your Business Continuity needs costs a small fraction of a typical continuity consultancy engagement! Not only are we many times cheaper, we make sure you'll carry much lower ongoing costs. Last, but not least you benefit from a partner level engagement and on-going support because there's juniors here!

The market dictates that many larger companies have to have Continuity NOW! These large, desperate corporations produce much larger and profitable assignments for the big consultancies. Generally large client projects are man years not days, and these clients are relatively price insensitive. In fact they are used to paying consultancy fees. They gravitate to big 4 brands rather than looking for the best value proposition.

Similarly, the big 4 practices gravitate to large corporate clients as they represent the economies of scale they need to support their overheads. Naturally, they're not interested in working with medium and small companies as they don't represent such rich pickings.

To enjoy the benefit of a better plan, delivered quicker with less interruption to your business call Jamie at Open Continuity on 07894 906 559 (Jamie.Watters@OpenContinuity.com) to talk about how we can address your unique needs quickly and economically.

Do any of these problems sound familiar….Here’s the Solution

FAST Continuity Programme (Fast Analysis through Scenario Testing)

Why we’re different and why we’ll deliver

We’re unique because we are bringing big business continuity capability at SME prices. Not only that, but working with us you'll be doing it better and quicker. We’re also different because we speak your language and we work with local businesses so we are better able to help you introduce the changes you want in your business in the shortest possible time.

What to do next

If you’re interested in finding out more about business continuity and what it can do for you...

Free Continuity Assessment

All you need to do is spend about a couple of hours with us, for our no obligation, Continuity Assessment. We spend a further half day analysing the results and preparing a high level report and action plan. The report and plan are yours to keep, regardless of whether you choose to engage our services.

The high level report tells you how your business stacks up in a number of key areas against continuity best practice. So not only do you learn what your strengths weaknesses are and what you should do to improve the situation. You get to know how mature your business is compared against continuity best practice.

Armed with this knowledge you can make informed decisions about how mature you want to be in each area of continuity and what you’re going to focus on first.

We cover the cost of the Analysis – no risk!

This is a fantastic offer. I checked the other day and our lowest priced competitor charges a minimum for £1495 for a similar study. Instead, we fund this ourselves at our own expense. We believe this is important as it shows our commitment and makes it possible for either of us to walk away if we feel that it’s not right. Remember it’s possible that the analysis may conclude that you’re business doesn't require our services or that you as a business owner are not ready to make the next steps.

You’ll have to hurray

This offer is limited as we only have time for 2 more clients at the present. So, if you’re interested you’ll have to be quick. Contact your Open Continuity consultant Jamie on 07894 906 559 or mail him at jamie.watters@OpenContinuity.com to find out more or book a free Continuity Assessment session.

[1] “Impact on shareholder value of a disaster.” Pretty, Deborah 2001 – Oxford University

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