At some stage of the Business Continuity Program (BCP) development cycle, you may be asked about using a template that can be downloaded from the Internet or using a software tool to develop the plan document.
Templates from the Internet
There are many internet sources that will provide BCP Planning templates. Some of these are provided free while others will charge a small fee for the download. Obviously, you get what you pay for.
The free templates usually do not have on-going or follow-up support available. Once you download the template, you are on your own. If you have questions you will have to research the answer yourself. This can be very frustrating and time consuming. You may also find that there is no one correct answer. You will have to decide what makes the best sense for your company and the situation.
Some packages do offer support, but this support may only be access to someone to help with the template itself and not able to give you answers to specific questions about your plan.
A United Kingdom consultant reviewed one of the Internet templates and determined that the BCP Plan developed using the template missed about 80% of the material that would have been discovered by a consultant.
There is a general use for the Internet templates. The templates can guide you through some of the issues and questions that you need to answer in order to develop a BCP. There may still be gaps in the plan, but at least your plan would be a starting point for further research and building on the material already collected. One free template/tool kit that is useful for a small business owner, is the “Open for Business” toolkit. It has 13 forms that can be filled in as well as an explanation of the suggested contents for each form and some tips on how to complete the forms.
Business Continuity Planning Software
What about using BCP Planning software to develop your plan? There is ample support and the reports can be generated and updated quickly.
Usually this type of software has its place in the development of a BCP in large companies and the government.
This software is expensive to buy. There is training required by the person who will be the administrator and the collection and presentation format is very ridged. These programs are database driven and the provided reports and plans produced can be generated fast and any changes can be done very quickly. However, the reports are already designed and you will need some expertise to modify or add new reports and documents.
A problem that many companies do not think about when purchasing this software, is the replacement for the person who has taken the training on the software. When purchasing the software, training is usually included for one person. You should actually consider training a second person. If the primary person leaves the company or gets moved to another location within the company, or even goes on vacation, then you may have all of your data sitting in a program that no one can access or use.
This is an excerpt from the ebook “Business Continuity Program Development – A Basic Guide, Developing and maintaining a comprehensive plan” that s published by Business Continuity & Recovery Consulting.
Disasters can happen at anytime… is your company prepared?
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Not everyone needs electrical estimating software and not everyone needs the same electrical estimating software.
The first statement deals with the question of whether you require a software at all for doing your electrical estimating work. The critical factors in the decision making process is usually the size of your operations and the type of work you are doing. If you’re an independent electrical estimator, doing small jobs then perhaps you can do it all manually, using your knowledge and experience and achieve excellent results.
But more complicated jobs or a bigger scale of operation will in most cases require you to get one of the software. In fact it is very difficult to find a case where relying on a computer instead of doing it manually won’t help. Some benefits include more accurate, error free results, reduced material costs, labor savings, reduction in overheads and an increase in business as you are able to bid for more jobs due to faster estimating.
I do not claim to have used all the software in the market, nor will I reveal or favor in this article those I have used. This is because the right software for you, depends entirely on your needs. I will instead tell you about resources out there on the internet that you can use to make up your mind.
A very comprehensive resource to help you make the decision is Software Advice. At Software Advice you can look up information on specific electrical estimating software, their features, ratings etc. You can also use the free phone consultations and needs assessments that Software Advice offers.
All this will help you to narrow down a much shorter list of software systems. The criteria would be the kind of work you do (e.g. low voltage) and the size of your operations. You can also factor in any specific functional requirements that you may have. You can then focus on evaluating the short list of software rather than get lost in the hundred of software that are available.
A must read is this article by Mike Holt which gives advice on how to select a computer estimating software.
Even if you can easily afford it, remember that an electrical estimating software is not a magic pill. Changes will have to be made in the way you work, employees will have to be trained and so on. Utilize all the resources at your disposal before making the decision.