Chris Gonyar and Shawn Kiley recently gave the invited presentation “Building a Business Continuity Program: The Crawl, Walk, Run Approach” at the 2106 annual National Association of College and University Business Officer (NACUBO) conference in Montreal.
The University’s Business Continuity Management program is designed so that each department on campus completes a continuity of operations plan (COOP). The Montreal presentation provided an overview of UNC Charlotte’s program, including its history, approach, best practices and lessons learned.
The program, which began in 2001, is now undergoing significant change with the advent of a University-built software system that will allow continuity coordinators, staff members who write the plans, to complete COOPs online, instead of Microsoft Word-based documents.
Data collected from continuity coordinators is automatically entered into a database. The software performs complex analytics on the database that allow for a high-level view of the University’s critical business functions, internal dependencies, ITS services, vendor services and more. The program is in the beta-testing phase and will debut this fall.
According to officials, selection to present at NACUBO’s annual meeting is a competitive process and is reserved for topics deemed pertinent across membership.
Individuals who have questions about business continuity planning should call Kiley, business continuity analyst, at 704-687-8876.