Canadian businesses learn business continuity best practices from SARS outbreak | 07.11.2007 | 08:10:49 | Views: 6367 | ID: July 11 '07: ITWorld Canada reported that many companies around the Toronto, Ontario area have learned business continuity best practices after the city was besieged by a Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2002. Those best practices were discussed during the World Conference on Disaster Management held this week. Attending the conference was Dave Baumken, the manager of emergency preparedness and business continuity planning for Hydro One. Baumken said during the SARS outbreak, "We didn't have anything in place for high volumes of staff absenteeism." Since the outbreak, the company has learned to design continuity plans that "handle multiple events," ITWorld reported. "When devising such plans, Baumken suggests getting support from executive leadership; and ensuring ahead of time that, in the event of employees having to work remotely, the company has the 'horsepower' to sustain business communications via channels like conference calls," ITWorld continued. Similarly, Ontario Power Generation Director of Emergency Preparedness Gian Di Giambattista and Director of Corporate Safety Mary Lou Sinclair said that their companies had been developing pandemic response plans since 2005. The main goals of those plans include protecting vital company information, human resources and assets. Additional metrics to consider, other experts countered, included time frames for recovery; proper IT infrastructure protection; ways and methods of isolating systems to prevent cascading failures; and having staff involved in the planning and execution process of the response and preparedness plan.
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