It’s been a busy year indeed but a highlight for us was our Diamond Sponsorship of theITWeb’s Inaugural Business Con-

tinuity 2012 conference held onthe 13th & 14th November whichwas also endorsed by the BCI, ofwhich ContinuitySA is a Gold Part-ner. The event showed promiseand will definitely become a cal-endar event going forward andshould not be missed. For more in-formation or to recap on theevent click here.

Inside this edition, Michael Daviesgives us some feedback on theBCM World Conference and exhi-bition 2012 which was hosted inOlympia, London. Congratulationsalso to Michael who was recentlypromoted to Chief Executive Offi-cer of ContinuitySA.

The BCI Chapter for the SADC Region in Africa reached newgrounds according to Louise Theunissen, (MBCI) (PMP), BCIBoard Member. Louise notes thatas part of the recent strategy ses-sion the key activity will be the for-mation of the BCI Chapter Boardfor 2013 and 2014, which will followa formal election process adminis-tered by the BCI’s central office.Louise also emphasises the BCI’sendorsement of the ITWeb’s Busi-ness Continuity 2012 Conference,which proved to be a greatachievement for the BCI.

Scott Orton, co-founder and salesdirector at Triple4 details the valuearound their Managed Services

offering and that it is a dedicatedapproach to support based serv-ices with a host of benefits andsupport methods.

Some key highlights of the Disas-ter Recovery/Business Continuity survey results which was done inconjunction with ITWeb and Con-tinuitySA in October have beenhighlighted on page 7, and if youhave not seen the actual resultsthen click here and take a look atthe full breakdown which is on theITWeb website. Michael Davies,reaffirms that the main obviousbenefit of having a disaster recov-ery/business continuity plan inplace is to continue business withminimal disruption.

The ContinuitySA Training Acad-emy have finalised all their trainingdates for 2013 and these can be found on the ContinuitySA website or you can contact our training department on training@continuitysa.co.za to obtain the full schedule.

On the marketing side of Continu-itySA we have lined up a fewthings for 2013 one being our web-site facelift which will incorporatea Blog for ContinuitySA. We are allset for the Business ContinuityAwareness Week 2013 which willbe taking place from the 18th to22nd March 2013 and the themeis, ‘For the risks you can see andthe ones you can’t’. You can readall about this in the ContinuitySAChronicles 1st edition for 2013.

A final reminder that you are wel-come to send us your news, viewsand articles to be included in ournext issue of the chronicles. Thankyou again to everyone who hascontributed so far.

It’s been an amazing year, with itssuccesses and challenges allrolled into one, and from the Con-tinuitySA family we would like towish all of our readers, clients, suppliers and patrons a peacefulholiday season, travel safely andmay you all go into 2013 with apositive outlook.

I bid you adieu till 2013.

Editor – Cindy Bodensteincindy.bodenstein@continuitysa.co.zamarketing@continuitysa.co.za www.continuitysa.co.za

Q4 2012Keeping ContinuitySA

clients informed

1

Do you feel the holiday spirit yet, or are you still focused ongetting things out without any thought of slowing down?

In this Issue1 BCM World

Conference

3 The BCI SADCreaches newgrounds

5 Triple4 addsmore value toits ManagedServices offering

6 Davies takes full control atContinuitySA

7 Costs vs minimaldistruption

8 ContinuitySAtakes corporatesocial investmentstrategic

9 ContinuitySAadds morecourse dates to its 2013schedule

Editor’s Note

All Links

now Interactive

and Live!

Wishing youall a happy

holiday season andprosperousnew year!

2

The conference commenced withan interesting videoconferencekeynote address from Richard Reedfrom the United States who was in-

volved in the recovery operationscaused by the devastation of HurricaneSandy along the East Coast of the UnitedStates. A key aspect of this was the issueof societal resilience and the integrationof public and private actions to restoreorder after a disaster. This was followedby the three concurrent streams address-ing various topics such as BCM policyand programme management, organi-sational resilience, black swans and sce-nario analysis, awareness and measuringand benchmarking BCM programmes onthe first day.

On the evening of the first day there wasa Gala Dinner and Awards amid the wax-works of Angelina Jolie, Jonny Wilkinson,the Queen, Nelson Mandela, Churchill,Prince William and Kate Middletonamongst many other famous people atthe Waxworks Museum of Madame Tus-sauds. It was a great fun filled eveningwith entertainment, good food, muchamusement (provided by the attendees)and recognition of excellence in the fieldof BCM.

The second day covered topics such asdetermining BCM strategies, use of soft-ware, role of social media, crisis manage-ment and one the of last sessions being a

session on lessons learned during plan-ning for the Olympics in London. The con-ference provided an opportunity toshare best practices with BCM expertsfrom around the world, be part of theglobal thought leadership and future direction of BCM, network with peers,colleagues and industry experts andgain practical insights into good BCMpractice.

The conference was well attended withgood participation from diverse countriesaround the globe.

As economic and political volatilityramps up and natural disasters seemmore common place, it was interesting tonote that there is growing emphasisaround organisational resilience, crisismanagement and mass notification toolsfor companies.

What is clear is that organisations are demanding more than disaster recoveryor business continuity plans reliant only onIT systems and that organisational resilience is placing more importancethan before on dealing with people,whether they are clients, suppliers, staff orother stakeholders.

We at ContinuitySA have seen this trenddeveloping and continue to forge aheadat finding ways to offer comprehensivesolutions to improve our clients’ resilienceand bring operational relevance intobusiness continuity through customisedsolutions.

by Michael Davies – Chief Executive Officer, ContinuitySA

The BCM World Conference and Exhibition 2012 which is hosted annually by theBusiness Continuity Institute (BCI) was held on the 7th and 8th November this yearin Olympia, London. It was a showcase for trends, products and services in theBusiness Continuity Management (BCM) world and utilised a three stream structurefor sessions which catered for the BCM newcomer through to the experiencedpractitioner. In addition to the three stream conference sessions there were a num-ber of practitioner presentations and vendor showcasing sessions running at thesame time.

Business Update:BCM World Conference

3

The BCI SADCreaches new grounds

By Louise Theunissen, (MBCI)(PMP), BCI Board Member

As the weather started warming up in September and as the trees

started to bloom, the BCI saw a new leaf unfold with the approval of

the BCI Chapter for the SADC Region in Africa. This was an exciting time

for the members in the SADC region, as we now had an opportunity to

grow our region in the areas we felt were previously lacking.

...Continued on next page

As a Chapter we can now focuson increasing activities andthrough these initiatives increasethe interaction between mem-

bers in the region. The Chapter will strive toincrease the promotion of BCI accredita-tion and BCM Training availability to itsmembers. The Chapter, together with thesupport of its members and interested par-ties and through our combined input intobusiness continuity standards and regula-tions, can make a valuable contribution tothe global development of BCM. As aChapter we will also be able to formallyrepresent the business continuity profes-sionals in the whole SADC region when en-gaging with other professional bodies andinstitutes. These are just a few of the areasthat were highlighted as benefits whendeciding to request the establishment of aChapter.

Gaining Chapter Approval took sometime, but I believe the hard work will withtime reap reward. To define the next stepsthat needed to be taken for the actual es-tablishment of the Chapter, a committeestrategy session was held on the 5th ofSeptember. During this session key activi-ties were confirmed and allocated.

One of the key activities identified at thestrategy session, was the formation of aBCI Chapter Board for 2013 and 2014.

The BCI Chapter Board will hold the re-sponsibility for defining strategic directionof the Chapter and the managementthereof. The formation of the board will fol-low a formal election process this year, ad-ministered by the BCI’s central office

based in the United Kingdom, with the re-quest for nominations from BCI SADCBoard Members being the first step. The re-quest for nominations has been submittedand will officially close on the 21st of No-

vember 2012. The BCI SADC membershipbase holds a great deal of skills and I urgeyou to support this initiative in an effort toexceed our Chapter expectations for 2013.

One of the objectives of the BCI SADCCommittee during 2012, which will be-come an objective of the board, is the in-crease of membership and although therehas not been a huge increase in membersover the last quarter we have had anheightened interest from current memberswishing to participate in our SADC activi-ties. On behalf of the current committee, Iwould like to thank you for the interest youhave shown.

The Committee members have put in agreat deal of personal time and effort inthe specific initiatives that were set at thebeginning of the year.

In addition to the approval of the SADCestablishment proposal and final businessplan a number of additional objectiveshave been achieved. For one the com-munication to our BCI Africa members andinterested parties has increase two fold.The communication not only includes no-tification of relevant events, but also arti-cles, white papers, webinars and otherinformation of interest. Four successfulforum sessions have been held Gauteng,not to mention the activities within theMauritius and CapeBCP forums. The com-mittee has also commenced with discus-sions with the BCI on the development ofa BCI micro-site for the SADC region.

Another initiative that has taken long hoursand a great deal of team work is theITWeb Conference held on the 13th and14th of November that was endorsed bythe BCI. The ITWeb’s Business ContinuityConference 2012 attempted to unlocksome of the secrets to business continuity,how it should be implemented, and itsvalue to an organisation.

Even with the event being arranged withina short timeframe the conference at-tracted approximately ninety delegates.With this being the inaugural event, it is agreat achievement for both ITWeb andthe BCI.

Should you have any enquiries as to how you can make a difference or would like to be included in regularly communication, please contact Louise Theunissen (MBCI)(PMP), BCI Board Member Mobile: +27 82 928 7158 or Mail to: louise.theunissen@continuitysa.co.za

BCI Forum South Africa

The ITWeb Business Continuity Confer-ence 2012 took place a week post theBCI’s BCM World Conference held on the7th and 8th of November at the Olympiain London. Over 350 delegates attendedthe Conference and benefitted fromsome excellent sessions on Business Con-tinuity and related topics delivered by atop line up of international speakers. TheConference was kicked off by an insight-ful and inspiring speech by our keynoteas we transferred across live to the WhiteHouse to hear Richard Reed, Vice Presi-dent for Preparedness and ResilienceStrategy at the American Red Cross,speak on the subject of National Pre-paredness and Societal Resilience, whichwas of particular relevance given the re-cent Hurricane Sandy that swept the EastCoast of the USA.

The exhibition area was a hive of activitywith over 45 different exhibitors showcas-ing their products and services and aconstant flow of traffic of over 1,000 at-tendees to the exhibition. The feedbackto date has been very positive and hasmore than delivered the business case fornext year's Conference, which is alreadyscheduled to take place at Olympia,London on 6th to 7th November 2013.

If you are interested in networking withfellow practitioners, but do not have themeans to attend the various confer-ences, please remember that there arecurrently three forums or interest groupsoperating within the SADC Region, i.e.The South African BCI Forum, The Mauri-tius BCI Forum and Western Cape Busi-ness Continuity Group. Although the

Western Cape Business Continuity Groupis the only forum that is not a formal BCIForum, from discussions held over thepast couple of month they have shownan interest in joining the BCI community.

The success of BCI Chapter SADC is dependent on the participation of allmembers, membership organisations andinterested parties. To those members andmembership organisations who have notyet been involved, we urge you to patic-ipate.

Please play your part in the growth ofBusiness Continuity within Africa throughgetting involved in our exciting initiative.

For enquiries on participation or regular communication, please contact Louise Theunissen (MBCI)(PMP),

Mobile: +27 82 928 7158 or Mail to: louise.theunissen@continuitysa.co.za

4

5

“Business nowadays relies on a vast arrayof technologies and equipment, andtherefore requires a multitude of skilled ITpersonnel to support their environments,”says Scott Orton, Sales director, Triple4. “The purpose of our Managed Service Of-fering is to centralize these skills under oneroof and provide customers access to avast array of different skill sets. “

Latest value added additions to this MSOservice include :

• Hosted exchange mailbox and Cloudbased back up for subscribers of desk-top agents

• Anti-virus services and licensing is bun-dled with the cost

• Patch Management of all supportedsoftware is part of the offering

• Software Deployment for desktopagents

• Desktop Policy Management for desk-top agents

• Monitoring of event logs, performancemonitors and service state with auto calllogging when errors or issues occur.

• Proactive monitoring of disk space, CPU,Memory and other customised perform-ance monitors

• Full software, hardware and network in-ventory is available as part of the serv-ice, including auto call logging ifchanges occur.

The services above are in addition to thestandard offering which includes proac-tive support such as:

• Flat-fee IT services – The costing is basedon fixed pricing per server, desktop ormonitoring agent, therefore there are nohidden costs

• A full helpdesk with call logging and tick-eting is included as part of the service

• Day to day support of the supportedplatforms is included as part of the serv-ice, including mundane tasks such aspassword resets, or user account cre-ation.

• Remote control and troubleshooting isincluded and offers support from any-where an Internet connection is avail-able

• Onsite troubleshooting (if required)

• All support has guaranteed responsetimes based on predefined severity lev-els and criticalities

“ These additional Managed Service offer-ings add massive value to our existing serv-ices and truly give our customers acompetitive advantage” concludesOrton.

Triple4 currently has a pro-active support offering called Managed Services(MSO). MSO is a dedicated approach to support based services and offersnumerous benefits over traditional support methods such as hours based orfull outsource support. Now Triple4 has added further value to this offeringby alleviating the pain points that some tasks take that normally require con-siderable time and effort as well as offering hosted exchange and cloudbased back up to subscribers.

Triple4 adds morevalue to its ManagedServices offering

By Scott Orton, Co-founder and sales director of Triple4.

Please click here to visit our

website or if you want to discuss

this with me, call me on

083 600 2536 or

email: scott.orton@triple4.co.za

6

Davies takes full controlat ContinuitySAMichael Davies has been appointed CEO of ContinuitySA, Southern Africa’sleading provider of business continuity services. The post of managing di-rector was created for Davies in July 2011 as part of a phased successionplan to prepare the company for the retirement of former CEO, Allen Smith.Smith now assumes the position of chairman.

As managing director, Davies was responsible for ContinuitySA’s core operations. This new move sees him assume responsibility forthe entire group, including Globility and Triple4.

Globility provides call centre infrastructure to a range of long- and short-term clients, and is es-sentially an extension of ContinuitySA’s existing business, which includes providing work-

place-recovery solutions for call centres. ContinuitySA acquired 50% of Triple4 in June2011. Triple4 provides leading-edge network infrastructure solutions, giving ContinuitySAthe ability to deliverhosted virtualised business continuity solutions.

Davies says that the change has not affected ContinuitySA’s overall strategy to con-tinue to be the leading supplier of business continuity management services in Africa.

“The growing availabilityof affordable bandwidth is changing the face of business con-tinuity management, making it a key contributor to organisational resilience and-

becoming more operationally relevant to organisations,” Davies observes.“Combined with bandwidth, virtualisation is helping to create a pool of re-

sources that can be used for testing and other services within the IT de-partment. The resulting move towards the hosting of business continuitymanagement is driving ContinuitySA’s growth in the local market.”

Davies says that client interest in business continuity across Africa isalso growing, in part fuelled by increased activity by multinationals,which typically have the legal obligation to ensure business conti-nuity. ContinuitySA currently has permanent facilities in Botswana,Mauritius and Mozambique and is aiming to grow by partneringwith local companies across the continent.

“Demand for our consulting servicesis rising noticeably in South Africaand beyond,” Davies concludes.“This trend is being driven by thegrowing realisation by all industrysectors that business continuity is astrategic necessity now that IT andthe business are indistinguishable.”

7

Costs vs minimal distruptionITWeb in conjunction with ContinuitySA done a survey around Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity, below are the key highlights from the survey.

Amajority of organisations (78.95%)have a disaster recovery/businesscontinuity plan in place.

This was one of the key findings of theITWeb/ContinuitySA disaster recovery sur-vey, which ran on ITWeb Online for 14 daysin October, attracting 135 responses.

However, 16.54% of respondents statedthey do not have a disaster recovery/busi-ness continuity plan in place, while only4.5% were unsure.

“There are many benefits of having a disaster recovery/business continuity planin place,” says Michael Davies, CEO ofContinuitySA.

“The main obvious benefit is to

continue business with minimal

disruption. Another benefit is to

give clients peace of mind and

ensure that delivery to them is

reliable. Of course, to maintain

or build the reputation of the

company is important too.”

The survey also revealed that 66.02% of or-ganisations that do have a disaster recov-ery/business continuity plan in place saidtheir plans are well communicatedthroughout their organisations; however,29.13% revealed that their plans are notwell communicated, and 4.85% were unsure.

When asked what the reasons were for or-ganisations not having a disaster recov-ery/business continuity plan in place,29.17% stated cost, 8.33% connectivity,and exactly half (50%) selected ‘other’.

“An organisation needs to analyse itself interms of potential business impacts andrisks and then, based on that assessment,the organisation is then able to prioritiseexactly what measures need to be putinto place with regards to its disaster re-covery/business continuity plan,” saysDavies.

It also emerged from the survey that66.13% of organisations experiencedpower outages/failure issues in the pastfive years, resulting in their organisationsexperiencing downtime. Some 52.23%cited system upgrades as the reason fordowntime, and 34.69% cited configurationchange management issues.

Interestingly, 20.97% of organisations nevercarry out full scenario testing of their disas-ter recovery/business continuity plans,while 16.13% do so every six months,15.32% on a quarterly basis, and 12% onlyonce a year.

“The ideal timeframe will vary from com-pany to company, and from industry to in-dustry, but we would suggest full scenariotesting of an organisation’s disaster recov-ery/business continuity plan takes placetwice a year because environmentschange so quickly in the world today,”Davies advises.

The survey also asked respondents whichareas of their organisations use third-partyproviders; the highest score was for hosting(29.03%), followed by offsite backup(17.74%) and consulting services (13.71%).

The survey also revealed that the biggestconcern with putting mission-critical appli-cations in the cloud is security (42.5%), fol-lowed by accessibility (20.89%). Some13.33% of respondents stated that their or-ganisations have no concerns.

“Organisations should perform due diligences on cloud solution providers, in-cluding enquiring about their businesscontinuity plans. SLAs should be agreed onbetween both parties and organisationsshould make a point of only dealing withreputable companies providing cloud so-lutions. Also, organisations need to decidewhat is put in the public cloud and what isput into the private cloud,” Davies con-cludes”

– Article, compliments of ITWeb

8

In a bid to align its corporate social investment with its busi-ness strategy, ContinuitySA has entered into a three-yearpartnership with Habitat for Humanity. In terms of the new pro-gramme, ContinuitySA will build a house a year as part of theRaising a Roof initiative.

The Habitat for Humanity model requires the sponsoring company to fundthe materials for building a house, and to supply the labour to build it. Itis also a condition that the beneficiary of the project contributes his orher sweat equity.

Cindy Bodenstein, ContinuitySA’s marketing manager, explains: “As Africa’sleading business continuity provider, we provide our clients with reliable infra-structure and even a second “home” at need—now we wanted to providethat same sense of security by providing good, solid homes to people thatneed them.”

Bodenstein says that in line with King III recommendations, ContinuitySA be-lieves in being a responsible corporate citizen, and this programme is part ofdemonstrating that commitment to the wider community.

“Another factor in our thinking is the realisation that our success is built on theskills and passion of our people, and our ability to attract and retain them is re-lated to our status as an ‘employer of choice’,” she says. “We were excitedby the Habitat for Humanity model because it goes beyond a monetary do-nation and involves our employees in the process.”

The partnership between ContinuitySA and Habitat for Humanity has alreadyborne fruit, with the first house completed in early September. “Our staff vol-unteers were really inspired by their participation, and we already have peoplewanting to get involved in next year’s project,” notes Bodenstein.

ContinuitySA takescorporate social investment strategic

The two-day course, the IT Service Continuity Training istargeted at IT and Business Continuity Management (BCM) pro-fessionals responsible for the continued uptime of IT serviceswithin their organisations.

Key elements of the IT Service Continuity Course include:

• The link between BCM and IT Service Continuity Manage-ment;

• The evolution of IT Service Continuity;

• The latest concepts and trends in IT Service Continuity;

• Conducting an Infrastructure Impact Analysis;

• Formulating and implementing cost effective IT Service Con-tinuity strategies to meet business requirements;

• Security management in IT Service Continuity;

• Testing the IT Service Continuity framework; and

• A Continuity-as-a-Service case study.

Attendees will not simply be bombarded with theory, but will betaught skills proven in the real world by active BCM practitionerswith MBCI (Member of the Business Continuity Institute) certifica-tions.

The course is based on the Good Practice Guidelines of the BCIand complies with the British Standard BS 25999 to ensure it is onpar with international best practices.

Dates for the IT Service Continuity course are as follows:

IT Service Continuity Programme (2 Day Training)

13th & 14th February (JHB)13th & 14th March (CT)

The 5 day Complete Continuity® Practitioners Programme is designed to equip business continuity prac-titioners within any organisation in all aspects of implementing,managing and maintaining an effective business continuityframework in their respective environments.

The course is based on the Business Continuity Institute’s GoodPractice guidelines and is fully ISETT SETA accredited with 149credits at NQF Level 6.

Key elements of the 5 day Complete Continuity® PractitionersProgramme include:

• Introduction and Origins of BCM

• Trends and Observations

• Standards and Compliance

• Elements of the BCM Lifecycle

• BCM policy and Programme Management

• Embedding BCM in the Organisations culture

• Understanding the organisation

- Business Impact Analysis

- Continuity Requirements Analysis

- Risk Assessment

• Determining BC Strategy

- Selecting strategies and tactical responses

- Consolidating Resource levels

• Developing and Implementing a BC response

• Exercising, Maintaining and Reviewing

• Measuring BC Maturity

Dates for the 5 day programme are as follows:

Complete Continuity Practitioner Programme (5 Day Training)

28th January to 1st February (JHB)18 February to 22 February (CT)

ContinuitySA adds morecourse dates to its 2013schedule

Africa’s largest Business Continuity service provider, ContinuitySA, has enhanced its Complete Continuity Training Academy

For more information on these courses,contact training@continuitysa.co.za,or call +27 (0)11 554 8000.

9

Click on the dates to view full schedule

Click on the dates to view full schedule