Toolbox

How to Evaluate BC/DR Consultants

Five questions to help weed out the posers from the real deal. Plus: a checklist of topics a BC/DR consultant should know.

By Stacy Collett

"We let the business [units] decide what they want to spend and help coordinate based what the numbers tell us," Hoppenjans explains. "We let [business impact analysis] data tell us what each department is doing as far as BC planning, what their risks and what their vulnerabilities are, and they decide what to spend. Some responses may be customer- or contract-driven."

With all of their questions answered, Siemens IT Solutions and Services found a qualified BC/DR consulting firm and has worked with the firm since 2002.

"You can never know how prepared you are until something happens," Hoppenjans says. "But I think we're well-equipped with the right tools to guide us through." ##

Other stories by Stacy Collett

• Email
• Print
• Comments
• Digg This
• SlashDot

• Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Planning: The Basics
• Five Steps to Evaluating Business Continuity Services
• 5 Ways to Build a Business Case for Business Continuity
• Iowa's Floods: Tragic Lesson in Business Continuity
• Disaster Recovery: Write People into the Plot
• Tabletop Exercises: Three Sample Scenarios